Ritual Entertainment

Ritual Entertainment was an American video game developer established in 1996 by Robert Atkins, Mark Dochtermann, Jim Dosé, Richard 'Levelord' Gray, Michael Hadwin, Harry Miller, and Tom Mustaine. Based in Dallas, Texas, Ritual Entertainment was formerly known as Hipnotic Interactive, during which period they began development of their signature video game SiN.

Ritual Entertainment
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo games
FoundedAugust 12, 1996
DefunctJanuary 24, 2007
FateAcquired by MumboJumbo, assets acquired by iplay.com
Headquarters
Dallas, Texas
,
U.S.
ProductsSiN series
Websiteritual.com (archived)

History

Members of the Ritual Entertainment development team have contributed assets to other games such as American McGee's Alice, Medal of Honor: Airborne, Tomb Raider: Legend, and 25 to Life, and are also the creators of "Übertools" for id Tech 3, which has been licensed for a number of other games.

Shortly after signing Hipnotic, publisher Activision claimed that Hipnotic had been at the core of the Duke Nukem 3D development team. Duke Nukem 3D developer 3D Realms vigorously denied this, stating that only five members of Hipnotic Interactive were former staff of 3D Realms, and of these five only three had a significant role in making Duke Nukem 3D.[1]

In late 1997, Hipnotic changed their name to Ritual Entertainment in order to avoid a trademark conflict with another video-game developer, Hypnotix.[2]

On January 24, 2007, developer MumboJumbo announced the acquisition of Ritual Entertainment.[3] With this acquisition, Ritual's focus on traditional action-oriented games was changed to casual games, essentially "stalling" Ritual's latest game series, SiN Episodes, after releasing only one episode out of a planned nine.

The purchase followed months of departures of several key employees, including chief executive officer Steve Nix, who became director of business development at id Software,[4] vice president and co-founder Tom Mustaine, who left to found Escalation Studios. Several months after the acquisition, community relations manager Steve Hessel left the company[5] to join Splash Damage.

Prior to the announcement, on December 6, 2006, Ritual announced the appointment of Ken Harward as the company's new studio director.[6]

Following the company's closure, many of the deveopers have left to other companies such as id Software, Gearbox Software, Nerve Software, Escalation Studios, and the now-defunct Paradigm Entertainment.

Games developed
Year Title Platform(s) Notes
Windows Linux macOS PS2 Xbox Dreamcast
1997 Quake Mission Pack No. 1: Scourge of Armagon Yes Yes Yes No No Commercial homebrew released in Russia only[7] Expansion pack
1998 SiN Yes Yes Yes No No No Linux version ported by Hyperion Entertainment
2000 Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K. 2 Yes Yes Yes No No No Linux version ported by Loki Software, Mac OS Classic version ported by Contraband Entertainment, Mac OS X version ported by The Omni Group
2000 Blair Witch Volume III: The Elly Kedward Tale Yes No No No No No —
2003 Star Trek: Elite Force II Yes No Yes No No No —
2003 Legacy of Kain: Defiance Yes No No Yes Yes No External collaboration with Crystal Dynamics
2004 Counter-Strike: Condition Zero Yes Yes Yes No Yes No Ritual Entertainment worked on the game in 2002 after development was transferred from Gearbox Software and before continued development was transferred to Turtle Rock Studios in mid-2003. Ritual's contribution included Deleted Scenes and the port to Xbox.
2004 Delta Force: Black Hawk Down: Team Sabre Yes No No No No No Expansion pack
2006 SiN Episodes Yes No No No No No Only one episode, "Emergence", was released
2006 25 to Life Yes No No Yes Yes No External collaboration with Avalanche Software, cinematics

Unreleased

References
  1. Campbell, Colin (May 1997). "Apogee Fuming". Next Generation. No. 29. Imagine Media. p. 30.
  2. "NG Alphas: SiN". Next Generation. No. 37. Imagine Media. January 1998. pp. 128–129.
  3. Ritual Entertainment Acquired By Casual Games Developer January 24, 2007. Archived September 5, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  4. id Software Welcomes New Member. Archived November 16, 2007, at the Wayback Machine. Planet Quake, Friday, December 1, 2006.
  5. badman (May 6, 2007). "badman Writes Long Post, Steps Into Teleporter and Disappears". Ritualistic. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011.
  6. Ritual Apparently Not Exploded, Announces New Studio Director. Ritualistic Forums.
  7. "🇷🇺 [RUS] Quake Scourge of Armagon Dreamcast Russian / Игра на русском (неофициальный) (Часть 1)". YouTube.
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