Chair Entertainment

Chair Entertainment Group, LLC (stylized as ChAIR) is an American video game developer based in Salt Lake City. The company was acquired by Epic Games in 2008.

Chair Entertainment Group, LLC
TypeSubsidiary
IndustryVideo games
FoundedMay 12, 2005 (2005-05-12) in South Jordan, Utah, US
Founders
  • Donald Mustard
  • Geremy Mustard
Headquarters
Salt Lake City
,
US
Key people
Products
ParentEpic Games (2008–present)

History
Donald Mustard at the 2011 Game Developers Conference

Chair Entertainment was formed in 2005 by Donald Mustard and Geremy Mustard, CEO Ryan Holmes, and other key Advent Rising[1] core design team members Bert Lewis, Orlando Barrowes, Nathan Trewartha, Cameron Dayton and Jared Trulock. Soon after, Chair licensed the literary rights to its Empire property to best-selling author Orson Scott Card.[2] The novel Empire was published by Tor Books and debuted as a New York Times Best-Seller in November 2006. Card has since released the literary sequel Hidden Empire and committed to writing additional novels for the series. Chair also secured an option with Joel Silver and Warner Bros. for the Empire movie, which is currently in development.[3] Additionally, Chair has retained the rights to produce future video games and comic books based on its Empire property.[4]

Chair began production on its first Xbox Live Arcade game, Undertow, in the fall of 2006. Released on November 21, 2007, Undertow is a fast-paced, action-shooter that takes place entirely underwater. Upon release, Undertow won numerous E3 and Editor's Choice awards and was named Xbox Live Arcade Game of the Year by Official Xbox Magazine.[5]

On January 29, 2008, Chair announced it had acquired the interactive rights to Orson Scott Card's novel Ender's Game with plans to adapt the best-selling novel as a digitally distributed video game for all viable downloadable platforms.[6][7][8] In May 2008, Chair Entertainment was acquired by Epic Games.[9] On August 19, 2009, Chair released its second game, Shadow Complex, exclusively for Xbox Live Arcade. The game was published by Microsoft Game Studios and won more than 45 Game of the Year and 35 E3 and Editors Choice Awards. The game was released to positive reviews, with a score of 88 out of 100 on Metacritic.com as of July 10, 2010.[10] Shadow Complex featured a story written by famed comic book author Peter David and was set in Chair's Empire universe.

On September 1, 2010, Chair's next title, code-named "Project Sword", was announced at the Apple Fall Event 2010.[11] The game, Infinity Blade, a sword fighting title playable on iPhone, iPod Touch, and iPad, was released December 2010, and is the first game on Apple mobile devices powered by Unreal Engine 3. It utilizes Apple's new GameCenter online gaming service. A tech demo for UE3, entitled Epic Citadel was released on iTunes the same day as a free download (though it was created by Epic Games, not Chair).

In October 2010, Chair relocated from Provo, Utah to Salt Lake City, Utah. Chair relocated to its current studio in South Jordan, Utah in 2013.

On December 14, 2010, Chair Entertainment confirmed in an interview that it had ceased development on the video game version of Ender's Game in favor of a continued focus on developing its own original intellectual properties.[12]

On October 3, 2011, Chair released the book, Infinity Blade: Awakening, written by Brandon Sanderson. [13]

During the Apple Fall Event 2011, Infinity Blade II was announced, with new features and visuals which took advantage of the next generation of iOS hardware (the iPad 2 and iPhone 4S). The game was released on December 1, 2011.

On January 5, 2012, Epic Games announced that the Infinity Blade franchise had generated over $23 million in revenue.[14]

In August 2013, Chair released the literary sequel, Infinity Blade: Redemption, also written by Brandon Sanderson.

At the Apple iPhone 5S conference on September 11, 2013, Infinity Blade III, allegedly the final Infinity Blade game in the series, was announced by Donald Mustard and Geremy Mustard, who took the stage to provide a live demo. Infinity Blade III debuted at #1 on the App Store on September 18, 2013. The game featured the exclusive debut of the original, Infinity Blade-inspired song "Monster" from award-winning alternative rock band Imagine Dragons.

In late 2015 Chair released a remastered version of Shadow Complex for Windows PC with a PlayStation 4 and Xbox One release announced for early 2016.[15]

On November 11, 2015 Donald Mustard and director J. J. Abrams released a video announcing a collaboration between ChAIR and Bad Robot to develop a new video game property code-named Spyjinx.[16]

In early 2016, Donald Mustard assumed the role of Worldwide Creative Director for Epic Games, overseeing design and creative development for Epic's full portfolio of video games.[17]

Games

Books

References
  1. "Chair Entertainment – About Chair". Archived from the original on January 14, 2008. Retrieved January 29, 2008.
  2. "Chair Entertainment Projects Page". June 27, 2006. Archived from the original on February 19, 2008.
  3. "Joel Silver builds 'Empire' with Chair". November 13, 2006. Archived from the original on October 11, 2007.
  4. "MTV News Feature on Chair". August 5, 2007. Archived from the original on March 9, 2008.
  5. Kietzmann, Ludwig (May 20, 2008). "Epic Games takes seat, acquires Chair Entertainment Group". Engadget.
  6. "Newsweek Exclusive: Chair Entertainment Reveals Plans for 'Ender's Game' Video Games". Archived from the original on January 31, 2008. Retrieved January 29, 2008.
  7. "Press Release: Chair Entertainment Acquires Interactive Rights for Ender's Game". January 29, 2008. Archived from the original on February 1, 2008. Retrieved January 29, 2008.
  8. "Exclusive Interview: Chair Entertainment's Donald and Geremy Mustard Shed Some Light On 'Ender's Game'". Archived from the original on January 31, 2008. Retrieved January 29, 2008.
  9. Brandon Boyer (May 20, 2008). "Epic Games Acquires Undertow Developer Chair". GamaSutra. Archived from the original on May 9, 2012. Retrieved May 20, 2008.
  10. "Metacritic Page for Shadow Complex". Archived from the original on August 30, 2009. Retrieved August 22, 2008.
  11. "Project Sword Announcement". Archived from the original on February 2, 2014. Retrieved September 1, 2010.
  12. "Chair Puts Ender's Game On Hold". December 14, 2010. Archived from the original on December 17, 2010.
  13. "Infinity Blade: Awakening Kindle Edition". Retrieved January 31, 2022.
  14. "Infinity Blade franchise grosses over $30 million". January 5, 2012. Archived from the original on September 19, 2016.
  15. "How Shadow Complex led Chair to Infinity Blade, to Star Wars and to J. J. Abrams". Polygon. January 4, 2016. Archived from the original on January 6, 2016. Retrieved January 4, 2016.
  16. "J. J. Abrams and Donald Mustard partner on Spyjinx". Polygon. November 11, 2015.
  17. "Epic Games shifts strategy to self-publishing with 6 games coming". February 27, 2017.
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