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Announcement: Orson Scott Card and Chair Entertainment to Collaborate On Interactive Adaptation of 'Ender's Game'

Science fiction fans who love videogames, start your rejoicing. Later today, award-winning author Orson Scott Card and Chair Entertainment--the creative team responsible for Advent Rising and Undertow--will officially announce plans to turn Card's beloved novel "Ender's Game" into a, well, game. But you can read the announcement here first. The interactive game won't tackle the entire book, however; instead, it will focus on the famed Battle Room. And in something of a twist, Ender's Game is being built from the ground up for digital distribution via services like Xbox Live Marketplace and Playstation Network rather than DVD or Blu-Ray, immediately making it the highest profile download-only title to date. See below for the release that's going out later today; click here to read our exclusive interview with Chair co-founders (and brothers) Donald and Geremy Mustard.

CHAIR ENTERTAINMENT GROUP SECURES INTERACTIVE RIGHTS TO ORSON SCOTT CARD’S BESTSELLING ENDER’S GAME SERIES

First-Ever "Battle Room" Video Games to Bring Classic Literary Series to Life

Salt Lake City, Utah – January 29, 2008 – Chair Entertainment Group, an independent video game production company and creators of the award-winning Undertow, and bestselling author, Orson Scott Card, today announced their partnership to create the first-ever video games inspired by the legendary "Battle Room," featured in the beloved literary classic, Ender’s Game. Ender’s Game is an award-winning, international bestseller and one of the most popular science fiction novels ever written.

Under the terms of the agreement, Chair has obtained the exclusive rights to develop Ender’s Game "Battle Room" video games across all next-generation consoles, handheld platforms, and PC. In collaboration with Orson Scott Card, Chair will begin development later this year with the first offering expected for release via downloadable platforms.

"I have been a huge fan of Ender's Game since I was ten years old, so it is a true honor for our team to be entrusted with creating the first video game inspired by this classic story,” said Donald Mustard, creative director at Chair Entertainment Group. "Our goal is to create an authentic Ender’s Game experience that delivers awesome gameplay and can be enjoyed by both longtime fans and gamers new to the series."

"From the moment I started working with Donald Mustard and his team at Chair, I knew that these were the guys I wanted to do the first Ender's Game video game,” said Orson Scott Card. "It's not enough to slap the Ender's Game name on just any game--it has to be exciting, memorable, and endlessly replayable. Chair shares my understanding of this and I am looking forward to working with them to ensure the game is as authentically Enderish as possible."

In the fictional Ender’s Game universe, humanity is at war with an alien species known as the Formics, and Battle School is the training ground for the future leaders of Earth’s International Fleet. Taken at a very young age, Earth’s most brilliant children undergo a rigorous training designed to teach advanced military theory where strategic and tactical glory is won in the null gravity battles known to the elite students simply as the game! Through simulated war games and training conducted in the Battle Room, the children rise through the ranks of Battle School to become Earth’s only hope for victory.

The two parties previously collaborated on the Chair Entertainment Group property Empire, which the Company introduced in 2006 with the launch of an Orson Scott Card-written bestselling novel of the same name. A feature film based on Empire is in development by Warner Brothers and Chair has future plans for video games and comic books based on the property.

Gamers and long-time Ender’s Game fans are invited to share their thoughts on Orson Scott Card’s popular website, www.hatrack.com, and the official Chair forums at: www.chairentertainment.com/community/forums/
About Orson Scott Card
Orson Scott Card is the award-winning author of the national bestsellers, Shadow of the Giant and Shadow of the Hegemon, and of the beloved classic, Ender’s Game, published by Tor Books. He is a professor of literature and writing at Southern Virginia University and lives with his family in Greensboro, North Carolina. For more information on Orson Scott Card, please visit his official website: HYPERLINK "http://www.hatrack.com" www.hatrack.com

About Chair Entertainment Group
Founded in 2005, Chair Entertainment Group is an independent video game production company committed to creating blockbuster entertainment franchises through development of its original intellectual properties. In 2006, Chair launched its first original property, Empire, as a best-selling novel written by Orson Scott Card. A feature film based on Empire is in development by Warner Bros. and Chair has future plans for video games and comic books based on the property. In November 2007, Chair launched Undertow, an award-winning underwater action shooter for Xbox LIVE Arcade. Additional information, artwork, and gamer forums can be found at: www.chairentertainment.com.

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Steel_Penguin

OH

MY

GOD.

brb i have to change my pants.

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War.mongeR1

Oooooooh! I hope they do it some justice. I LOVE the Ender's Game series. And that's exciting that Empire is in movie production! That should rock. Weren't the aliens called Buggers, though? I don't remember them being called Formics. This is indeed fun news to here either way!

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"Common sense is not so common." -Voltaire

Augustus Gloop

I'll believe it when I see it...

(Sweet Jesus.)

Also, not to get RIGHT INTO the fanboy nitpicking... Who the heck is Chair Entertainment Group? Producing a videogame and film version of Empire, and some game that's not on my radar called Undertow? 9 chances in 10 that Ender's Game is dead in the water or a bomb.

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DaBrit

I have to say that I don't see how this can reasonably be pulled off. Sure, a large part of the book was the battles, but the battles weren't anything without the characters, and most video games these days don't challenge the gamers to create, stick with, and develop a character's personality, drives, and the like. I played an Ender's Game MOO (sanctioned by OSC and linked on his site) for a number of years in high school and the first year of college, and I have to say that I believe with the current limitations of video game technology, the only way to accurately portray Battle School is through a text-based medium that allows one to state their characters actions in direct response to other characters.

To be fair, the battle aspect of AnsibleMOO (as it was called) was performed in a text-based, but heavily coded battle room, and random chance and skill did play a major part in each battle, with essentially no actual roleplaying except for the beginning / end.

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TG-9th - By Any Means

Augustus Gloop

I imagine it kind of like the first tribes, with a heavy emphasis on clan organization actually coded into the game. Maybe it will be similar to CS with some kind of ladder competition built into it?

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dragonicfist

I am a big Orson Scott Card fan. I have read all his books except 2 from the Call to Earth series. (Enchantment just didn't do it for me). All his books are amazing and very well written. The game may be a flop, but if they make it RPG/FPS it may be good. Also, I would even more like to see a continual progressive game like the one that Ender played on the Battle Station during his free time (the one that led him to finding the Hive Queen).

ALSO... Formics were the Politically Correct name for the Buggers. Both being the same race of aliens.

Along the lines of Empire being a movie, it is going to be completely AWESOME if they put a somewhat decent budget on it. I personally have been dreaming of the day that the entire Ender/Ender's Shadow series is turned into a movie (AT LEAST a Sci-Fi mini-series).

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Steeler

I'm excited about an Ender's Game property, but I'm more shocked that they're developing Empire into anything at all. I guess someone wants to tap into the "bats*** insane paranoid" market.

I liked Card a lot better before he went crazy.

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