Chair Entertainment Group, LLC (stylized as ChAIR) is an American video game developer based in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, th ...

. The company was acquired by Epic Games in 2008.

History

Chair Entertainment was formed in 2005 by Donald Mustard and Geremy Mustard, CEO Ryan Holmes, and other key ''Advent Rising'' 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 Orson Scott Card (born August 24, 1951) is an American writer known best for his science fiction works. He is the first and (as of 2022) only person to win both a Hugo Award and a Nebula Award in consecutive years, winning both awards for both ...

. The novel ''

Empire An empire is a "political unit" made up of several territories and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the empire (sometimes referred to as the metropole) ex ...

'' 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 Joel Silver (born July 14, 1952) is an American film producer. Life and career Silver was born and raised in South Orange, New Jersey, the son of a writer and a public relations executive. His family is Jewish. He attended Columbia High School i ...

and

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (commonly known as Warner Bros. or abbreviated as WB) is an American film and entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. D ...

for the ''Empire'' movie, which is currently in development. Additionally, Chair has retained the rights to produce future video games and comic books based on its ''Empire'' property. Chair began production on its first

Xbox Live Arcade Xbox Live Arcade (XBLA) is a digital video game download service available through the Xbox Games Store, Microsoft's digital distribution network for the Xbox 360. It focuses on smaller downloadable games from both major publishers and independent ...

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''. 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. In May 2008, Chair Entertainment was acquired by Epic Games. 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. Shadow Complex featured a story written by famed comic book author

Peter David Peter Allen David (born September 23, 1956), often abbreviated PAD, is an American writer of comic books, novels, television, films and video games.Buxton, Marc (March 29, 2014)"From 'Future Imperfect' to '2099': Peter David's Greatest Hits" Co ...

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. The game, ''

Infinity Blade ''Infinity Blade'' is an action role-playing game developed by Chair Entertainment and Epic Games and released through the Apple App Store on December 9, 2010. It was the first iOS video game to run on the Unreal Engine. In the game, the unname ...

'', 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 Unreal Engine (UE) is a 3D computer graphics game engine developed by Epic Games, first showcased in the 1998 first-person shooter game '' Unreal''. Initially developed for PC first-person shooters, it has since been used in a variety of genre ...

. 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 Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the Capital (political), capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the county seat, seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Sal ...

. 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. On October 3, 2011, Chair released the book, '' Infinity Blade: Awakening'', written by Brandon Sanderson. During the Apple Fall Event 2011, ''

Infinity Blade II ''Infinity Blade II'' was an action role-playing video game for iOS developed by Chair Entertainment and Epic Games. The game was the sequel to ''Infinity Blade'' by the same developers. ''Infinity Blade II'' was announced on October 4, 2011, du ...

'' was announced, with new features and visuals which took advantage of the next generation of iOS hardware (the

iPad 2 The iPad 2 is a tablet designed, developed and marketed by Apple Inc. Compared to the first iPad, as the second model in the iPad line, it gained a faster dual core A5 processor, a lighter build structure, and was the first iPad to feature V ...

and

iPhone 4S The iPhone 4S (originally styled as iPhone 4 S, retroactively stylized with a lowercase 's' as iPhone 4s as of September 2013) is a smartphone that was designed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the fifth generation of the iPhone, succ ...

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

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple trees are cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, where its wild ancestor, ' ...

iPhone 5S conference on September 11, 2013, ''

Infinity Blade III ''Infinity Blade III'' is an action role-playing video game for iOS, developed by Chair Entertainment and Epic Games. It is the third game in the ''Infinity Blade'' series. It was released on the App Store on September 18, 2013. The main character ...

'', 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. On November 11, 2015 Donald Mustard and director

J. J. Abrams Jeffrey Jacob Abrams (born June 27, 1966) is an American filmmaker and composer. He is best known for his works in the genres of action, drama, and science fiction. Abrams wrote and produced such films as '' Regarding Henry'' (1991), '' F ...

released a video announcing a collaboration between ChAIR and Bad Robot to develop a new video game property code-named Spyjinx. 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.

Games

* '' Undertow'' (2007) * '' Shadow Complex'' (2009) * ''

'' (2010) * ''

'' (2011) * ''Vote!!! The Game'' (2012) * ''

'' (2013) * ''

Battle Breakers Epic Games is an American video game and software developer based in Cary, North Carolina. It was founded by Tim Sweeney as Potomac Computer Systems in 1991, originally located in his parents' house in Potomac, Maryland. After releasing one gam ...

'' (2018) * ''Spyjinx'' (TBA)

Books

* '' The Empire Duet'' by

** ''

'' ** '' Hidden Empire'' * ''

'' series by Brandon Sanderson ** '' Infinity Blade: Awakening'' ** '' Infinity Blade: Redemption''

References

{{Epic 2005 establishments in Utah 2008 mergers and acquisitions Apple Design Awards recipients Companies based in Salt Lake City Epic Games Video game companies established in 2005 Video game companies of the United States Video game development companies