Red Storm Entertainment, Inc. is an American

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

and studio of

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include '' Assassin's Creed'', '' Far Cry'', ...

based in

Cary, North Carolina Cary is a town in Wake and Chatham counties in the U.S. state of North Carolina and is part of the Raleigh–Cary, NC Metropolitan Statistical Area. According to the 2020 Census, its population was 174,721, making it the seventh largest mun ...

. Founded in November 1996 between author

Tom Clancy Thomas Leo Clancy Jr. (April 12, 1947 – October 1, 2013) was an American novelist. He is best known for his technically detailed espionage and military-science storylines set during and after the Cold War. Seventeen of his novels have b ...

, manager Doug Littlejohns, and software development company Virtus Corporation, Red Storm develops games in the ''

Tom Clancy's ''Tom Clancy's'' is a branding used by video game company Ubisoft for video games, some of which feature the works of American author Tom Clancy, while others do not. Various sub-series are often unrelated to each other with a few exceptions, al ...

'' franchise.

(then known as Ubi Soft) acquired the studio in August 2000.

History

Prior to founding Red Storm Entertainment,

, an American

novelist A novelist is an author or writer of novels, though often novelists also write in other genres of both fiction and non-fiction. Some novelists are professional novelists, thus make a living writing novels and other fiction, while others aspire ...

, had developed '' Tom Clancy's SSN'', a video game based on his book '' SSN''. The game was created over six years in cooperation with Virtus Corporation, a 3D animation tool development company based in

, and its game development division, Virtus Studios. ''Tom Clancy's SSN'' was released on November 12, 1996, and on the following day, Clancy and Virtus Corporation announced the formation of Red Storm Entertainment. The name was derived from that of Clancy's book '' Red Storm Rising''. The new company absorbed Virtus Studios, making for an initial staff count of nineteen. Red Storm moved into offices within Cary, with Clancy assuming the role of

chairman The chairperson, also chairman, chairwoman or chair, is the presiding officer of an organized group such as a board, committee, or deliberative assembly. The person holding the office, who is typically elected or appointed by members of the group ...

, while Doug Littlejohns (a retired

commodore Commodore may refer to: Ranks * Commodore (rank), a naval rank ** Commodore (Royal Navy), in the United Kingdom ** Commodore (United States) ** Commodore (Canada) ** Commodore (Finland) ** Commodore (Germany) or ''Kommodore'' * Air commodore ...

in the

Royal Navy The Royal Navy (RN) is the United Kingdom's naval warfare force. Although warships were used by English and Scottish kings from the early medieval period, the first major maritime engagements were fought in the Hundred Years' War against Fr ...

who had previously acted as a technical consultant on ''Tom Clancy's SSN'') became Red Storm's

president President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university * President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ...

and

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...

. The company expanded from nineteen to thirty-two people by March 1, 1997, in the wake of which it moved to new offices on Aerial Center (close to the Raleigh–Durham International Airport) in Morrisville. The company released its first game – '' Tom Clancy's Politika'', the first in the '' Power Plays'' series – in 1997. Red Storm quickly gained a reputation with games like ''

Dominant Species Ecological dominance is the degree to which one or several species have a major influence controlling the other species in their ecological community (because of their large size, population, productivity, or related factors) or make up more of ...

'', one of the first 3D real-time strategy games. However, it was with '' Rainbow Six'' (1998) that the company firmly established itself commercially. In contrast to the run-and-gun

first-person shooter First-person shooter (FPS) is a sub-genre of shooter video games centered on gun and other weapon-based combat in a first-person perspective, with the player experiencing the action through the eyes of the protagonist and controlling the p ...

s (FPS) that had gone before, ''Rainbow Six'' was the first true tactical FPS, a game that rewarded patience and planning as well as good aim and a keen eye. Developed alongside the novel of the same name, ''Rainbow Six'' introduced terms like "one shot, one kill" and "tango down" into the gamer lexicon. Its ground-breaking multiplayer action, including a new form of cooperative gameplay, set the standard for tactical multiplayer. Red Storm followed on the success of ''Rainbow Six'' with a mission pack, ''Eagle Watch'', and then in 2000 with a sequel, '' Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear''. The company also expanded into turn-based strategy ('' ruthless.com'' and '' Shadow Watch'') and military real-time strategy game ('' Force 21''). In August 2000,

purchased the studio. At the time of the sale, Red Storm was already producing '' Ghost Recon''. Released in 2001, ''Ghost Recon'' won multiple "Game of the Year" awards. The

Xbox Xbox is a video gaming brand created and owned by Microsoft. The brand consists of five video game consoles, as well as applications (games), streaming services, an online service by the name of Xbox network, and the development arm by the ...

version also marked the first time Red Storm Entertainment ventured into in-house console development and was the first

Xbox Live The Xbox network, formerly and still sometimes branded as Xbox Live, is an online multiplayer gaming and digital media delivery service created and operated by Microsoft. It was first made available to the Xbox system on November 15, 2002. A ...

title to take advantage of the possibilities of console multiplayer. Follow-up add-ons like '' Island Thunder'' continued to expand the world of the Ghosts, while Red Storm itself grew and moved offices to a new location in Morrisville, North Carolina. By 2003,

was ready to consolidate its North Carolina operations. Ubisoft's other area studio, Sinister Games in downtown Raleigh, was integrated into Red Storm, with the central base of operations remaining at the Morrisville location. In 2004, Red Storm released '' Ghost Recon 2'', the follow-up to the original game, designed by now lead designer Christian Allen. Released on Xbox, it signaled the company's transition to primarily console development. It produced an add-on, '' Summit Strike'', in 2005, as well as downloadable content. Red Storm has also developed the

multiplayer A multiplayer video game is a video game in which more than one person can play in the same game environment at the same time, either locally on the same computing system ( couch co-op), on different computing systems via a local area network, or ...

aspects of both iterations of the '' Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter'' series. It won the BAFTA's Game of the Year and Best Technical Achievement awards in 2006. In December 2008, Red Storm acquired the lease for the CentreGreen One building in Cary, which had previously been occupied by

Qualcomm Qualcomm () is an American multinational corporation headquartered in San Diego, California, and incorporated in Delaware. It creates semiconductors, software, and services related to wireless technology. It owns patents critical to the 5G, ...

until earlier that year. Red Storm subsequently moved to CentreGreen One in May 2009, relocating from its previous offices on Gateway Centre in Morrisville. Red Storm continued development on

games such as '' Ghost Recon: Future Soldier'' (2012) and '' The Division'' (2016), while co-operating with

Ubisoft Montreal Ubisoft Divertissements Inc., doing business as Ubisoft Montreal, is a Canadian video game developer and a studio of Ubisoft based in Montreal. The studio was founded in April 1997 as part of Ubisoft's growth into worldwide markets, with sub ...

on the '' Far Cry'' franchise. In 2016, Red Storm released their first

virtual reality Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), edu ...

game, '' Werewolves Within'', followed by a May 2017 release of another, ''Star Trek: Bridge Crew''. In May 2018, Red Storm acquired the Weston Office Campus (located on Weston Parkway in Cary), which it planned to move to after renovations and co-occupy with Ubisoft's NCSA Customer Relationship Center.

Games developed

References

External links

* {{Authority control 1996 establishments in North Carolina Companies based in North Carolina Ubisoft divisions and subsidiaries Video game companies established in 1996 Video game companies of the United States Video game development companies American subsidiaries of foreign companies Tom Clancy