Chair Entertainment to develop Ender's Game 'Battle Room' games @ Gaming Target

Written by John Scalzo on January 29, 2008

News: Ender's Game becomes a... well... game.

Have you been enjoying Undertow, the Xbox Live Arcade game Microsoft offered for free to compensate for Live outages? Well if you have, you'll be pleased to know that Chair Entertainment, the developer of Undertow, has acquired the rights to develop games based on the Ender's Game series of books.

The agreement between Chair and author Orson Scott Card covers all manner of platforms, including next-gen consoles, handhelds and the PC. Chair has said the first Ender's Game title will be released sometime this year for "downloadable platforms."

The games will be based on the "Battle Room" from the novels. In the story, the Battle Room was used to train Earth's children in space warfare, using a video game-like interface.

Here's a more complete discription:

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.

"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,Ф 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,Ф 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."