Chair Entertainment Group, LLC (stylized as ChAIR) is an American

video game developer A video game developer is 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 business with em ...

based in

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

. The company was acquired by

Epic Games Epic Games, Inc. is an American Video game developer, video game and software development, software developer and video game publisher, publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney (game developer), Tim Sween ...

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 only person to have won a Hugo Award for Best Novel, Hugo Award and a Nebula Award for Best Novel, Nebula Award in List of joint ...

. The

novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...

Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...

'' 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 ''Hidden Empire'' is a 2009 science fiction novel by American writer Orson Scott Card. It is the second book (out of two) in The Empire duet, the ''Empire'' duet. Reception It has a rating of 3.62 out of 5 on Goodreads out of 3000 votes See al ...

'' 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 ...

and

Warner Bros. Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc. (WBEI), commonly known as Warner Bros. (WB), is an American filmed entertainment studio headquartered at the Warner Bros. Studios complex in Burbank, California and the main namesake subsidiary of Warner Bro ...

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 (or XBLA) was a video game Digital distribution in video games, digital distribution service that was available for the Xbox (console), Xbox and Xbox 360 consoles. It focused on smaller downloadable games from both major publisher ...

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 that it had acquired the interactive rights to Orson Scott Card's novel ''

Ender's Game ''Ender's Game'' is a 1985 military science fiction novel by American author Orson Scott Card. Set at an unspecified date in Earth's future, the novel presents an imperiled humankind after two conflicts with an insectoid alien species they ...

'' 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

. On August 19, 2009, Chair released its second game, ''

Shadow Complex ''Shadow Complex'' is a platform-adventure Metroidvania video game developed by Chair Entertainment in association with Epic Games and published by Microsoft Game Studios for the Xbox 360 in 2009. The game follows Jason and his girlfriend Cl ...

'', 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 (September 23, 1956 – May 24, 2025), often abbreviated PAD, was 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 Grea ...

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'' was 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 Unreal Engine 3. In the game, the unnamed ...

'', 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 3 (UE3) is the third version of Unreal Engine developed by Epic Games. Unreal Engine 3 was one of the first game engines to support multithreading. It used DirectX 9 as its baseline graphics API, simplifying its rendering code. The ...

. 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

, not Chair). In October 2010, Chair relocated from

Provo, Utah Provo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Utah County, Utah, United States. It is south of Salt Lake City along the Wasatch Front, and lies between the cities of Orem, Utah, Orem to the north and Springville, Utah, Springville to the south ...

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of cities and towns in Utah, most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, Utah, Salt ...

. 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 Brandon Winn Sanderson (born December19, 1975) is an American author of high fantasy, science fiction, and young adult books. He is best known for the Cosmere fictional universe, in which most of his fantasy novels, most notably the '' Mistb ...

. 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, d ...

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

iPad 2 The iPad 2 is a tablet computer, tablet developed and marketed by Apple Inc. Compared to IPad (1st generation), the first iPad, as the second model in the iPad line, it gained a faster multi-core processor, dual core Apple A5, A5 processor, a ...

and

iPhone 4S The is a smartphone that was developed and marketed by Apple Inc. It is the List of iPhone models, fifth generation of the iPhone, succeeding the iPhone 4 and preceding the iPhone 5. It was announced on October 4, 2011, at Apple's Cupertino ...

). 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

. At the

Apple An apple is a round, edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus'' spp.). Fruit trees of the orchard or domestic apple (''Malus domestica''), the most widely grown in the genus, are agriculture, cultivated worldwide. The tree originated ...

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

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

'', 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 Imagine Dragons are an American pop rock band formed in 2008, based in Las Vegas, Nevada. The band currently consists of lead singer Dan Reynolds, guitarist Wayne Sermon, and bassist Ben McKee. They first gained exposure with the release of ...

. In late 2015 Chair released a remastered version of Shadow Complex for Windows PC with an Xbox One and PlayStation 4 release in March 2016, and May 2016 respectively. On November 11, 2015 Donald Mustard and director J. J. Abrams released a video announcing a collaboration between ChAIR and

Bad Robot Bad Robot is an American film and television production company founded on May 27, 1999, and led by Katie McGrath and J. J. Abrams as Co-CEO. Under its Bad Robot Productions division, the company is responsible for the television series '' Alia ...

to develop a new video game property code-named ''Spyjinx''. In early 2016, Donald Mustard assumed the role of Worldwide Creative Director for

, overseeing design and creative development for Epic's full portfolio of video games.

Games

* '' Undertow'' (2007) * ''

'' (2009) * ''

'' (2010) * ''

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

'' (2013) * '' Battle Breakers'' (2018) * ''Spyjinx'' (Cancelled)

Books

* '' The Empire Duet'' by

** ''

'' ** ''

'' * ''

'' series by

** '' 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