Surreal Software was an American video game developer based in

Kirkland, Washington Kirkland is a city in King County, Washington, United States. A suburb east of Seattle, its population was 92,175 in the 2020 U.S. census which made it the sixth largest city in the county and the twelfth largest in the state. The city's downt ...

, and a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment, known for '' The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'', '' The Suffering'' and '' Drakan'' series. Surreal Software employed over 130 designers, artists, and programmers. Surreal was acquired by Warner Bros. Games during the bankruptcy of Midway Games in July 2009. After a significant layoff in January 2011, the remaining employees were integrated into WBG's Kirkland offices, along with developers Monolith and Snowblind. The studio last worked on ''

This Is Vegas ''This Is Vegas'' is a cancelled action-adventure video game that was in development at Surreal Software and was to be published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment on Microsoft Windows, the PlayStation 3, and the Xbox 360. In 2010 developm ...

'', a title which was scheduled to be released on

Xbox 360 The Xbox 360 is a home video game console developed by Microsoft. As the successor to the original Xbox, it is the second console in the Xbox series. It competed with Sony's PlayStation 3 and Nintendo's Wii as part of the seventh generati ...

PlayStation 3 The PlayStation 3 (PS3) is a home video game console developed by Sony Interactive Entertainment, Sony Computer Entertainment. The successor to the PlayStation 2, it is part of the PlayStation brand of consoles. It was first released on Novemb ...

and PC. The first screenshots, video and game information for ''

'' were unveiled the week of February 4, 2008, at IGN.

History

Surreal Software was founded in 1995 as an independent video game development studio by Alan Patmore, Stuart Denman, Nick Radovich and Mike Nichols. Patmore, Nichols and Radovich attended Eastside Catholic High School in Bellevue, Washington together. They found Stuart Denman, a

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seat ...

grad, through an online message board. The group began operating in 1995 in an office in Seattle's Queen Anne neighborhood. Previously, Radovich sold real estate, Patmore worked at a wireless company, Nichols was working at local game company Boss Studios, and Denman had just interned at Microsoft on the Excel team. Their first contract was with Bothell-based children's game developer Humongous, which found Denman's website and called to recruit programmers for Humongous. Surreal instead offered to do contract work. Surreal developed the

Riot Engine A riot is a form of civil disorder commonly characterized by a group lashing out in a violent public disturbance against authority, property, or people. Riots typically involve destruction of property, public or private. The property targeted ...

for its games in 1996. First receiving critical acclaim with the 1999 release of '' Drakan: Order of the Flame'', Surreal Software continued its success with '' Drakan: The Ancients' Gates'' in early 2002, both games selling in excess of 250,000 units. Having grown to two development teams, Surreal released '' The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring'' later that same year, selling over 1.8 million units. In March 2004, Surreal Software released '' The Suffering'', an original concept action-packed horror game set in a secluded island prison, with monster designs by

Stan Winston Stanley Winston (April 7, 1946 – June 15, 2008) was an American television and film special make-up effects creator, best known for his work in the ''Terminator'' series, the first three ''Jurassic Park'' films, ''Aliens'', '' The Thing'', th ...

. Gamers and critics alike enjoyed this bold new contribution to the horror genre and in 2005, '' The Suffering: Ties That Bind'' followed. In April 2004, Midway Games acquired Surreal Software as an in-house game studio.Midway Press Release:PR 2004-04-06 A
/ref> In 2006, the Surreal Software staff moved from Fremont to their new waterfront studio on Elliott Avenue next to the Olympic Sculpture Park. In 2009, Surreal Software was among the Midway Games assets purchased by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment. In 2010, the company was merged into the nearby studio Monolith Productions.

Founders

All of the founders had left the company prior to its merging with Monolith. *Stuart Denman – CTO *Alan Patmore – CEO and Creative Director *Nick Radovich – CFO *Mike Nichols – Art Director

List of games

Canceled

*''Gunslinger'' *''The Lord of the Rings: The Treason of Isengard'' *''

References

External links

Official Surreal websiteOfficial WB Games websiteCareer pageDrakan interview
* ttp://www.gamespot.com/news/6093775.html?tag=result;title;0/ GameSpot interviewbr>Stuart Denman's Game Development Blog
{{Warner Bros. Defunct video game companies of the United States Video game development companies Software companies based in Washington (state) Defunct companies based in Kirkland, Washington Video game companies established in 1995 Video game companies disestablished in 2010 1995 establishments in Washington (state) 2010 disestablishments in Washington (state) Video game companies of the United States Midway Games Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment