starbreeze-studios posts

Starbreeze Studios, who created its own graphics engines for previous titles like The Darkness and The Chronicles of Riddick game series, is now working with a third party graphics engine for its future projects. The Sweden-based developer announced today a new multi-year deal to use Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3 technology for its future game titles.

So far Starbreeze has yet to reveal what game it is working on next although the developer has been linked via rumor for years as working on a revival of the Syndicate series for publisher Electronic Arts. A previously announced game that would have been an adaptation of the Jason Bourne spy movies and novels was canceled by EA.

GoG.com's latest PC game to be added to their DRM-free library comes from the year 2002. It's Enclave, the third person fantasy "hack-and-slash" action game (with some RPG elements) from developer Starbreeze Studios. The game was graphically impressive for its time and became a cult favorite with many gamers.

Starbreeze got high critical marks for its later games including the Chronicles of Riddick titles and is now rumored to be working on a new Syndicate game. Enclave itself is being re-released for the Wii in 2010 but without Starbreeze's involvement. You can download the original from GoG.com now for $5.99.

We've reported many times over the past two years on a possible revival of the Syndicate game franchise. Now document hunting web site superannuation has found three official documents from the US Copyright Office that seem to prove that such a game is under development at developer Starbreeze and publisher Electronic Arts.

A new entry in the near future tactical strategy game series, which started in the early 1990s at the now defunct developer Bullfrog, has supposedly been in development at Starbreeze for over two years if earlier rumors are to be believed. If that's true we are hoping that EA will finally admit to this game sometime soon (perhaps at E3).

It's looking like we won't be seeing a new Jason Bourne-based game anytime soon. The Los Angeles Times is reporting that a previously announced game from Electronic Arts based on the spy movie and book series is now on the shelf. Starbreeze Studios was supposed to develop the game but this week Starbreeze said one of their two EA projects was canceled and a spokesperson for EA confirmed they do not currently have any Bourne game projects in the works.

EA execs have already said they plan to cut a number of their in-development games in order to save money. Meanwhile Starbreeze continues to work on their other project for EA which is rumored to be a revival of the classic Syndicate series.

Electronic Arts continues to shut down game projects with word coming this week that the publisher has canceled one of their two planned games with developer Starbreeze Studios. The Sweden-based company made the announcement themselves on their web site.

The announcement does not state which of the two EA projects was canceled, saying only that the canceled game was still in pre-production. The other still active game project is now in full production, according to Starbreeze, and it does not plan to lay off any of their team members as a result of the other game's shut down. Starbreeze and EA announced in late 2008 that they planned to release a game based on the Jason Bourne spy franchise. There were also unconfirmed rumors that the two were working on a revival of the Syndicate game franchise.

Even though some publishers are showing signs that they are no longer using draconian DRM set-ups for PC games, some PC titles are still using things like activation limits for their titles. The latest such game to have such a set-up is the just released Starbreeze-Atari FPS The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena.

Both the Starbreeze and Atari forums have messages from people complaining about the set up which they claim does not allow for any further installations of the game once its three install limit is reached. The Amazon.com retail listing for the game has also become yet another way for those folks concerned about such DRM practices to express their feelings.

But what is the truth behind all of this? Blue's News was contacted by an Atari rep who states that the game does require online activation to play the game. According to the statement, "The activation code lets you install the game on up to 3 machines, with an unlimited number of installs on each assuming that you don't change any major hardware in your PC or re-install your operating system. If you reach the maximum number of installations you can contact the Atari hotline and if it's a legitimate request you can get a new activation code."

It's been in development for a long time but today publisher Atari has announced that The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena has finally gone gold. As previously announced the movie-based sci-fi first person action game "starring" actor Vin Diesel will ship to stores for the PC and other platforms on April 7 in the US and April 24 worldwide.

Here's a refresher on the rather convoluted development of this game. Dark Athena is a (sort of) sequel to the 2004 released Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay but also includes the original game with enhanced graphics and also a new multiplayer mode. Developed by Starbreeze Studios for its original publisher Vivendi Games the title got stuck in limbo thanks to Vivendi's merge with Activision to form Activision Blizzard. When that company's management decided to dump the game Atari picked it up for release. And yes it is a tad confusing . . . .

Earlier today Atari announced the release dates for the upcoming Starbreeze Studios remake-sequel The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena. Their press release announced that demos for the game would be released this March for the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions but there was no word on a PC demo.

Today we have officially confirmed with an Atari PR rep that that there will indeed be a PC demo of Assault on Dark Athena released as well. It's not yet known if the PC demo will be released alongside the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions nor what content will be contained. The full version is due for release in the US on April 7 and for Europe on April 24.

Atari picked up the rights to publish The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena last year and now developer Starbreeze has been working hard to finish the remake-sequel to the the acclaimed 2004 first person action game. Today Atari announced that the title would be released on April 7 in the US with April 24 the target release date for Europe. Atari also announced demos would be released in March for the Xbox 360 and PS3 versions but there's no word on a PC demo yet.

As we have mentioned before, the game contains a graphical remake of the 2004 movie game Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay along with a separate 10-11 hour single player campaign, Assault on Dark Athena. The game will also add multiplayer modes for the first time. For more info make sure to check out our hands-on preview of the single player portion.

The 2004 Universal Studios sci-fi movie The Chronicles of Riddick was, well, not good. Not good at all. The film, starring Vin Diesel, was a sequel to a much smaller scale (and much better) sci-fi film called Pitch Black. The sequel, however, was a failed attempt to turn the franchise, and Diesel's character of Riddick, into a huge Star Wars-like epic. The end result was a movie that took itself far too seriously and fell apart.

However developer Starbreeze Studios and publisher Vivendi Games crafted a sold first person action game based on the Riddick character. The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay (which actually takes place prior to the events of Pitch Black) was one of the best looking games for its day and its combo of first person shooter combat with some melee gameplay was very satisfying. It remains one of the best movie-to-game translations ever made.
A couple of years later, Vivendi Games revealed that Starbreeze was working on a remake of Escape from Butcher Bay with revamped graphics, a new single player campaign and the addition of multiplayer for the first time. However very little was revealed about this remake from the publisher after its announcement. With Vivendi Games' merge with Activision to form Activision Blizzard last year it seemed like the game had been forgotten.

Thankfully that turned out not to be true as Atari announced late in 2008 that it had picked up the publishing rights to the remake, now titled The Chronicles of Riddick: Assault on Dark Athena. Atari recently sent over a partial PC build of the game's single player portion to Big Download so we could put it through its paces.