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SMOKING GUN INTERACTIVE UNVEILS NEW PROPERTY THROUGH GRAPHIC NOVEL SERIES “X” IN COLLABORATION WITH AUTHOR DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF
Creative forces behind the highest rated strategy game* of all time unleash graphic novel series to provide a debut look into the universe of new undisclosed multi-platform IP
VANCOUVER, CA (November 3rd, 2009) – Smoking Gun Interactive an independent premier video game studio, today launched its first installment of the graphic novel series titled “X”. Written by controversial, award-winning author and social critic Douglas Rushkoff, the series is illustrated by Smoking Gun’s lead concept artist Cheoljoo Lee and Younger Yang.
The preview will be delivered over the course of four weeks starting today, and can be experienced online at www.exoriare.com and provides a first glimpse into the universe and characters of Smoking Gun’s as-of-yet undisclosed debut franchise. With a focus on real-world mystery, ancient locations, and deep conspiracy, X promises to explore the secret history of mankind in a way that has never been done before.
As a small, scattered group of people stumble onto the truth, they find that they are too late: every great power on earth has already aligned itself against humanity. The war is all but over. Their struggle to discover the truth will lead them into a massive conspiracy that predates humanity itself - from the world's most ancient sites to the global centers of power.
For those few brave enough to resist, reckless enough to see, and foolish enough to fight history itself, the war has never been over. For those few, the struggle will not be complete until the old prophecy has been fulfilled:
The first novel is scheduled to be released next year and is the first in a series of stories that will continue to expand the X universe.
“One of our main goals as a studio is to constantly innovate in how we tell our stories”, said Smoking Gun CEO and Creative Director John Johnson. “Our perspective is, if you can interact with it, then it can be part of the experience we deliver. And if you cannot interact with it, then we will evolve it to the point where it can be part of our universe. There are no boundaries to where we can go or what we can accomplish.”
"It has been insanely challenging and insanely fun to dive head-first into Smoking Gun's universe," explained Douglas Rushkoff. "And while I work on threading one narrative through this material, other artists are building it out on many other levels, all at once, for different people to engage with in so many different ways. So for the audience this multi-faceted, multi-media approach brings new dimension to the epic struggle that we're talking about here: nothing short of how humanity defines itself."
Smoking Gun Interactive was formed in 2007 by former developers from Relic Entertainment. Led by CEO and Creative Director John Johnson, and founders Angie Pytlewski and Drew Dunlop, the executive team has worked together for over 9 years building and leading passionate teams. Smoking Gun’s core team of leads and senior staff are some of the best the industry has to offer, and will help position the studio into becoming a leader in innovative interactive entertainment.
Smoking Gun’s founders have developed multiple platinum titles including the critically acclaimed and award-winning RTS Company of Heroes™, that garnered over 45 industry awards and is the highest rated strategy game of all time*.
For updated news and additional company information, please visit the official Smoking Gun Interactive site www.smokingguninc.com
*According to www.gamerankings.com
SMOKING GUN™ INTERACTIVE PARTNERS WITH VISIONARY AUTHOR DOUGLAS RUSHKOFF FOR FIRST UNANNOUNCED STUDIO PROPERTY
Creative forces behind the highest rated strategy game* of all time partners with award winning Writer to develop new innovative ways of storytelling for studio projects
VANCOUVER, CA (May 28, 2009) – Smoking Gun Interactive Inc. a premier independent video game studio announced today that it is collaborating with the award-winning writer Douglas Rushkoff for the story of it’s as-of-yet undisclosed new property. Rushkoff will work closely with the team at Smoking Gun, to develop story narratives across a range of media formats that can feed off one another and exist concurrently.
“Our vision at Smoking Gun Interactive has always been to deliver interactive entertainment content in new and exciting ways that push the medium forwards”, said John Johnson CEO and Creative Director of Smoking Gun Interactive, “We are delighted to announce our collaboration with Douglas. His astounding skill in creating compelling narrative is the perfect fit for the themes and scenarios we are introducing in our first property”.
Winner of the first Neil Postman award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity, Douglas Rushkoff is a bestselling and controversial author, comic’s writer, intellectual, and documentarian. His ten books on new media and popular culture have been translated to over thirty languages. They include Cyberia, Media Virus, Playing the Future, Nothing Sacred: The Truth about Judaism, and Coercion, winner of the Marshall McLuhan Award for best media book. Rushkoff also wrote the acclaimed novels Ecstasy Club and Exit Strategy and graphic novel, Club Zero-G, as well as the recently released Life Inc: How the world became a corporation and how to take it back.
"It’s an unexpected wish come true to be collaborating with the team at Smoking Gun Interactive, the first developers I've encountered who really understand the difference and potential marriage between narrative and game - between storytelling and total immersion," said Douglas Rushkoff. "I'm going to get to work closely with them, writing narrative pathways that carry readers through the universe of the game world. We'll all be writing for and stealing from one another, developing plot points, set pieces, and characters that have both stories in the books, and purposes in the games. Players who have read the books will have a richer game experience; readers who play the game will come to understand the stories from the inside."
Smoking Gun Interactive was formed in 2007 by former developers from Relic Entertainment. Led by CEO and Creative Director John Johnson, and founders Angie Pytlewski and Drew Dunlop, the executive team have worked together for over 8 years building and leading passionate teams. Smoking Gun’s core team of over 20 leads and senior staff are some of the best the industry has to offer, and will help position the studio into becoming a leader in innovative interactive entertainment.
Smoking Gun’s founders have developed multiple platinum titles including the critically acclaimed and award-winning RTS Company of Heroes™, that garnered over 45 industry awards and is the highest rated strategy game of all time*.
For updated news and additional company information, please visit the official Smoking Gun Interactive site www.smokingguninc.com
*According to www.gamerankings.com
SMOKING GUN ™ INTERACTIVE SECURES MULTI-MILLION DOLLAR PRIVATE FUNDING
Creative forces behind the highest rated strategy game*
of all time reveal new private funding investment
Smoking Gun Interactive Inc. an independent premier video game studio announced today that it has recently finalized a multi-year, multi-million dollar financing agreement with private investors to expand the studio and the development of an as-of-yet undisclosed new property.
“This injection of private capital allows us to continue to control our own destiny, and deliver on our vision of taking interactive entertainment in new directions, and redefining what tomorrow’s games can be”, said John Johnson CEO and Creative Director of Smoking Gun Interactive, “We’ve expanded our core team with some exceptional talent, and with this financial expansion we’re now looking forward to welcoming new faces to our team and new partners to our business, as we become a leading force in independent games development”.
“Our plans for Smoking Gun have always been ambitious, so it’s tremendously exciting for us to get this vote of confidence from the investment community”, said Steven Lee, CFO of Smoking Gun Interactive, “This shows the kind of excitement and confidence in Smoking Gun that investors have about our plans for the studio and our products”.
Smoking Gun Interactive was formed in 2007 by former developers from Relic Entertainment. Led by CEO and Creative Director John Johnson, the management and executive team at Smoking Gun have developed multiple platinum titles with over half a billion dollars in revenue, including the critically acclaimed and award-winning RTS Company of Heroes, that garnered over 45 industry awards and is the highest rated strategy game of all time. Collectively, the team has over 30 years of experience and has worked on best-selling franchises including Impossible Creatures, Homeworld, Need for Speed, NHL, NBA Live and FIFA Soccer.
Smoking Gun’s mission is to deliver triple A cross platform titles that push the art of gaming into new territories. The management’s collective experience in leading passionate teams and creating award winning products will position the studio into becoming a leading next-generation developer.
For updated news and additional company information, please visit the official Smoking Gun Interactive site www.smokingguninc.com
*According to www.gamerankings.com
Rocket Builders, a respected management consulting firm servicing the technology industry, has published its annual "Emerging Rockets" list naming over 50 privately held BC technology companies that are demonstrating great potential, and are clearly "ones to watch" in their respective sectors. Smoking Gun Interactive has been chosen as one of the top 8 companies in the New Media Category.
Press ReleaseSmoking Gun Interactive featured as one of the top 10 new studios, Develop Magazine - Develop
John Johnson Talks Smoking Gun - Interview with Gamasutra
Down the Barrel of a Smoking Gun - Interview with Next Generation
Smoking Gun Interactive Interview - Interview with FiringSquad
PREMIER DEVELOPMENT STUDIO SMOKING GUN INTERACTIVE FORMED BY THE CREATORS OF THE AWARD WINNING COMPANY OF HEROES™
Creative forces behind the highest rated strategy game* of all time reveal new development studio
VANCOUVER, CA (June 4, 2007) - The creators of the critically acclaimed game Company of Heroes today announced the formation of their new interactive entertainment software development studio, Smoking Gun Interactive Inc. The development studio will focus on creating innovative award winning cross platform games based on original or company owned intellectual property.
Smoking Gun Interactive Inc, has been founded by John Johnson, Angie Radwan-Pytlewski and Drew Dunlop all former senior staff from Relic Entertainment. The studio is led by CEO and Creative Director John Johnson who was previously the Director of Franchise Development and Producer on Company of Heroes, while Angie Radwan-Pytlewski served as Art Director and Drew Dunlop as Lead Programmer on the critically acclaimed real-time strategy hit.
"The team at Smoking Gun has worked passionately together for over 7 years, building teams that have created the most critically acclaimed games in their genre." said John Johnson CEO and Creative Director, "As the industry evolves so do the ways that people interact with video games. With our collective input Smoking Gun will be at the forefront of producing innovative best-selling titles, that really push the envelope further than we've gone before".
Working with Smoking Gun Interactive are key personnel from the team that created Company of Heroes including the Audio Director Crispin Hands and Story and Script Writer Duane Pye. Collectively the management and executive team have over 30 years of experience and have worked on best-selling franchises including Company of Heroes™, Impossible Creatures™, Homeworld™, Need for Speed™, NHL™, NBA Live™ and FIFA Soccer™. With their collective experience in leading passionate teams and creating award winning products, Smoking Gun is destined to become one of the industry's leading premier development studios.
For updated news and additional company information, please visit the official Smoking Gun Interactive site www.smokingguninc.com
This is Smoking Gun...
*According to www.gamerankings.comMessage from Smoking Gun.
We would like to thank all of our friends and community members who participated in the company's teaser campaign at www.exoriare.com. We thought about how we wanted to launch Smoking Gun and decided, "We are a game company, lets have some fun with it." Involving the community and having them work together to solve the puzzles was the most important aspect of the design for us, it's just another way games are changing in how people interact with them and each other while playing. It's an important part of our vision as a company to focus attention on those changes and create new ways for people to have fun with interactive entertainment. We're very happy this campaign has created a lot of enjoyment for the community. This is just the beginning...
Some of the recent coverage on Exoriare.com:
Next-Gen.biz - Next Generation - Interactive Entertainment Today
Gamasutra
Kotaku - The Gamers Guide
FiringSquad
Blues News
Shacknews
Gamestar.de
Eurogamer.de
Multiplayer.it
Gamekult.com
CVG - Computerandvideogames.com