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Rift developer gets financing, expands operations to television experiment

Rift developer gets financing, expands operations to television experiment

Trion Worlds, the developer of the popular MMORPG Rift, announced this week that they have courted and received a massive new financing source. The $85 million in “strategic growth equity financing” came from several places, including the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan, who see this as an investment in the arts and in Canadian job creation. The funding will be used to greatly expand the development studio’s worldwide capabilities. They point to Rift as an example of their ability to innovate.

“Rift’s success with gamers worldwide is the tip of the iceberg for Trion,” said Trion Worlds CEO Lars Buttler in the press release. “No other company has successfully attempted to create an original IP, build paradigm-altering technology, and develop a business of scale to lead the industry, let alone excel at all three. We have a world-class team focused on our vision to bring the era of connected live services to premium games, much in the way casual and mid-core games have already been disrupted.”

One of these future projects which will benefit from the financing is a project in which the studio is partnering with the second tier cable network, Syfy. The new game, Defiance, is more than just a video game tie-in with a television franchise. The game will be part of the show, and the show will be part of the game. The show/game is an experiment in audience interactivity.

Defiance is the story of a war between Humans and alien invaders on Earth. The characters in the television show are stuck in the middle of this war, which is being controlled and influenced by the players of the game.

For example: when battles are won in the game, those skirmishes may be referenced in the show, and the plot and characters are affected by success or defeat. Similarly, if one of the show’s characters executes a secret mission to plant a bomb in an enemy base, that base may be destroyed back in the game world.

Clearly, getting the project to line up and properly balance will be a tremendous juggling act for the teams involved. This likely means shooting multiple versions of certain scenes, or at the very least, shooting each episode precariously close to its air date.

The official Defiance synopsis is thus:

Set on a future Earth, Defiance introduces players and viewers to a world where humans and aliens live together on a planet transformed by decades of conflict. The game combines the intense action of a ‘AAA’ console shooter, with the persistence, scale, and customization of an MMO, while its TV counterpart weaves the rich tapestry of the world into a series with the scope, characters, and drama of a classic sci-fi epic. Because they exist in a single universe, the show and the game will influence each other and evolve together over time, with actions in both mediums driving the overall story of Defiance.

Trion Worlds is also currently working with Petroglyph Games (the team who made the original Command & Conquer) on a new free-to-play MMORTS called End of Nations, in which players compete for world domination in a persistent online world. The basic gameplay will be like an RTS, but each battle will have an effect on the greater war, and players can develop RPG-esque skills, items, and unit customizations.

Rift is currently available. Casting has just begun on the television side of Defiance, and Syfy plans for the show to hit during the 2012 pilot season, barring any delays. End of Nations has no currently announced release schedule.

 

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