| Industry | Computer gaming |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2006 |
| Headquarters | Redwood City, California |
| Key people | Lars Buttler (Founder, CEO), Scott Hartsman (CCO, Producer), David Luehmann (VP of Third Party Development) |
| Products | Rift, End of Nations, Defiance |
| Employees | 200 (est.) |
| Parent | Independent |
| Website | http://www.trionworlds.com/en/ |
Trion Worlds, Inc. (previously Trion World Network, Inc.) is an award-winning American video game developer and publisher, which focuses primarily on MMOs, particularly of the MMORPG and MMORTS genres. The company was founded in 2006 by Lars Buttler and Jon Van Canegham, who had each previously worked for EA and NCSoft, respectively. The company consists of several industry veterans, some of whom have contributed to such titles as Aion, World of Warcraft and EverQuest, as well as Pogo.com.
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The company was originally founded as Trion World Network, Inc in 2006 by Lars Buttler, previously serving as Vice President for Global Online at major American video game publisher EA, and Jon Van Canegham, previously serving as Executive Producer at South Korean online video game company NCSoft. The two left their respective jobs to pursue the founding of a company that could "define a generation of interactive entertainment by fundamentally revolutionizing the way games are created, played and distributed.”
After the founding, the company immediately began development on the Trion Platform, a server technology which both Trion and "external partners" will deliver games, one that is less heavily client-based than other games and helps to enable large-scale battles.
Trion also begun early development on their first MMORPG, then titled Heroes of Telara, which would go on to be renamed as Rift: Planes of Telara, until finally being released as Rift in March 2011.
In 2010, in addition to the renaming of Heroes of Telara to Rift: Planes of Telara, Trion World Network, Inc. renamed itself as Trion Worlds, Inc.
In 2006, Trion began development on Heroes of Telara (now known simply as Rift), an MMORPG. The game would go on to undergo extensive alpha testing, with beta testing finalizing the stress test portion of development.[1] Trion Worlds CEO Lars Buttler has stated that Rift has a budget of "over US$50 million".[2]The game was officially released in 2011 in the United States on March 1, Australia on March 2, and throughout Europe on March 4.
Trion's next game, End of Nations, a Free-to-Play MMORTS video game developed by Petroglyph Games, is currently planned for a simultaneous North American and European launch sometime in 2011.
In 2010, Trion and SyFy announced a deal in which a video game and related television series would be produced. In 2011, the game was revealed to be Defiance, an MMO open world shooter for release on Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 at an unspecified date. The official press release states that the game "interconnects with a global television program by Syfy, cable’s premier imagination-based entertainment channel. Announced last year, the first live gameplay demo of Trion and Syfy’s visionary concept will debut at the annual industry event (E3)," and calling it the "first interconnect video game and television series."
Trion has multiple investors, including The Time Warner Investments Group, Comcast Ventures, Bertelsman Digital Media Investments, Rustic Canyon Partners, Trinity Ventures and DCM, with HP listed on their website as a "strategic partner". In addition, Trion has also partnered with American video game developer Petroglyph Games, American cable television channel SyFy, and video game publishers Sony Computer Entertainment and Ubisoft.