Liquid Entertainment
 | |
| Private | |
| Industry | Video game industry |
| Founded | February 1999[1] |
| Founder | Ed Del Castillo |
| Headquarters | Pasadena, California, United States |
Key people | Ed Del Castillo, Holly Newman |
| Products | Battle Realms, LotR: War of the Ring, D&D: Dragonshard, Desperate Housewives: The Game, Rise of the Argonauts, Thor: God of Thunder, Dungeons and Dragons: Heroes of Neverwinter, Deadline Hollywood: The Game, Instant Jam, Paper Galaxy, |
| Website | http://www.goliquid.us |
Liquid Entertainment is a small American independent video game developer based in Pasadena, California. The studio was co-founded in 1999 by Ed Del Castillo and Michael Grayford,[1] and is led by president Del Castillo and CEO Holly Newman.
Overview
Liquid’s first game was Battle Realms, published by Crave Entertainment and Ubisoft in November 2001 to critical acclaim.[2] Battle Realms is a real-time strategy PC game for Windows that features an unconventional approach to resource management and unit development. It was well received by reviewers,[3] many of whom praised its at-the-time state of the art 3D engine and East Asian-inspired setting and aesthetics but sale numbers were disappointing. It was nominated in the Best PC Strategy game of 2002 by The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences,[4] but did not win and was chosen for Computer Gaming World's Top 10 Games of E3 2001.[5] Battle Realms was followed up with a stand-alone expansion pack, Battle Realms: Winter of the Wolf in April 2002. Winter of the Wolf was received with less enthusiasm than Battle Realms by the gaming community;[6] some reviewers compared it unfavorably to 2002's blockbuster real-time strategy titles Warcraft III and Age of Mythology.[7][8]
Since the release of Winter of the Wolf, Liquid has developed two real-time strategy PC games based on intellectual property licenses: In November, 2003, Sierra released The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring, based on Vivendi Universal's license to Tolkien's literary works, and in October 2005 Atari published the Dungeons & Dragons PC game Dragonshard. Dragonshard has since been re-released on GOG.com.
In October 2006, Buena Vista Games released Desperate Housewives: The Game, a life simulation computer game adaptation of the popular television series Desperate Housewives. Desperate Housewives: The Game won PC Gamer Adventure Game of the Year for 2007. Many reviewers praised it as a well-written and faithful adaption of the television series although it did not do well commercially.[9]
Liquid’s next game Rise of the Argonauts, released in December 2008 and published by Codemasters, is a Greek mythology-themed action role-playing game for Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 that was very poorly received for its technical problems, derivative art direction and repetitive gameplay.[10] In 2011 Sega published Liquid’s second console game for Xbox 360 and PS3 Thor: God of Thunder that coincided with Marvel Studios’s release of the film Thor in May 2011.
Liquid has also released three casual games for Facebook. They are InstantJam, a music rhythm game for Facebook, Deadline Hollywood: Game based on the popular Hollywood news blog Deadline.com by Nikki Finke and Paramount Digital Entertainment for Facebook and iOS and Dungeons and Dragons: Heroes of Neverwinter, a turn based strategy game published by Atari on Facebook.
On 2014 Liquid Entertainment's president Ed Del Castillo announced on YouTube the development of a new Trading Card Game set in Battle Realms universe. The project was unveiled by the name of Battle Realms Legends but after a failed funding campaign on the global crowdfunding platform Kickstarter and after receiving a bad reception by the gaming community the project was finally put on hold. The game's purpose, according to Liquid Entertainment's announcement, was to make Battle Realms known and to attract new public while at the same time introducing new insights on the game series lore.
Unfortunately, the game has been put on hold for the moment. It’s a great game that should get made, but the fans didn’t come out for it in big enough quantities so its future is uncertain at the moment.
Games developed
- Battle Realms (2001), published by Crave Entertainment and Ubisoft
- Battle Realms: Winter of the Wolf (2002), published by Crave Entertainment and Ubisoft
- The Lord of the Rings: War of the Ring (2003), published by Sierra Entertainment
- Dungeons & Dragons: Dragonshard (2005), published by Atari
- Desperate Housewives: The Game (2006), published by Buena Vista Games
- Rise of the Argonauts (2008), published by Codemasters
- Thor: God of Thunder (2011), published by Sega
- Deadline Hollywood: The Game (2012), published by Paramount Digital Entertainment
- Dungeons and Dragons: Heroes of Neverwinter (2012), published by Atari
- Karateka (2012), published by D3 Publisher
- Paper Galaxy (2012), published by Liquid Entertainment
- Battle Realms Legends (2014), its development has been halted and put on hold after a failed funding campaign and a bad general public reception
- Battle Realms 2: Lair of the Lotus, announced in 2014 by Liquid Entertainment's former president Ed Del Castillo
References
- 1 2 GameSpy: Liquid Entertainment Company Profile
- ↑ "Battle Realms reviews". Meta Critic.
- ↑ "Battle Realms reviews". Game Rankings. Retrieved 2006-11-05.
- ↑ "2002 Interactive Achievement Awards". Interactive.org.
- ↑ "Battle Realms Winter of the Wolf announced". gamershell.com.
- ↑ "Battle Realms: Winter of the Wolf reviews". Game Rankings. Retrieved 2006-11-05.
- ↑ Kasavin, Greg (Nov 21, 2002). "Battle Realms: Winter of the Wolf review". GameSpot. Retrieved 2006-11-05.
- ↑ "Battle Realms: Winter of the Wolf review". 1UP.com. January 1, 2000. Retrieved 2006-11-05.
- ↑ "Desperate Housewives". Metacritic. Retrieved 2007-02-03.
- ↑ "Rise of the Argonauts Review".