Liquid Entertainment
 |
|
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Industry | Video game industry |
| Founded | February 1999[1] |
| 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]
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.[8]
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.[9] 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.
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
References
- ^ a b 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. 05/09/2004. Retrieved 2006-11-05. - ^ "Desperate Housewives". Metacritic. Retrieved 2007-02-03.
- ^ "Rise of the Argonauts Review".
