Utah-based Chair Entertainment Group, developers of Xbox Live Arcade title Undertow, have been acquired by Epic Games, the companies announced today. Through the agreement, Chair becomes a wholly-owned subsidiary of Epic, keeping the Chair name while developing Unreal Engine titles.
"Chair's stylized approach to creating games is further enhanced by their ability to stretch our technology in new directions that not only help in creating amazing gaming experiences but also demonstrate the power and versatility of the Unreal Engine," said Epic VP Mark Rein. "We are thrilled to bring the Chair team into the Epic family, and look forward to working with them to create original new games that continue to innovate and inspire."
Chair was founded in 2005, led by directors Donald and Geremy Mustard and CEO Ryan Holmes. Prior to launching Undertow on XBLA, Chair collaborated with author Orson Scott Card on its Empires property, with games and feature films planned around the novel Card wrote in 2006.
"Our team has long admired Epic for its ability to shape the game industry with its innovative technology and first-rate video game offerings," said Chair's Holmes. "We share Epic's passion for creating ground-breaking game play experiences and are excited for the opportunity to partner with a truly visionary company."













Comments
Aren't Chair the geniuses (genii?) behind Advent Rising?
@kemicon:
and the gem that was undertow...
/sarcasm
Personally, I didn't particularly enjoy Undertow...It was kinda "meh" after the first round or two, and the only reason I downloaded it was because it was free.
I also thought tech-wise it was sort of..."meh."
Let me just say I'm glad it was free.
...Actually I wish something good was free.
Wow. Hope they bought them cheap, Undertow was pretty horrible. I never played Advent Rising, but that didn't seem so hot either.
Ugh, undertow belonged deep under the see, where no one need experience it.
see = sea*
Maybe Empire and Enders game will actually be good instead of "Undertow" good
Yeah, I got Undertow for free and I've still only played it once months ago.
But on the bright side for Chair, they won't have to pay Unreal engine licensing fees for their future crappy titles!
Advent Rising was plagued with bugs and glitches...but the core gameplay and story were absolutely amazing! I had hoped that someone would continue the series and finish it off...I hate not knowing what happens after the cliffhanger ending.
Wow lots of hate for undertow.
I rule at that game, and its actually quite fun. It just felt like a generally fun game. The multiplayer was great.. Really enjoyable experience, Epic need people to work on they're netcode, Especially since Gears 2 needs a much better online system. Party seems to be standard in great online games on the 360 now.
Undertow was totally overrated. It's got a 76 on metacritic. I've never enjoyed playing it. I'd give it a 50 and maybe tack on a bonus 10 for the graphics and whatnot, but only if I'm being extremely generous.
I loved everything about Advent Rising except the game.
I have to say, the only reason I even spent five minutes of my free time on Undertow, was because it was given to me no charge. It was promptly deleted from my hard drive once I realized it wasn't worth my time.
Undertow - is actually pretty fun, I'm assuming most of you got it for free. Played it with co-op and it's a fun little game. A "classic" XBLA experience, pick up and play for 15 mins and get on with your day.
Advent Rising - now that was a a pretty cool game, plagued with some technical issues. Really well done, but frame issues really killed the game for most people.
Advent Rising - Looked cool, never played it.
Undertow - I liked 0% of this game.
"amazing gaming experience" is not how I would describe Undertow.
I actually missed undertow when it was free (I was lending my 360 to my brother at the time.) But I played the demo, and I wasn't that impressed. I liked the other free downloads though, aegis wing and carcassonne. I think microsoft is trying to expand the audiences of these games that aren't famous. A lot of downloadable games don't get much press. Also a free game would suck if you already bought it.
Advent Rising was like undercooked brownies; it was good but could have stayed a little longer in the oven.
Undertow was like burnt brownies, sounds like you're going to get something wonderful but displeases horribly.
Yeah, I'm hungry.
Undertow?
Oh yeah, i remember now.
What about it?
Advent Rising could have been much better with a little more time in the hopper or better programmers. The story was good, the gameplay had potential. But the frame rate was horrific and the game was generally buggy. However, throw some better resourses at the game under the guidance of some of the talent at Epic and who knows. Could have been a blockbuster.
@exkon:
"Advent Rising - now that was a a pretty cool game, plagued with some technical issues. Really well done, but frame issues really killed the game for most people."
Folks, he nailed it right here. Under some guidance from Epic, imagine how great a remake or sequel could be on PS360!
So, phase one is now complete. Phase two? Get the rights from Majesco, because we know they're not doing a thing with it.
@JohnnytheFuture: Heh. I still haven't even played it.
Yeah Undertow was rubbish....but...er....Epic huh, boy they really innovate
Damn. So much Undertow hate. Why do so many people say it's garbage?
hooray advent rising dos!
Hopefully this lets the Chair guys expand. I actually loved Advent Rising, despite its flaws. The story and concepts were near perfect, however the execution was the major problem. The game had huge technical problems that could have significantly improved the game if they had been fixed. The other problem was length which was far too short. I think with Epic behind them, the Chair guys could make a really great major console game to the scale of Advent Rising.
Undertow isn't the best game ever, but it's far from the worst. Doing a four-player co-op run through Ultra skill difficulty was great.
That's interesting, because a colleague of mine told me that the main guy behind Undertow applied for a job at a studio here in Atlanta.
That game wasn't worth the Live downtime that paid for it...
@Psudonym:
It was for me since I didnt have any problems with Live. Probably because I got on at 8pm CST and not at peak times like 3pm. Sometimes I couldnt sign in through the dashboard but signing in while in a game worked and it was fine for me since I didn't want to download anything that week.
Anyway, undertow wasnt a bad game and actually they did do some cool stuff with the Unreal engine. Now that they're part of Epic im sure they'll get the super secret REAL UE3 that epic uses. ;)
I love Undertow. I guess you appreciate a game more when you buy it, than if it is for free. The ones that downloaded it for free were the ones not interested enough to buy it in the first place. To each his own...
Sci Fi + sea monkeys + meat shields = epic ...........
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