Key events
10th September 2013
12th August 2004
10th June 2004
Vin Diesel announces new Chronicles of Riddick game
Escape from Butcher Bay team on board.
Mr. Riddick himself, Vin Diesel, has spilled the beans on a third game in the Chronicles of Riddick series.
The untitled installment is being developed by Starbreeze team members who worked on 2004 prequel Escape from Butcher Bay, which expanded the Riddick movie series' world with its own story.
Diesel's own team at Tigon Studios will also work on the new project, Screencrush reported (thanks, OXM).
Sat amid a swarm of at best mediocre tie-ins, and at worse soulless cash-grabs, The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay stood as a gleaming inverse in a world of film adaptations. Not only was it undeniably good, but it was an adaptation of the small-budget Pitch Black, and even if you consider the at-the-time upcoming bigger-budget blockbuster set in the same universe, it's hard not to feel that the game wouldn't even exist if Vin Diesel hadn't been such a huge fan of both games and the character.
Starbreeze signs Unreal Engine 3 deal
Will Syndicate reboot use Epic's tech?
Starbreeze, maker of The Chronicles of Riddick and The Darkness - and the developer rumoured to be behind EA's unconfirmed Syndicate revival, has signed a long-term licensing deal to use Gears of War engine Unreal Engine 3.
Starbreeze alumni using id Tech 5.
ZeniMax Media - the company that owns Bethesda, id, Arkane and Tango - has bought another studio: MachineGames.
Our tribute to the levels designed to confuse rather than guide.
In these heady, three-dimensional times where players are expected to move not just from left to right but also backwards and diagonally and sometimes in strange new directions they may not be comfortable with, level design takes on an all-new meaning. Levels now need to be both playgrounds and delicately constructed pathways. To stop their players wandering around aimlessly like children lost in a supermarket, developers must build their games so as to lead the player with an invisible hand.
Tigon: Hollywood needs to wake up
Videogames are "the Field of Dreams".
Ian Stevens, boss of Vin Diesel's production company Tigon, believes videogames are "the Field of Dreams", and that Hollywood needs to start treating them as more than the proverbial action figure.
Vivendi didn't believe in Riddick, claims Tigon
"Nobody really gave a sh*t."
Vin Diesel's production company Tigon Studios has recalled the struggle that The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape from Butcher Bay had finding an audience, because "nobody" - not even publisher Vivendi - "really gave a sh*t".
Riddick team working on Bourne game
Multiplayer confirmed for Starbreeze thriller.
Starbreeze has confirmed to Eurogamer that the Chronicles of Riddick team is creating the upcoming Bourne project for EA.
The Darkness dev reworking EA franchise
"Innovative take on a classic property."
Electronic Arts has secured the talents of Swedish developer Starbreeze to rework one of its major franchises for PC, PS3 and 360.
More content, multiplayer.
Starbreeze has confirmed its working on a next-gen makeover of The Chronicles of Riddick.
The Chronicles Of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay
We couldn't resist using this week's PAL release as an excuse to play one of the games of the year again...
Version Reviewed
Xbox (PC and possibly PS2 versions due later this year)
Publisher
Version Reviewed
Xbox (exclusive)
Publisher
The Chronicles of Riddick: Escape From Butcher Bay
Read about the biggest surprise to hit gaming this year.
It says a lot: sitting with a bunch of journalists that work in the video industry last night, not one of them even knew about The Chronicles Of Riddick, much less that it's the follow-up to Pitch Black, or that it starred Vin Diesel. Given the movie industry's crippling lack of awareness over here, what are the chances of its videogame spin-off having any luck? Suffice to say that too few journalists and magazines are getting excited about the game, and some of them are going to be feeling pretty foolish when the game comes out of nowhere and makes people's eyes pop out of their heads.
