City State Entertainment Rebrands to Unchained Entertainment, Readies Reveal Of Next-Gen Game Development Engine
With Recent Funds from A16Z GAMES, Island Capital, The Lauder Family and others, Unchained is Growing its Warchest, Development Team, and Capabilities
FAIRFAX, Va.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Led by video game industry veteran Mark Jacobs, City State Entertainment has rebranded to Unchained Entertainment. The company is readying the official launch of Early Access for Final Stand: Ragnarok, a multiplayer, co-op PvE hack and slasher action game. Powered by Unchained Engine, the game will be able to support scenarios such as swarm-based PvE action, PvEvP extraction, as well as Battle Royales of unprecedented-scale in any combination.
Unchained has recently picked up steam with funding from A16Z GAMES and early investors including Island Capital and The Lauder Family; the company is ramping up its financing, hiring and publishing efforts for the launches of Unchained Engine, Final Stand: Ragnarok, and the long-awaited open-world MMORPG Camelot Unchained.
The name change reflects Unchained Entertainment’s mission and focus on ushering in a new generation of truly massively multiplayer games built on its proprietary Unchained Engine, which enables real player interactions in close-quarters action, creating shared experiences of unprecedented scale.
“The Unchained Engine is realizing a dream I’ve been obsessing over for more than 30 years,” said Mark Jacobs, President and CEO of Unchained Entertainment. “Our engine delivers massive battles similar to those seen in major Hollywood productions like Lord of the Rings, to video games where thousands of real players interact and share an epic experience in real time. We’re excited to launch our own games, and to share our technology with fellow dreamers in the not too-distant future.”
The Unchained Engine can power thousands of simultaneous player-controlled characters and/or NPCS that can perform complex interactions, including combat, animations, and effects in real time in up-close and personal action, in addition to delivering tens of thousands of physically interactive networked gameplay objects and elements simultaneously, all while maintaining a high frame rate, even on older PCs.
“Games are increasingly at the center of our entertainment and social world,” said Andrew Chen, General Partner at A16Z GAMES. “The talented team at Unchained Entertainment is redefining how many players can interact, play and fight with each other in real time in close-quarters battles of unprecedented size and scope. We are excited to support the company’s journey and development of Unchained’s next-generation game engine.”
Unchained Entertainment is a fully remote company, with hubs in Northern Virginia and Seattle Washington. Composed of industry veterans from studios including Mythic Entertainment, Warner Bros, EA, THQ and BioWare, the team is responsible for some of the industry’s biggest titles including Dark Age of Camelot, Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning, Shadows of Mordor, Destiny and Lord of the Rings: War in the North.
Unchained’s first game Final Stand: Ragnarok is set to officially launch in Early Access in March. Camelot Unchained is expected to release late next year.
For more information, please visit www.unchained-entertainment.com. For more information on Final Stand: Ragnarok, please visit the game’s web site and official Steam page.
Unchained Entertainment
Led by industry veteran Mark Jacobs, pioneer in the MMORPG genre and previously the founder & CEO of Mythic Entertainment, Unchained is a collaborative, passionate game studio and engine technology company united in determination to power the next generation of massive multiplayer online games. Unchained’s mission is to enable players to experience the kinds of epic battles that so many of us have only been able to read about and see in the greatest science fiction and fantasy worlds. Unchained is a small team of industry veterans who have worked on some of the biggest online games in the industry. The team shares a passion and vision to design new online game experiences that redefine and push the boundaries of what a massive multiplayer game can be. For more information, please visit www.unchained-entertainment.com.
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