Dallas, TX, January 09, 2001 - Ritual Entertainment announced today that it will split into two companies, thereby forming a new game company called Mumbo Jumbo. Ritual Entertainment will continue to deliver ground breaking 3D games for the PC and future platforms. Mumbo Jumbo, the new developer headed by Mark Dochtermann and Ron Dimant, will focus on innovative content for PC, Macintosh and console platforms. Previously Dochtermann served as President and Technical Director for Ritual Entertainment and Dimant served as CEO for Ritual Entertainment.
Ritual Entertainment was formed in 1996 by five employees that departed 3D Realms Entertainment. Ritual has since delivered Quake Mission Pack #1: Scourge of Armagon, Sin, Wages of Sin, Heavy Metal: FAKK2 and most recently Blair Witch Volume 3: The Elly Kedward Tale. Ritual has received many accolades for the innovative use of interactivity in its titles. Information about the "Ritual" life style can be found at www.ritual.com and its fan site www.ritualistic.com. Ritual Entertainment is presently working on an unannounced title for Electronic Arts.
"We believe that this split will allow us to continue our focus on the types of games for which we have become famous," said Robert Atkins, President of Ritual Entertainment. "Ritual has always developed innovative content and we do not see this changing for the forseeable future. As companies we will stand together to achieve our goals and deliver top quality titles for all game platforms."
Mumbo Jumbo's first title will be Myth III: The Wolf Age, a real-time strategy game (RTS) to be published by Gathering of Developers. Myth III is the third installment in the critically-acclaimed and highly-successful Myth game franchise created by Bungie Software. Mumbo Jumbo's first development studio is located in Irvine CA, with locations in Dallas TX and London UK planned within the next 12 months. In addition to original game development, Mumbo Jumbo has a strong Macintosh development team and is presently converting Baldur's Gate II, Icewind Dale, Sacrifice, Giants: Citizen Kabuto and other AAA titles for Mac OS 9 and Mac OS X for its sister company MacPlay.
"We are very excited about Myth III: The Wolf Age. The Myth franchise has been extremely successful in the past, and we are eager to embrace the existing Myth community. The Myth III development team in Irvine is composed of some of the best Myth designers in the world and we are confident that Myth III will live up to its namesake," said Dochtermann, Mumbo Jumbo's President. "We want to develop titles for a number of different platforms and genres. The fact that Myth III is a combat oriented real time strategy title for PC and Macintosh is a testament to this goal."
About Ritual Entertainment
Ritual Entertainment, founded in August 1996, develops hyper-immersive computer games. Based in Dallas, TX, Ritual's talented team has worked on some of the industry's most successful games including Duke Nukem 3D, Terminal Velocity, Syphon Filter, Links LS and Rise of the Triad. The company's first title, developed in conjunction with id Software, was QUAKE Mission Pack #1: Scourge of Armagon, won "Best Add-on of the Year for 1997" from Computer Gaming World and PC Games magazines. Ritual released the highly anticipated SiN in late 1998. Inspired from this universe comes, "Sin the Movie" which was released October 2000 in conjunction with ADV Films. The company recently developed Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K. 2, a major action game based on Kevin Eastman's extremely popular Heavy Metal property. http://www.ritual.com
About Mumbo Jumbo
Mumbo Jumbo is a game developer founded by industry veterans, Ron Dimant and Mark Dochtermann. Mumbo Jumbo is dedicated to delivering innovative content for all game platforms including PC, Macintosh and console systems. Mumbo Jumbo's developers have worked on some of the industry's most successful games including Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K. 2, Bard's Tale 3, Wasteland, Fallout, Fighter Squadron, A-10 Cuba!, Sin, Quake Mission Pack #1, Duke Nukem 3D, and Rise of the Triad.
For More Information Contact:
Richard Gray
Ritual Entertainment
levelord@ritual.com
Ron Dimant
Mumbo Jumbo
ron@udgames.com
