Trion announces Red Door gaming platform for publishing and development
Trion Worlds has announced a new game platform established by the firm to publish third-party titles, codenamed Red Door.
Games as a service
The platform initiative is a "consumer platform and a full-scale publishing and development platform", based on Trion’s tech.It will also allow consumers to discover and download various content with social features, and "flexible" account services.
For developers and publishers, it will enable firms to build and run games as services with real-time updates using proprietary toolsets which will "radically speed up the time-to-market," for current or next-gen games for connected devices.
“Media and entertainment are transforming into connected services that evolve around the user,” said Dr. Lars Buttler, CEO of Trion Worlds in the press release.
“Our goal is to revolutionize premium games and help the industry realize its potential in the connected era.
"Our first title Rift is just the tip of the iceberg; with Red Door we intend to catalyze significant change for the industry and unleash new creative possibilities.
"We want to hear from those with big bold ideas and dreams.”
How it works
Trion will continue to support RIFT, as well as continue development on End of Nations and Defiance, as Red Door is just one of the ways the firm can continue to raise capital for its projects faster than before. According to Buttler, and it can be customized for each partner.
“We’re doing this because we see this massive shift in entertainment, which is transforming traditional content into connected services,” Buttler told VentureBeat. “The future of interactive entertainment is incredibly connected. Our job is to transform games into living worlds.
“Our own games are just the tip of the iceberg. The true business significance of our company lies in the Trion platform.”
Trion raised over $100 million from investors such as Time Warner and Comcast in 2006, which allowed it to hire over 500 employees in order to focus on premium MMO development, and in conjunction, build a publishing platform which third-parties could take advantage of as well.
“This is a huge evolutionary step in the history of our company,” Buttler said. “Our platform is built and we are opening it up.”
The future
Red Door will launch next spring, and Trion is in talks with publishers to develop games that are “living worlds,” for the platform. For consumers, Red Door should not be considered a social network for MMO players, but more akin to Xbox Live's “games as a service,” model.
RIFT, Trion's first MMO, sold 1 million copies in less than four months, has introduced five major updates in six months, and the average gamer plays for 4 hours a day.
“We consider this to be the most successful MMO launch in the West,” Buttler said. “We have grown faster than World of Warcraft did in its early days. Rift has proven the technology and given us a revenue stream we can count on.”
End of Nations, which is development with Petroglyph, is a real time-strategy title and Defiance, a transmedia co-development project with Syfy, are to be released next year and will use the Red Door platform.