Ritual Entertainment

Ritual Entertainment was a video game developer established in 1996 by Robert Atkins, Mark Dochtermann, Jim Dosé, Richard 'Levelord' Gray, Michael Hadwin, Harry Miller, and Tom Mustaine. Based in Dallas, Texas, Ritual Entertainment was formerly known as Hipnotic Interactive, during which period they began development of their signature video game SiN.

Members of the Ritual Entertainment development team have contributed game assets to other titles such as American McGee's Alice, Medal of Honor: Airborne, Tomb Raider: Legend, and 25 to Life, and are also the creators of "Übertools" for id Tech 3, which has been licensed for a number of other games.

Shortly after signing Hipnotic, publisher Activision claimed that Hipnotic had been at the core of the Duke Nukem 3D development team. Duke Nukem 3D developer 3D Realms vigorously denied this, stating that only five members of Hipnotic Interactive were former staff of 3D Realms, and of these five only three had a significant role in making Duke Nukem 3D.

On January 24, 2007, developer MumboJumbo announced the acquisition of Ritual Entertainment. With this acquisition, Ritual's focus on traditional action-oriented games was changed to casual games, essentially "stalling" Ritual's latest game series, SiN Episodes, after releasing only one episode out of a planned nine.

The purchase followed months of departures of several key employees including chief executive officer Steve Nix who became director of business development at id Software, vice president and co-founder Tom Mustaine who left to found Escalation Studios. Several months after the acquisition, community relations manager Steve Hessel left the company to join Splash Damage.

Prior to the announcement, on December 6, 2006, Ritual announced the appointment of Ken Harward as the company's new studio director.

Games developed

 * Quake Mission Pack No. 1: Scourge of Armagon (Expansion pack) – (1997) (PC) developed as Hipnotic Interactive
 * SiN – (1998) (PC (Windows and Linux), Linux on PowerPC) both Linux versions ported by Hyperion Entertainment
 * Heavy Metal: F.A.K.K. 2 – (2000) (PC (Windows and Linux), Mac (Mac OS and Mac OS X), Dreamcast) Linux version ported by Loki Software, Mac OS Classic version ported by Contraband Entertainment, Mac OS X version ported by The Omni Group
 * Blair Witch Volume 3: The Elly Kedward Tale – (2000) (PC)
 * Counter-Strike: Condition Zero – (PC) Ritual Entertainment was working on the title in 2002 after Gearbox Software and before Turtle Rock Studios took over in mid-2003
 * Star Trek: Elite Force II – (2003) (PC)
 * Legacy of Kain: Defiance – (2003) (PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC) External collaboration with Crystal Dynamics
 * Delta Force: Black Hawk Down: Team Sabre (expansion) – (2004) (PC)
 * SiN Episodes: Emergence – (2006) (PC)
 * 25 To Life - (2006) (PlayStation 2, Xbox, PC) External collaboration with Avalanche Software

Unreleased

 * The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers – (PC) cancelled
 * SiN II publisher demo – (2003) (PC) Ritual Entertainment made a game demo to show potential publishers.
 * Legacy of Kain: The Dark Prophecy (2004) – cancelled
 * SiN Episode 2 – Cancelled
 * Quake 4: Awakening - Unreleased addon for Quake 4