| Company Name: | Red Storm Entertainment |
| Company Type: | Corporation |
| Foundation: | 1996 |
| Location: | Morrisville, North Carolina |
| Key People: | Tom Clancy, Doug Littlejohns, Steve Reid |
| Industry: | Computer and video game industry |
| Num Employees: | 130+ |
| Owner: | Ubisoft |
| Homepage: | Red Storm Entertainments official website |
Red Storm Entertainment is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ubisoft Entertainment, specializing in PC games, console games, and related merchandise mainly based on the works of the writer Tom Clancy.Red Storm Entertainment develops and distributes content for multiple media including electronic entertainment. The company develops and markets their own CD/DVD-ROM games.The headquarters for Red Storm is located in Morrisville, North Carolina, which forms a part of the Research Triangle. Here is an introduction by Red Storm Entertainment:
"Red Storm Entertainment's objective is to become the market leader in the publishing and production of entertainment products in multiple forms - interactive computer and console games, board games and other related merchandise. With games like Tom Clancy's Rainbow Six, the fast-growing company is quickly becoming recognized as an innovative creator of titles that provide a totally immersive gaming experience. Many of Red Storm Entertainment's games combine full 3-D graphics, seamless action and strategic gameplay, as well as enhanced multi-player capabilities. These games aim to satisfy "hard-core" gamer appetite while appealing to a new, broader game player community - the "casual" game fan attracted to realistic and intelligent games”.
Tom Clancy and Doug Littlejohns, a British Navy Captain founded Red Storm Entertainment in 1996. Originally part of Virtus, the company released its first game – Tom Clancy’s Politika, the first in the Power Plays series – in 1997. Based in the RTP area of North Carolina, Red Storm quickly gained a reputation for innovation with games like Dominant Species, one of the first 3D realtime strategy games.
However, it was with the genre-defining Rainbow Six (1998) that the company created the series that firmly established Red Storm on the map. A potent antidote to the run-and-gun first person shooters(FPS) that had gone before, Rainbow Six was the first true tactical FPS, a game that rewarded patience and planning as well as well as good aim and a keen eye. Developed alongside the best-selling novel of the same name, Rainbow Six introduced terms like “one shot, one kill” and “tango down” into the gamer lexicon. Its ground-breaking multiplayer action, including a revolutionary form of cooperative gameplay, set the standard for tactical multiplayer.
Red Storm followed on the success of Rainbow Six with a mission pack, Eagle Watch, and then in 2000 with an award-winning sequel, . Earning its reputation for hard-edged strategic gameplay and high-tech military accuracy, the company also expanded into turn-based strategy (ruthless.com and Shadow Watch) and military RTS (Force 21).The success of Rogue Spear made Red Storm an attractive candidate for acquisition, and in 2000 Ubisoft purchased the studio. At the time of the sale, Red Storm was already hard at work on what would be the studio’s next genre-defining hit, a game that would take the tactical gameplay of Rainbow Six and turn it loose on the wide-open battlefields of the near future: Ghost Recon.
Released in 2000, Ghost Recon won multiple “Game of the Year” awards and kicked off another best-selling series of games for Red Storm. The Xbox version also marked the first time RSE ventured into in-house console development, and was the first Xbox Live! title to truly take advantage of the possibilities of console multiplayer. Follow-up add-ons like Island Thunder continued to expand the world of the Ghosts, while Red Storm itself grew and moved offices to a new location in Morrisville, NC.
By 2003, Ubisoft was ready to consolidate its North Carolina operations. Ubisoft’s other area studio, Sinister Games in downtown Raleigh, was integrated into Red Storm, with the central base of operations remaining at the Morrisville location.
In 2004, Red Storm released Ghost Recon 2, the successful follow-up to the original game. Delivered on Xbox, it signaled the company’s transition to primarily console development. It produced an add-on, Summit Strike, in 2005, which moved the action to Kazakhstan, as well as extensive and highly-regarded downloadable content, something which would become a hallmark of the franchise.
More recently, Red Storm has developed the multiplayer aspects of both iterations of the Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter series. With innovative cooperative campaign gameplay and incredibly customizable multiplayer, GRAW multiplayer continued the Red Storm tradition of setting the standard for tactical multiplayer. The level of the team’s achievement was recognized by the prestigious BAFTAs, which bestowed the Game of the Year and Best Technical Achievement awards on it in 2006.
Now in its second decade, Red Storm continues to work on a wide range of projects, both collaboratively with other studios and in its own right. A pillar of the vibrant and growing game development in the Research Triangle area, Red Storm remains committed to quality gameplay, innovation, and upholding the traditions of excellence it has maintained in its eleven-plus years of top-notch game development.
Red Storm Entertainment is a friendly company that arranges events, both for the employees and the public. These events are popular and there's a lot of people celebrating and enjoying the atmosphere.
Typical Events:
- Halloween Party
- Red Storm Family & Friends Picnic
- Employee Appreciation Week - Ice Cream Truck
- Red Storm 2007 Holiday Party
- Red Storm Tours
- Ubisoft 20th Anniversary
[1] Triangle Business Journal - Red Storm, Epic Games growing in vibrant Triangle sector, by Amanda Jones Hoyle Friday, January 30, 2009
[2] Red Storm Entertainment History