Founded 2001 | Website www.lodestonegames.com | |
Type Limited liability company Industry Computer and video game industry
Entertainment industry Headquarters Charlottesville, Virginia Key people Lorin Jameson, President and Technical Director
Matt Shaw, Lead Engineer
Jeff Hanna, Art Director | ||
Lodestone Games was a game development studio based in Charlottesville, Virginia. The majority of its employees came from EA/Kesmai after Electronic Arts closed that studio in the fall of 2001. Lodestone Games specialised in the development of both online PC games and client/server technology for online PC games.
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History
The company's first project was a futuristic car combat game titled, Driving Force. Before the game could be finished Sony Online Entertainment halted the production and re-tasked Lodestone to develop network hosting technology as well as a real-time weather system for the massively multiplayer online game PlanetSide. After PlanetSide shipped Sony Online Entertainment contracted with Lodestone to create a third person fantasy role playing game, named Soul Forge.
Due to a budgetary shortfall Sony canceled the production of Soul Forge. Unlike the cancellation of Driving Force Sony Online Entertainment had no other work to give to Lodestone. As a result of this Lodestone Games was forced to lay off all employees and cease operations at the end of October, 2003. The majority of Lodestone's employees went on to work at Mythic Entertainment. Others ended up at Sony Online Entertainment, Volition, Inc., and Obsidian Entertainment.