Christian game developer Left Behind Games announced that it has acquired the the assets of fellow Christian game maker Cloud 9 Games.

While terms of the deal were not disclosed, Left Behind stated that Cloud 9 President Curtis Ratica had signed a contrct and would remain involved for at least the next three years. The two companies worked together previously on the development of the Praise Champion and King Solomon's Trivia Challenge games.

Texas-based Cloud 9 has developed games like the Rock Band-inspired Christian music game JAMband and the karaoke-themed Heavenly Harmony Gold. Its products are distributed by EMI.

Cloud 9 was labeled as the “second most successful Christian video games publisher,” behind only (presumably) Left Behind Games.

Left Behind Games is on a roll apparently. The Christian entertainment company has acquired the assets of Cloud 9 Games and signed its President, Curtis Ratica, to a three year deal. LBG describes Cloud 9 Games as the "second most successful Christian video games publisher." We assume it believes that it is numero uno. The company said that it hopes to tap into Mr. Curtis's console games development experience:

"We are hopeful to leverage Curtis’ Xbox and other console development experiences soon," a company spokesman said. "Meanwhile, we are pleased to own and publish his newest PC titles, Praise Champion and King Solomon’s Trivia Challenge, which we will present to Walmart later this week during our national line review."

An interesting opinion piece on The Atlantic Wire looks at race politics in video games, focusing on first-person shooters. Author Max Fisher talks about Resident Evil 5, Medal of Honor and Modern Warfare 2, inspired by an essay from Jim Gourley for ForeignPolicy.com.

The thrust of the opinion piece is about the painful transition from conflicts against zombies and fictionalized Nazis to real world conflicts involving real groups of people and how developers portray them. Here's a taste:

Okay, we readily admit to being virtually hypnotized by Christian game publisher Left Behind Games, even more so in light of the odd press releases the company has issued in the past couple of weeks, but their latest may take the cake.

Today, Left Behind detailed an upcoming email campaign that it says will eventually hit 7.77 million inboxes. The company added a “top-tier” email delivery service that will push output to 45,000 emails per hour. The campaign will leverage an “under-utilized” list of over 500,000 “Christian consumers accumulated since the release of the Left Behind Trivia Game, 7 years ago.”

Christian PC game publisher Left Behind Games has stated that its Left Behind 3: Rise of the Antichrist PC game, in advance of Christmas, will benefit from the “largest marketing push through churches since the Passion of the Christ.”

In a story last week, the company claimed that Christian store chains had pre-ordered 37,174 Left Behind Games titles in advance of the holiday season. The company has now disclosed the names of the chains that will carry its games, which includes Family Christian Stores, LifeWay Christian Stores, Mardel Christian & Education and Berean Christian Stores.

In a weirdly specific press release, religious game developer and publisher Left Behind Games stated that it’s received initial holiday orders for 37,174 copies of its PC games.

The orders were from the U.S.’s “top four leading Christian store chains,” covering 503 locations. Titles ordered included Praise Champion, Charlie Church Mouse: Superpack, Keys of the Kingdom and Left Behind 2: Tribulation Forces, but the real stalwart of the bunch was Left Behind 3: Rise of the Antichrist, which averaged 24.8 copies ordered per store.

CEO Troy Lyndon added, “The depth of these new orders increases our projected fiscal year revenue by $401,095.”

Following a short beta period, German online game publisher FiAA GbmH has released the official version of its browser-based online game entitled The Bible Online.

If you were waiting for a bible game that features both RTS and MMORPG elements, you’re in luck, as the title lets players “construct their villages, manage resources,” in addition to the challenge of protecting “their tribe from the pagans and also from other tribes.”

The first chapter of the game, called Heroes, centers on the Book of Genesis and features a temple, in which “players get the chance to actually read and type the passages of the Book of Genesis, which leads to increase of their ‘faith,’ which is one of the attributes of the players.”

FiAA GbmH plans to add chapters that eventually cover all the stories of the Bible. The game is available in both German and English.

Looks like an experimental pilot program that had around 100 Texas Wal-Mart stores carry the Christian-themed titles of Left Behind Games went well, as the publisher announced that two of its newer offerings will be sold at locations of the world’s largest retailer throughout the U.S.

Left Behind 3: Rise of the Antichrist and Charlie Church Mouse: Superpack will show up in Wal-Mart stores before the end of October.

LBG CEO Troy Lyndon stated, "We are delighted to offer healthy alternatives into the PC game marketplace and pleased to see these games get the exposure they deserve by becoming available in Walmart nationally.

Left Behind 3: Rise of the Antichrist is a real-time strategy game based on the book series of the same name.

Christian video game company Left Behind Games revealed it has "exceeded expectations" with $210,000 in revenue for the two most recent quarters of 2010. The company says that this revenue is "considerably more than income in any two consecutive quarters since the company’s inception." The company also added that it will provide updated guidance on some orders and commitments from some of the nation’s "largest retailers sometime next week."

Left Behind Games has seven Christian PC game titles on the market, and plans to release four new games during the holiday season, including LEFT BEHIND 3: Rise of the Antichrist, Charlie Church Mouse 3D Bible Adventures, Praise Champion, and King Solomon’s Trivia Challenge.

People may wonder why LB Games isn't making the kind of money that more mainstream game developers and publishers make. The answer comes from this quote from Left Behind Games CEO, Troy Lyndon:

An online videogame backed by the right wing Austrian Freedom Party (FPO), launched in advance of regional elections to be held on September 26, depicts the province of Styria as overrun with mosques and tasks players with stopping further ones from being built.

A Reuters story claims that the “Bye Bye Mosque” game has drawn over 60,000 visitors since Monday, in addition to criticisms from the local Islamic community, Social Democrats and the Green Party. A local Islamic leader named Anas Schakfeh called the game “tasteless and incomprehensible,” adding, “This is religious hatred and xenophobia beyond comparison.”

As the game ends, a message reads, “Styria is full of minarets and mosques. So vote for Dr. Gerhard Kurzmann (pictured) and the Freedom Party on September 26 so that this doesn’t happen.”

Here's an interesting bit of news from Dnaindia.com: it turns out that Hindus in America strongly support net neutrality. Hindu statesman Rajan Zed, in a statement in Nevada last week, said that it is important to maintain a level playing field when it comes to the internet.

Zed, who is the president of Universal Society of Hinduism, said in his remarks last week that "every citizen of the world should have access to high speed internet, and corporate greed should not be allowed to govern it."

"Access to the internet should be a fundamental right as it played a significant role in everyday life," he added.

Zed also applauded Finland for making "broadband a legal right" for its citizens and for promising speeds of up to 100Mbps connection by 2015.

Finally, Zed urged other religious leaders including Pope Benedict XVI, to "wholeheartedly support the causes of net neutrality and internet access" as a "fundamental right."

Blogger Ebrahim Saifuddin used his medium to pen an interesting look into why he believes videogames are haram (forbidden) for Muslims.

In his article, posted late last year, the author uses passages from the Qur’an to guide his opinion on whether specific game components are haram or halal (permitted). Ebrahim begins with music in videogames, citing four spots in the Qur’an as indicating that music is haram. Among the passages cited was the following (though it seems a bit wide ranging):

There is a man among the people who buys discourses of distracting amusements, so that he may mislead (people) from the Way of Allah, and make a mockery of it. For such people there is a disgraceful punishment. [31:06]

Next up, the depiction of animate objects in games, such as humans and animals, which includes the author’s claim that, “Many a times the female characters in video games are highly inappropriately dressed.” The author concludes:

Kotaku reports that the notorious Westboro Baptist Church (who you may know better as the "God Hates Fags" sign wielding congregation out of Kansas) will be in San Diego next week to protest the "idolatrous worship" taking place at Comic-Con (thanks to Shoutbox user Rodrigo Ybáñez García for the tip!).

The activity will happen on July 22. To get an idea of where this group is coming from you need look no further than comments in its schedule of events section on its web site:

The Catholic diocese of Balanga, Bataan has turned to videogames in order to increase the Catholicism of its flock.

Paolo’s Journey targets kids—from third-grade through college age—and is said to be based on Pope Benedict XVI’s “Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church,” according to PhilStar.com. The game involves the travails of Paolo, who falls into well while looking for his lost kitten. Once in the water receptacle, Paolo is confronted by an angel who tells him “to collect the three keys he needs to be able to return home.” Throughout the game Paolo will have to anser 45 catechism questions while battling creatures called “Bloobas” and collecting scrolls.

Archbishop Socrates Villegas said that the game was “not for faith propagation, but to remind the faithful of the social teachings of the Church.”

Tim Tebow’s eye greasepaint, which often featured religious messages during his playing days at the University of Florida, will be plain black for the cover of NCAA Football 11.

The Chalkboard noticed the toned down eye paint in a Facebook posting for the game from Electronic Arts. The blog’s author has been posting similar stories wondering, and asking readers, if a statue of the ex-Heisman Trophy winner to be installed on campus should contain the religious messages or not. The majority of commenters seem okay with the messages being included.

The Chalkboard also notes that in April, the NCAA banned the further inclusion of messages in eye black, a trend that Reggie Bush helped make popular during his USC days.

Christian game developer Left Behind Games has released details on its lineup of PC titles for the rest of the year, including a pair of games that will pit users against the forces of the Antichrist.

A pilot test that saw approximately 100 Wal-Mart stores in Texas sell Christian-themed videogames from Left Behind Games went well enough that the world’s largest retailer is expanding the program.

Left Behind Games CEO Troy Lyndon announced the expansion in a letter to shareholders, which website Stockmarketquarterly noticed as part of an SEC filing. The news was announced in letter form at Wal-Mart’s request. Left Behind Games will now be added to “a limited number of Walmart stores covering a broad area of states.”

Lyndon wrote that Wal-Mart expanded the trial in order to see sales results “without the promotional campaign that was undertaken by LFBG in Texas.”

Left Behind Games, which recently merged with fellow Christian game publisher Digital Praise, will see its titles now sold in Berean Christian Stores.

The agreement came about as a result of a recent trial marketing program that took place last year, which saw four “Family Video Game Night” events take place at Chick-fil-A restaurants in California.  The events allowed attendees to try out games for free and receive a 20.0 percent off coupon to be used at a neighboring Berean store. The promotions resulted in 30 games per week sold and $2,500 in monthly sales at a single store, prompting the expansion of the promotion to the remaining Berean locations.

Left Behind Games and Digital Praise have announced the merger of the two companies into a single Christian game producing powerhouse.

Digital Praise has over 30 titles in its repertoire, including Adventures in Odyssey, Guitar Praise, Dance Praise, Light Rangers, and aMazing Bible. The company was established in 2003 and publishes for the PC, Mac and iPhone, in addition to producing online Flash games.

Left Behind Games should be familiar to readers of this site, as we’ve covered their recent entry into the Xbox and Wii markets, in addition to the pilot release of their games in Texas Wal-Mart stores.

Left Behind CEO Troy Lyndon cited four key elements Digital Praise brings to the merger:

(1) strong brands and products, (2) multi-channeled distribution, (3) a solid management team and (4) a history of generating millions of dollars in the emerging Christian video game market, a feat no company has matched.

Florida Gator All American quarterback Tim Tebow will appear in a pair of commercials airing during this year’s Super Bowl that were paid for by a conservative Christian group.

According to the Huffington Post, the 30-second spots will feature Tebow and his mother Pam attempting to convey their belief, in so many words, that abortion is wrong. It’s expected that the ads will tell the story of Pam falling ill during a missionary trip to the Philippines while pregnant. Ignoring the advice of doctors to abort her pregnancy, Mrs. Tebow eventually gave birth to her 5th child, the eventual 2007 Heisman Trophy winner, Tim.

Tebow on the ads:

I've always been very convicted of it (his views on abortion) because that's the reason I'm here, because my mom was a very courageous woman. So any way that I could help, I would do it.

Focus on the Family is the group paying for the commercials.

To be fair, Tebow has never tried to hide his religious beliefs and he has done an incredible amount of missionary work on behalf of the disadvantaged, much of it in the Philippines (where he was born).

How does this jibe with videogames? Tebow has been rumored to be in negotiations with Electronic Arts to become the cover athlete for NCAA Football 2011, a natural progression for perhaps college football’s most well-known current player.

The question for our readers is—do you think Tebow’s public anti-abortion stance should preclude EA from signing him as the poster boy for the next NCAA Football game? Or, is it not that big of a deal?

|Image via Tampa Bay Online|

While the majority of those queried wanted nothing to do with the subject, GameSpy did manage to corral a few brave game developers willing to discuss the topic of religion in videogames.

Lionhead Studios main man Peter Molyneux was one such game maker willing to talk about the subject, saying, “There cannot be a hotter potato than this hot potato.” 

He continued:

Religion is one of those things where -- if you're specific about it -- you're going to get yourself into a mountain of trouble.

 

You have to be very, very careful.

Assassin’s Creed creator Ubisoft was one company that declined to talk with GameSpy about the subject, referring the author instead to the disclaimer used in Assassin’s Creed 2, which states that the game was developed by a “multicultural team of various religious faiths and beliefs.”

Others who provided comment on the subject included Visceral Games’ (Dante’s Inferno) Jonathan Knight, 2K Boston’s Ken Levine and Wizards of the Coast’s James Wyatt, a former preacher.

Among Wyatt’s comments:

Games aren't a place where you are expected to cling to a belief in something that can't be seen or proven. It's a world where the power of gods is demonstrated daily.

 

[The Lord of the Rings'] Gandalf was -- almost literally -- Jesus walking around with the adventuring party.

Head over to GameSpy for more on the subject.

As any reader of this website knows full well, videogames and religion tend to mix like oil and water.

Every few weeks, it seems, a story pops up about a religious group expressing dismay or anger over  a videogame. The latest such tale revolved around a Maine Christian group calling for a Modern Warfare 2 ban.

The constant collision of these topics caused a Bitmob contributor to pen a column asking whether or not games and religion are mortal enemies.

Mike Gingras writes from the viewpoint of a religious gamer, noting that players are constantly breaking the Ten Commandments in-game, but he takes a broadminded approach to it all:

My argument is that games, like any art, are a means of authorial expression and participant reaction. In a game, a person can safely dabble in behavior or thoughts that they may not necessarily agree with.

He continues:

As a gamer and a religious person, I believe that virtual worlds with unfixed consequences are a safe way to learn about your own beliefs and values. I remain unconvinced that playing a video game where you can wrestle with your own personal sense of right and wrong is a bad thing.

Gingras ends with the question, “So, which is it? Is gaming a hobby that people of all faiths can enjoy? Or is it something that the faithful should stay away from?”

Maine’s Christian Civic League is calling for a ban on Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2.

The League writes that we live in a time where “the public has been dangerously desensitized to violence,” and that “many find a thrill in participating in violent video games.”   It claims that Modern Warfare 2 goes too far, “even in our own desensitized age,” and specifically calls out the No Russian scene (which it calls the “Massacre Level”) as most offending.

“All decent people should denounce the game,” continues the League, which goes on to suggest that the state of Maine should open debate into banning “these” games completely.

The League then attempts to play up the link between violent videogames and school shootings, and while  Maine has yet to have a school shooting of its own, “the danger is growing each passing day” adds the League.

Videogames are just one manifestation of current social ills however:

The ready availability of drugs, violent video games, and outrageous rock music is a witch's brew which will eventually lead to tragedy here in Maine.

In related League news, the group also accused the owner of a local book store of being a witch and claimed that the store owner cast a spell on the Administrator of the League, Mike Hein, in return for being “outed” as a “practitioner of the occult.”

We’ll just let this one speak for itself.

As Andrew notes, the video appears to have been edited a bit, but probably just to enhance the absurdity.

Pokemon is a game that teaches children how to enter into the world of witchcraft. How to cast spells. How to use psychic phenomena…  How to put to work supernatural powers against their enemies… How to fantasy role play… Pokemon world is a world of the demonic, of the satanic.

 

While you might not take it quite seriously, I assure you that demons take it quite seriously.

 

Satan takes it quite seriously.

Our kids are going out in gangs on the streets and they are so used to killing each other in their fantasy games and in their video screens and blowing each other away and blowing each other up, that when they walk down the streets and they pull out their .45 and they pump some friend full of bullets, they kind of think in the back of their mind, well, we’ll turn off the machine and they’ll get up and they will be there tomorrow and I will shoot them again.

It’s just a game, to which I respond, Russian Roulette is just a game.

|Via EveryThingisTerrible|

Left Behind Games plans on bringing its brand of Christian-infused videogames to the Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Xbox 360.

Left Behind is teaming up with LifeLine Studios to develop a title called Bible Adventures for both consoles. The new effort will draw content from Left Behind’s Charlie the Church Mouse series, which is currently available on the PC. Bible Adventures will “educate young children by teaching them academic lessons vital to early childhood development through Bible stories.”

Left Behind CEO Troy Lyndon added:

Parents and kids already love the Charlie Church Mouse Bible Adventure games for the PC. Our strategy is to follow Nintendo's example by including up to 18 story animations and mini-games, providing significant value for our customers. We expect our financial projections to grow exponentially as we transition from a PC game developer to a Wii & Xbox developer.

Left Behind games is also known as Inspired Media Entertainment. In October the company announced a pilot effort to sell its religious-themed PC games in Texas-area Wal-Mart stores.


|Image via Kerusso|

An Atlanta-based videogame development company has announced plans to create a virtual online faith-based community.

Universe of Faith (UOF) is being developed by Entertainment Arts Research, Inc. and is billed as the first of its kind, with plans to be a “catalyst of change” for the online Christian community. The $2.5 million project is expected to launch in the first quarter of 2010.

Entertainment Arts Research President Jonathan Eubanks, dubbed the “brainchild” of UOF, added, “My goals for creating Universe of Faith are to bring high production value to faith based media offerings, remove the taboo from discussing faith based matters and issues, use modern technology to innovate on missionary and ministry outreach and create an experience that is engaging and fun.”

Browser-based, UOF promises to be an “intriguing venue for social networking,” with a “diverse and immersive experience for users to create a life beyond the tangible world.”

The project is being developed in conjunction with Legacy Group Global, an advertising agency that specializes in working with non-profits and ministries.

On its website, Entertainment Arts Research states that its goal is, “to become the worldwide leader in video games that serve the African-American, Latin American, Asian and Caribbean markets by 2010."

Left Behind Games, which last month announced a pilot release of its Christian-themed games in 100 Texas Wal-Mart stores, reports brisk sales of their offerings in the Lone Star state.

Stating in a bit of PR that the experiment is “progressing beyond the company’s original expectations,” a company representative claimed that about 25% of their inventory has been sold in the two weeks since the pilot started, which is operating in Houston and Dallas area stores.

CEO Try Lyndon said:

At the rate Wal-Mart inventory is moving, they will be out of games before Christmas, unless they reorder. With seven weeks remaining, and accelerated sales expected as we near the holidays, we believe test results will be favorable leading to a broader national market for Christian based PC games.

In an effort to boost sales, Left Behind Games is sending mailers to areas surrounding Wal-Mart stores that stock their games, offering to send a second free game to anyone purchasing a Left Behind title from the world’s largest retailer.

Left Behind Games Inc., a publisher of Christian-themed videogames, has secured a pilot release of its titles in 100 Wal-Mart stores in the Houston and Dallas areas.

Three games will be sold as part of a test to determine the viability of selling the titles in additional Wal-Mart locations. Left Behind Games, also known as Inspired Media Entertainment, believes that Texas is ripe for its offerings, noting that there are over 23,000 churches in Texas, with over 5.0 million Evangelical Protestants and more than 1.7 million Mainline Protestants.

CEO Troy Lyndon has high hopes for the Christian game market:

The US market for Christian video games could reach $648 Million within the next five years based upon just 3% of video game sales being in the Christian segment.

Here's something you don't see very often.

An unusual, religious-themed mod to Rome: Total War adds themes from the Book of Mormon to the popular PC real-time strategy franchise, reports Mormon Game Design:

Darren, from the UK, is a video game "modder." And he did his thing on Total War a while ago. He added Book of Mormon names and places to the game, allowing players to enter the Promised Land and the battles that took place between the Nephites and Lamanites! ...

 

As it is a mod, you will need a copy of Total War with the Barbarian Invasion expansion, along with the mod file provided by Darren, via the Book of Mormon Battles website...

Via: Mormon Times

Rev. James Dobson, the politically influential, conservative evangelical leader of nonprofit group Focus on the Family, has given a green light to some video games while offering warnings about violent an sexual content as well as possible game addiction in regard to others.

Dobson's comments appeared in his newspaper column in response to a question from a parent about their son's video gaming:

Depending on the particular games in question, you may have a valid cause for concern... two University of Michigan researchers concluded in 2007 that violent media, including television, film and video games, pose a significant public health threat...

Furthermore, some video games add unhealthy sexual themes and profanity to the mix, not to mention that the American Medical Association estimates one in 10 video gamers is addicted.

Of course, not all video games are problematic. Certain sports games, for instance, can be loads of fun. Some can even be educational...

I’d advise you to put clear limits on the amount of time your son will be allowed to spend with video games... Insist he avoid the troublesome ones altogether...

GP: Dobson is referring to the 2007 Huesmann-Bushman study.