From Wired News:
Orson Scott Card Builds an Empire
By John Gaudiosi
02:00 AM Nov, 10, 2006Hugo and Nebula award-winning sci-fi and fantasy author Orson Scott Card has made a name for himself with best sellers like Ender’s Game and Speaker for the Dead. Now he’s taking his storytelling abilities to the world of video games with independent game developer Chair Entertainment.
While Card’s writing fueled classic LucasArts games The Dig and The Secret of Monkey Island, his latest book, Empire, is part of a multiformat franchise that was conceived from the ground up for video games, comic books, novels and films.
Empire, which hits bookstores Nov. 28 from Tor Publishing, is set in a near-future America in which a civil war has erupted between the political left and the right. Card was involved from day one in building the franchise across entertainment mediums. He took some time to talk about his latest venture and to explain why he doesn’t enjoy playing video games any more.
Multi-Format Franchising is like when a kid movie hits the theatre, the little toys also hit McDonalds or Burger King, t-shirts hit the clothing rack, etc. It is no surprise, then, that books can do the same thing. A book hits the shelf and its matching game hits the, well, shelves too.