Raven Software is an American video game developer based in Madison, Wisconsin. It was founded in 1990 by brothers Brian and Steve Raffel after getting a publishing deal for their first game, Black Crypt (1992). During that game's development, the company formed a relationship with id Software, which was briefly located on the same street. Raven spent the next few years working primarily on PC games in partnership with id, making ShadowCaster (1993) with a game engine by id Software and three games in the Heretic series between 1994 and 1997 with id as the publisher and id Software employees as the producers. In 1997, Raven made an exclusive publishing deal with Activision, and the Raffel brothers subsequently sold the company to Activision. Several employees left Raven Software at that time to form Human Head Studios. [1]
Raven spent the next decade working on a few original games such as Soldier of Fortune , as well as licensed games, including Star Trek: Voyager – Elite Force (2000), Quake 4 (2005), the Star Wars games Star Wars Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast (2002) and Star Wars Jedi Knight: Jedi Academy (2003), and the Marvel Entertainment games X-Men Legends (2004), X-Men Legends II: Rise of Apocalypse (2005), and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance (2006). By 2009, the company had three development teams, and released the licensed games Wolfenstein (2009) and X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009), while working on their first original game since 2002, Singularity (2010). Wolfenstein and Singularity sold poorly, however, and Raven laid off employees after each game, consolidating into a single development team by October 2010, shortly after Singularity's release. [1] Following the layoffs, Raven focused exclusively as an assistant developer for the Call of Duty series, which has the position of lead developer rotate between Infinity Ward, Treyarch, and Sledgehammer Games. [2] Raven was the primary developer on two games since then: the China-exclusive Call of Duty Online (2015) and Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered (2016), a remaster of the 2007 Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare packaged with Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare .
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Original release date: February 1992 [3] [4] | Release years by system: 1992 – Amiga [4] |
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Original release date: September 1993 [6] [7] | Release years by system: 1993 – MS-DOS [7] 1994 – PC-98 [8] |
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Original release date: November 1994 [10] [11] | Release years by system: 1994 – MS-DOS [11] |
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Original release date: December 23, 1994 [12] | Release years by system: 1994 – MS-DOS [12] 1999 – MacOS [13] |
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Original release date: October 30, 1995 [15] | Release years by system: 1995 – MS-DOS [15] 1997 – MacOS, PlayStation, Sega Saturn, Nintendo 64 [16] |
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Original release date: September 30, 1996 [18] | Release years by system: 1996 – Windows [18] |
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Original release date: August 31, 1997 [19] | Release years by system: 1997 – Windows [19] 2002 – macOS [20] |
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Original release date: September 30, 1997 [25] | Release years by system: 1997 – Windows [25] |
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Original release date: September 30, 1997 [26] | Release years by system: 1997 – Windows [26] |
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Original release date: October 31, 1998 [27] | Release years by system: 1998 – Windows [27] 1999 – Linux [28] 2000 – AmigaOS [29] 2002 – macOS [20] |
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Original release date: March 27, 2000 [30] | Release years by system: 2000 – Windows [30] 2001 – Dreamcast, [30] PlayStation 2, [31] Linux [32] |
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Original release date: September 19, 2000 [34] | Release years by system: 2000 – Windows, macOS [34] 2001 – PlayStation 2 [34] |
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Original release date: March 28, 2002 [36] | Release years by system: 2002 – Windows, macOS 2003 – GameCube, Xbox [36] 2019 – Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 |
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Original release date: May 22, 2002 [38] | Release years by system: 2002 – Windows, macOS [38] 2003 – Xbox [38] |
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Original release date: September 16, 2003 [39] | Release years by system: 2003 – Windows, macOS, Xbox [39] 2020 – Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 4 |
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Original release date: September 21, 2004 [40] | Release years by system: 2004 – GameCube, PlayStation 2, Xbox [40] 2005 – N-Gage [40] |
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Original release date: September 20, 2005 [41] | Release years by system: 2005 – GameCube, mobile phones, N-Gage, Windows, PlayStation 2, PlayStation Portable, Xbox [41] |
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Original release date: October 18, 2005 [42] | Release years by system: 2005 – Windows, macOS, Linux, Xbox 360 [42] [43] |
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Original release date: October 24, 2006 [44] | Release years by system: 2006 – Game Boy Advance, Windows, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Xbox, Xbox 360 [44] 2016 – PlayStation 4, Xbox One [44] |
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Original release date: May 1, 2009 [45] | Release years by system: 2009 – Mobile phones, Nintendo DS, Windows, PlayStation 2, PlayStation 3, PlayStation Portable, Wii, Xbox 360 [45] |
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Original release date: August 18, 2009 [46] | Release years by system: 2009 – Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 [46] |
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Original release date: June 25, 2010 [47] | Release years by system: 2010 – Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360 [47] |
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Original release date: November 9, 2010 [48] | Release years by system: 2010 – Nintendo DS, Windows, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 [48] 2012 – macOS [48] |
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Original release date: November 8, 2011 [50] | Release years by system: 2011 – Windows, PlayStation 3, Wii, Xbox 360 [50] |
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Original release date: November 12, 2012 [51] | Release years by system: 2012 – Windows, PlayStation 3, Wii U, Xbox 360 [51] |
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Original release date: November 5, 2013 [53] | Release years by system: 2013 – Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One [53] |
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Original release date: November 4, 2014 [54] | Release years by system: 2014 – Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One [54] |
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Original release date: January 12, 2015 [55] | Release years by system: 2015 – Windows [55] |
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Original release date: November 6, 2015 [56] | Release years by system: 2015 – Windows, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Xbox 360, Xbox One [56] |
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Original release date: November 4, 2016 [57] | Release years by system: 2016 – Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One [57] |
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Original release date: November 4, 2016 [58] | Release years by system: 2016 – Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One [58] |
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Original release date: November 3, 2017 [60] | Release years by system: 2017 – Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One [60] |
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Original release date: October 12, 2018 [61] | Release years by system: 2018 – Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One [61] |
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Original release date: October 25, 2019 [62] | Release years by system: 2019 – Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One [62] |
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Original release date: March 10, 2020 [63] [64] | Release years by system: 2020 – Windows, PlayStation 4, Xbox One [65] |
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Original release date: November 13, 2020 [66] | Release years by system: 2020 – Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S [66] |
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Original release date: November 16, 2022 | Release years by system: 2022 – Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S |
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Proposed release date: October 25, 2024 | Proposed system release: 2024 – Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S |
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Heretic is a dark fantasy first-person shooter video game released in December 1994. It was developed by Raven Software and published by id Software through GT Interactive.
Hexen: Beyond Heretic is a fantasy first-person shooter video game developed by Raven Software and published by id Software distributed through GT Interactive on October 30, 1995. It is the sequel to 1994's Heretic, and the second game in Raven Software's "Serpent Riders" trilogy, which culminated with Hexen II. The title comes from the German noun Hexen, which means "witches", and/or the verb hexen, which means "to cast a spell". Game producer John Romero stated that a third, unreleased game in this series was to be called Hecatomb.
Hexen II is a dark fantasy first-person shooter (FPS) video game developed by Raven Software and published by id Software in 1997. It is the third game in the Hexen/Heretic series, and the last in the Serpent Riders trilogy. Using a modified Quake engine, it features single-player and multiplayer game modes, as well as four character classes to choose from, each with different abilities. These include the "offensive" Paladin, the "defensive" Crusader, the spell-casting Necromancer, and the stealthy Assassin.
Heretic II is a dark fantasy action-adventure game developed by Raven Software and published by Activision in November 1998 continuing the story of Corvus, the main character from its predecessor, Heretic. It is the fourth game in the Hexen: Beyond Heretic series and comes after the "Serpent Rider" trilogy. Although Id Software owns the publishing rights to the previous titles, Heretic 2 is owned by Activision since they own Raven Software and its IPs.
id Software LLC is an American video game developer based in Richardson, Texas. It was founded on February 1, 1991, by four members of the computer company Softdisk: programmers John Carmack and John Romero, game designer Tom Hall, and artist Adrian Carmack.
Raven Software Corporation is an American video game developer based in Middleton, Wisconsin, and part of Activision. Founded in May 1990 by brothers Brian and Steve Raffel, the company is most known for the dark fantasy franchise Heretic/Hexen, the first two Soldier of Fortune games, as well as licensed titles based in the Star Wars: Jedi Knight series and Marvel Comics's X-Men characters, including 2006's Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. Since 2011, Raven has been working on multiple Call of Duty games as both lead and support developer.
Soldier of Fortune is a first-person shooter video game developed by Raven Software and published by Activision in 2000 for Microsoft Windows. It was later released for the PlayStation 2, as well as the Dreamcast, while Loki Software also made a port for Linux. It was digitally re-released on GOG.com on October 2, 2018, along with its two successors. The player takes on the role of a U.S. mercenary as he trots around the globe hoping to halt a terrorist nuclear weapons plot.
Activision Publishing, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Santa Monica, California. It serves as the publishing business for its parent company, Activision Blizzard, and consists of several subsidiary studios. Activision is one of the largest third-party video game publishers in the world and was the top United States publisher in 2016.
Call of Duty is a 2003 first-person shooter game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. It is the first installment in the Call of Duty franchise, released on October 29, 2003, for Microsoft Windows. The game simulates infantry and combined arms warfare of World War II using a modified version of the id Tech 3 engine. Much of its theme and gameplay is similar to the Medal of Honor series; however, Call of Duty showcases multiple viewpoints staged in the American, British, and Soviet campaigns of World War II in Europe.
Treyarch Corporation is an American video game developer based in Santa Monica, California. Founded in 1996 by Peter Akemann and Doğan Köslü, it was acquired by Activision in 2001. The studio is known for its work for the Call of Duty series, which it develops alongside Infinity Ward, Sledgehammer Games and Raven Software.
Civilization: Call to Power is a turn-based strategy game developed by Activision for Microsoft Windows as an attempt to capitalize on the success of the Civilization computer games by Sid Meier. It was ported to Linux by Loki Software, as well as BeOS by Wildcard Design, becoming one of the very few commercial games for that operating system.
Call of Duty is a military video game series and media franchise published by Activision, starting in 2003. The games were first developed by Infinity Ward, then by Treyarch and Sledgehammer Games. Several spin-off and handheld games were made by other developers. The most recent title, Call of Duty: Modern Warfare III, was released on November 10, 2023. The upcoming title, Call of Duty: Black Ops 6, is scheduled to be released on October 25, 2024.
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare is a 2007 first-person shooter video game developed by Infinity Ward and published by Activision. It is the fourth main installment in the Call of Duty series. The game breaks away from the World War II setting of previous entries and is instead set in modern times. Developed over two years, Modern Warfare was released in November 2007 for the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Microsoft Windows and was ported to the Wii as Call of Duty: Modern Warfare – Reflex Edition in 2009.
Star Wars: Jedi Knight, also shorted as Jedi Knight, is a series of first- and third-person shooter video games set in the fictional Star Wars expanded universe. The series focuses primarily on Kyle Katarn, a former Imperial officer who becomes a mercenary working for the Rebel Alliance, and later a Jedi and instructor at Luke Skywalker's Jedi Academy. While the first game is set a year after the events of A New Hope, the sequels take place in the decade following Return of the Jedi.
Singularity is a 2010 first-person shooter survival horror video game developed by Raven Software and published by Activision and released for Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It is built on Epic Games' Unreal Engine 3.
Wolfenstein is a first-person shooter video game developed by Raven Software and published by Activision, part of the Wolfenstein video game series. It serves as a loose sequel to the 2001 entry Return to Castle Wolfenstein, and uses an enhanced version of id Software's id Tech 4. The game was released in August 2009 for Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360.
Respawn Entertainment, LLC is an American video game development studio founded in 2010 by Jason West and Vince Zampella and owned by Electronic Arts since 2017. West and Zampella previously co-founded Infinity Ward and created the Call of Duty franchise, where they were responsible for its development until 2010.
Heavy Gear II is a mecha based first-person shooter video game. Set in Dream Pod 9's Heavy Gear universe, the game was developed and published by Activision in 1999 for Microsoft Windows; it was ported to Linux in 2000 by Loki Software. It is a sequel to the 1997 video game Heavy Gear.
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Remastered is a 2016 first-person shooter game developed by Raven Software and published by Activision. It is a remastered version of the 2007 game Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, and was initially released as part of the special edition bundles of Call of Duty: Infinite Warfare in November 2016 for the PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One. A standalone version was released for these platforms in mid-2017. The game's story follows the United States Marine Corps (USMC) and the Special Air Service (SAS), who take on missions to fight against a separatist group in the Middle East and an ultranationalist group in Russia.