The Shadowstorm Chronicles

The Shadowstorm Chronicles (abbreviated as TSC) is a computer role-playing series developed by Tartarus Studios. The series unofficially began with the webpage game "The Shadowstorm Chronicles: Dragon's Lance" (2006), although the first official release was The Shadowstorm Chronicles: Exodium in 2008. The game saw an expansion in 2009, Path of Shadow, and a sequel in 2010, The Shadowstorm Chronicles II: Shadow's Hand. The series has garnered a large fanbase and critical acclaim, being applauding for rising to such attention despite beginning and still remaining an independent developer.

History
In late 2006, The Shadowstorm Chronicles: Dragon's Lance was released online at www.tartarusstudios.com for download. The game was basic, where the player took control of a dragon rider Labas and his dragon Ashallia on a series of duels between other dragon riders. The game received 78% of positive reviews from downloaders. In 2007, Tartarus Studios established headquarters in Melbourne, Australia, and set to work on a full game; titled The Shadowstorm Chronicles: Exodium. In 2008 the game was released on June 9 globally.

Following pheumoninal success, Tartarus released a statement that: "We [Tartarus Studios Ltd.] plan to extend this series to three-four subsequent games. In early 2009 Tartarus Studios attained three more headquarters; in Sydney, Brisbane and New York City, USA. The company than hired around 20,000 employees and according to president of Tartarus Studios J.M Holt: "We have four existing points of production. How we create our games is each studio works on a seperate game".

In mid 2009 Tartarus began to work on Shadowstorm 2, titled The Shadowstorm Chronicles II: Shadow's Hand. In order not to risk that Shadowstorm 2 was felt by some fans as an expansion, Tartarus released an expansion for Exodium, titled The Shadowstorm Chronicles: Path of Shadow, meant to ease the players into the setting of the followup The Shadowstorm Chronicles II: Shadow's Hand. The game featured a whole new setting, races and weapons, armour, and items, allowing players to also reach level 80. Tartarus Studios Ltd. Sydney have been the main work behind The Shadowstorm Chronicles II: Shadow's Hand, meanwhile New York headquarters are working on a sci-fi shooter game. The names "King's Bane", "Insidium", and "Northerndia" are working titles from following possible games in the Shadowstorm series.

Tartarus have recently announced that two games would arrive in 2010, their sci-fi shooter "Shrapnel", and The Shadowstorm Chronicles II: Shadow's Hand. They also announced the titles for the next three upcoming games: "King's Bane", "Insidium" and "Northrendia", which they confirmed would be released between a 5-year period.

Shadow's Hand was unveiled at a conference called by Tartarus, demonstrating gameplay and new features. Creators confirmed the game would be released on August 15, 2010 globally, at an official launch by the studio. The game received rave reviews and has been labelled as 2010's RPG of the Year since its release, gaining near perfect reviews. It was estimated that upon its release it sold 150,000 units in its first two hours. Tartarus has called this "an extreme honour" and have thanked their fans and supporters. The game won RPG Central's Fantasy RPG For 2010 Award, and at the ceremony Tartarus president J.M Holt announced that the next Shadowstorm Chronicles game could possibly be a spin-off MMMORPG, hinting also at no fees and importable items etc. from the other Shadowstorm games. He also announced that if Tartarus did make an MMMO that console gamers would be treated to a console exclusive Shadowstorm title. The only official announced next title for Shadowstorm is Shadow's Hand's first expansion, "The Great Battle", which is tentatively expected on January 30, 2011.

Main Games

 * 2008 - The Shadowstorm Chronicles: Exodium - Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
 * 2010 - The Shadowstorm Chronicles II: Shadow's Hand - Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Expansions

 * 2009 - The Shadowstorm Chronicles: Path of Shadow - Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
 * 2011 - The Shadowstorm Chronicles: The Great Battle - Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360

Other Games

 * 2006 - ''The Shadowstorm Chronicles: Dragon's Lance" - Windows, Mac