In the wake of Ritual Entertainment’s acquisition by casual games developer MumboJumbo, the fate of the SiN Episodes has been up in the air since the departure of Ritual from the AAA games market. Since Sin Episodes: Emergence was released on May 10, 2006, it’s been quite some time since we received any word regarding the second episode. With the acquisition of Ritual Entertainment, speculation ran rampant about the future of the franchise. In an interview with Ritualistic, Ritual game designer Levelord set some rumors to rest.
The SiN Episodes are on-hold until Ritual develops some new titles for MumboJumbo and establishes itself in the casual games market. Emergence did sell enough to pay for itself, with over 150,000 units sold, but not enough funding was gained to pay for the second episode. Ritual ran over-budget during Emergence, causing a funding problem during the development of Episode 2–thusly putting it on-hold.
As for casual games development, Ritual will be able to develop and release multiple games every year for various platforms. Titles haven’t yet been announced, but they are expected for the various download services on consoles; Xbox Live Arcade, PlayStation Network, and Wii, along for handhelds and the PC.
The current CEO of MumboJumbo, Ron Dimant, was the CEO of Ritual from 1998 to 2001. When he left in 2001 to form MumboJumbo, it was announced as a "splitting of Ritual into two companies." With the acquisition of both companies, Ritual has been rejoined once again.
