Novel, Inc.: History and Key Facts

Novel, Inc. is a video game studio and enterprise simulation developer, based in Kirkland, Washington, United States. Novel is known for being both a traditional video game developer and bridging the gaming and business world with enterprise simulations.

The latter work, being deemed by press as "The Matrix for businesses," was ranked by The Huffington Post as one of the Top 30 Most Underrated Innovations of 2010 at #18 between Gmail #19 and the iPad #17.

Novel is led by a leadership team made up of video game industry veterans from EA, Microsoft, Bungie, Turbine, Big Fish and Playdom. Novel was founded by the young American entrepreneur Brayden Olson who continues to be the company’s chief executive.

The company's first major videogame release, Empire & State was released November, 2011. Empire & State is a massively multi-player game offering a completely dynamic world controlled by players. In one interview with Lead Designer Mike Marr, it is described as "Civilization 5 with hundreds of players fighting Risk-style on a hex map, but with the focus on politics and economy".

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