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E3 2008: Raven hatching trio

Ultimate Alliance developer charged with development on Activision's X-Men Origins: Wolverine, Singularity, id Software's Wolfenstein.

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Raven Software has in recent years made its bones handling established properties. The Wisconsin-based developer has been a significant player in Activision's annualized Marvel Comics games, creating X-Men Legends in 2004, X-Men Legends II: Rise of the Apocalypse in 2005, and Marvel: Ultimate Alliance in 2006. The studio also played in longtime Activision development partner id Software's sandbox with Quake 4 in 2005.

Though not technically a part of this year's E3 Media & Business Summit, Activision and id Software said today that they would again be shopping out a handful of jobs to Raven Software. Beginning first with Activision's Marvel line, the publisher said today that Raven has been tasked with development duties on X-Men Origins: Wolverine. The game will be a spin-off tie-in to the 20th Centry Fox/Marvel feature film starring Hugh Jackman, but the publisher did not reveal additional details about the game.

Having successfully developed Quake 4, Raven was also revealed as the developer of id's revival of its seminal first-person shooter franchise Wolfenstein. First teased by id CEO Todd Hollenshead way back in February 2006, the tentatively titled Return to Castle Wolfenstein once again drops players into the role of all-American hero BJ Blazkowicz as he wages a one-man war on the supernatural sect within Nazi Germany's Third Reich.

As for new details, Activision said today that Wolfenstein will be a story-driven shooter that will be presented over the course of interlinked missions. The publisher also noted Wolfenstein will offer "class-based team objective gameplay," and online gamers will be afforded both conventional and supernatural weaponry. It is currently slated to arrive on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, and PC.

After its many years working in other people's sandboxes, Activision also said today that it would be tasking Raven with a new, original property. Titled Singularity, the game will be a sci-fi shooter that concerns itself with the dangers of ripping a hole in space-time. The game will reportedly feature an abundance of dank interiors. Activision revealed neither platforms nor a release window.

"We are extremely excited to be announcing a stellar line up of up our upcoming titles today," said Brain Raffel, studio head, Raven Software. "With high profile games like Wolfenstein and X-Men Origins: Wolverine in development, as well as an all new IP called Singularity, the team at Raven Software is committed to giving gamers intense and innovative entertainment experiences that they will want to play for years to come."

GameSpot will be on hand at Activision's non-E3 press conference to provide more details on these projects.

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