Quebec-based Beenox Inc. is the company behind a number of Aspyr Media Inc.’s recent Mac and PC game conversions. Up until now Beenox has preferred to stay behind the scenes, but on Thursday the company unveiled a new Web site that provides visitors with a lot more details about their up-and-coming plans.
Beenox has divided its efforts into two groups — Beenox Shift, which will continue doing game ports for Aspyr and, presumably, other publishers; as well as Beenox Score, the company’s own in-house original gaming division.
Beenox was responsible for Aspyr’s conversions of Tony Hawk’s Pro Skater 4, Kelly Slater’s Pro Surfer, Wakeboarding Unleashed Featuring Shaun Murray, and Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness. What’s more, they’re presently working on the Mac conversion of Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, due out next month.
Beenox Shift also noted that they have five other new game conversions in various stages of development, with four of those titles coming to the Macintosh as well. Beenox hasn’t released many details, outside of code-names: “Machoman,” “Deadly Jacket,” “LightPunk” and “FatMustard.” The last two are Mac-only games, according to the information available from Beenox Shift’s Web site.
Beenox uses some of their income from porting to fund original game development, and the company’s Score studio is working on an original title for Xbox and PlayStation 2, code-named “ShapeShifter.” Beenox recently announced that this game has reached its Beta development milestone and now is in “intensive testing.”
Beenox Score has developed its own proprietary 3D game engine which it is using for ShapeShifter, and hopes to use the engine for everything from strategy titles to first-person shooters to adventure platformers.
Visit the Web site for more details, and Beenox encourages gamers looking for the latest news to subscribe to their e-newsletter.