Child of Eden

Child of Eden is a 2011 musical rail shooter game developed by Q Entertainment and published by Ubisoft for Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. Following the player's journey to purge a far-future internet of viruses, the gameplay features shooting numerous enemies from a first-person perspective, with scores based on performance and bonuses awarded for syncing groups of shots with each stage's musical track. In addition to standard controllers, each version has the option to use motion controls through the Kinect and PlayStation Move respectively. It is a spiritual successor to the 2001 title Rez, carrying over the aim of producing a feeling of synesthesia in players.

The game was conceived by Q Entertainment founder Tetsuya Mizuguchi, and was his last major project with the company. Beginning production in 2008, it carried over Mizuguchi's gameplay philosophies from earlier titles. Motion controls were incorporated after production began. The music and sound production was led by Yuki Ichiki, and featured new and existing music from Genki Rockets, a music group co-created by Mizuguchi. The title met with positive reviews, and saw award nominations. Praise was directed towards its visuals and use of motion controls, while recurring complaints were focused on its short length. Eventually shipping 500,000 copies worldwide, Ubisoft was disappointed in its initial sales.

On August 26, 2025, Atari announced it had acquired all intellectual property rights for Child of Eden from Ubisoft. Atari plans to re-release the title on modern hardware.

Child of Eden is a musical rail shooter. The game is split into six levels called Archives: five make up the main campaign, with a sixth unlocked as a post-game challenge. Each level is replayable, changing each time depending on the player's performance and style of play in the previous run. The aim is to get through each Archive, defeat its boss, earning points and Stars to unlock more levels. In addition to standard controllers, each version uses motion controls as an alternative; the motion technology uses Kinect for Xbox 360 with different actions mapped to hand and arm movements, and PlayStation Move for PlayStation 3 incorporating swiping and stabbing motions with the control sticks.

Each Archive is played from a first-person on-rails perspective, with an aiming reticle, health meter, and a limited number of screen-clearing attacks dubbed Euphoria Bombs. The UI style and sound effects change depending on the Archive being played. During levels, the player is attacked by enemy viruses, which can be attacked in two ways; a lock-on missile attack, or a purple-colored rapid fire attack. Some enemies and attacks can only be stopped using the rapid fire. The lock-on missile can target up to eight enemies at once. If eight enemies are targeted, a score bonus is granted if players launch the attack in time to the Archive's music track. Use of the lock-on attack increases the player's score multiplier. Enemies that have been purified of viruses will occasionally drop health orbs or Euphoria Bombs. Using Euphoria Bombs negatively impacts the player's score, reducing their rank at the end of the level.

There are multiple difficulty levels available; Easy and Normal are available at the outset, while Hard is unlocked after completing the game on Normal. Easy allows players to go through levels without threat of damage from enemy attacks. On level completion, extras are unlocked for the player, mainly coming in the form of decorations for Lumi's Garden, a customizable home screen area. On achieving feats, other rewards can be unlocked, including concept art, music videos, and sound and visual options which alter levels. Additionally, players can post their scores into online leaderboards.

The narrative of Child of Eden is told primarily through its visuals and music. The game's events take place in the year 2219, hundreds of years after humanity has spread beyond Earth. The internet exists as a virtual realm holding all human knowledge called Eden. A project is underway to resurrect the personality of Lumi, the first person born in space, using her preserved memories split into the Archives. Viruses unexpectedly infect Eden and endanger Lumi's existence, with the player being tasked with cleansing Eden's Archives and saving both it and Lumi. Each section of Eden ends with a boss fight against a powerful virus holding a piece of Lumi's data. As Eden is purified of the viruses, Lumi's personality and memories are restored, allowing her to sing and flood Eden with positive emotion.

Child of Eden was developed by Q Entertainment. The game's concept was created Tetsuya Mizuguchi, who had worked at Sega on multiple projects including Space Channel 5 and Rez, the latter earning a cult status due to its graphics and music. After leaving Sega in 2003, Mizuguchi co-founded Q Entertainment and went on to produce the Lumines series, beginning with Lumines: Puzzle Fusion in 2004. During this period, Mizuguchi also created Genki Rockets, a music group to create music to his tastes, with their first major project being the music video "Heavenly Star". The reception to "Heavenly Star" prompted a live concert for Genki Rockets, and its mixture of visuals and sound inspired Mizuguchi to create a new project based around Genki Rockets and its fictional lead singer Lumi. The title shares several elements with Rez, and Mizuguchi described it as a spiritual successor. He described Child of Eden as a chance to develop multiple ideas that needed to be left out of Rez due to technical limitations or was not satisfied with. As with earlier titles, Mizuguchi wanted to promote a feeling of sensory immersion, encouraging a form of synesthesia within players. Production began in 2008.