Kalypso Media

The Kalypso Media Group is a German developer and publisher of video games. Founded in 2006 in Worms, Germany, Kalypso has grown and now includes four additional sister companies in Germany, England and the United States. It further owns three internal game studios, Realmforge Studios, Gaming Minds Studios, and Claymore Game Studios, while also working with third party studios. Kalypso is best known as the publishers of the Tropico, Sudden Strike, Dungeons and Railway Empire series in addition to others.

Kalypso Media GmbH
Games publisher & developer
IndustryVideo games
Founded2006
HeadquartersWorms, Germany
Key people
Simon Hellwig
Stefan Marcinek
Number of employees
80[1] (2020)
Websitewww.kalypsomedia.com

History

The Kalypso Media Group was founded in the summer of 2006 by Simon Hellwig and Stefan Marcinek in Worms. Just one year later, a branch was opened in Bracknell, UK, and in June 2009, another in Ridgewood, USA. 2009, the group opened its second UK outlet in the form of Kalypso Media Digital Ltd. in Leicester. Kalypso Media Digital Ltd. is responsible for the online marketing of its own games and the products of other providers.

In November 2008, it founded the subsidiary Realmforge Studios GmbH, based in Munich, and integrated Boxed Dreams, developer of Ceville.[2] At the same time, it acquired the rights to the Tropico series from Take Two Interactive, with the first Kalypso-published game in the series being Tropico 3.[2]

UK-based Ascaron filed for bankruptcy in April 2009. Kalypso was able to acquire rights to its series DarkStar One, Patrician and Port Royale in June 2009, though left other assets like the Sacred series with Ascaron.[3] Kalypso also acquired fifteen former Ascaron employees to establish its second internal studio, Gaming Minds Studio, in Gütersloh, of which they held 60% ownership, the other 40% owned by Daniel Dumont and Kay Struve, former Ascaron employees that were named to run Gaming Minds.[4][5]

In July 2010, Berlin manufacturer The Games Company (TGC) filed for bankruptcy and in September, Kalypso took over, acquiring several brands owned by the insolvent company. Kalypso also brought in TGC's internal studio Silver Style Entertainment and created a third internal studio, Noumena Studios in Berlin.[6] The studio was rebranded as Skilltree Studios in 2014, but in March 2016, Kalypso opted to close the studio.[7]

Kalypso founded a sister company for mobile gaming development, Kalypso Media Mobile, in April 2014 in Berlin.[8] The studio’s first mobile and tablet games were released a year later in May 2015.

In January 2016, Stefan Marcinek sold his shares in the Kalypso and left the company, leaving Simon Hellwig as sole shareholder.[9]

Kalypso acquired the Commandos, Imperial Glory, and Praetorians series from Pyro Studios in July 2018. Pyro, whose work has been more focused on supporting Ilion Animation Studios, welcomed Kalypso's opportunity to bring their titles back to the market.[10] Kalypso later announced high-definition remasters of Commandos 2 and Praetorians for early 2020,[11] and the formation of its third internal studio, Claymore Game Studios, to develop new games in the Commandos series.[12] The company fully acquired the remaining ownership of Gaming Minds from Dumont and Struve in June 2020, with Dumont and Struve still remaining as the studio leads.[5]

Subsidiaries

Kalypso maintains several of its own development studios:

  • Realmforge Studios was established in Munich in November 2008 incorporating the team of Boxed Dreams who had developed Ceville.[2] Realmforge oversees development on the Dungeons series of games
  • Gaming Minds Studios was established in Gütersloh in June 2009 following the bankruptcy of Ascaron, incorporating fifteen Ascaron developers into the team.[4] Gaming Minds develops games in the Railway Empire and Port Royale series.
  • Claymore Game Studios was established in Darmstadt in December 2019, and is working on a new game in the Commandos series.[13][12]

Notable games published
Release date Title Notes
2020 Spacebase Startopia
2020 Port Royale 4
2020 Immortal Realms: Vampire Wars
2019 Tropico 6
2018 Shadows: Awakening
2018 Railway Empire
2017 Dungeons 3
2017 Vikings: Wolves of Midgard
2017 Sudden Strike 4
2017 Urban Empire
2015 Crookz: The Big Heist
2015 Grand Ages: Medieval
2015 Dungeons 2
2014 Tropico 5
2013 Dark
2013 Rise of Venice
2013 Alien Spidey
2013 Dollar Dash
2013 Omerta - City of Gangsters
2012 Anna
2012 Sine Mora
2012 Legends of Pegasus
2012 Hard Reset: Extended Edition
2012 Port Royale 3
2012 Jurassic Park: The Game
2012 Jagged Alliance: Back in Action
2011 Global Ops: Commando Libya
2011 Airline Tycoon II
2011 Air Conflicts: Secret Wars
2011 Tropico 4
2011 Boulder Dash XL
2011 Revolution Under Siege
2011 Patrician IV: Rise of a Dynasty
2011 The First Templar
2011 Elements of War
2011 Dungeons
2011 Dungeons - The Dark Lord
2010 Disciples III
2010 Pole Position 2010
2010 DarkStar One: Broken Alliance (Xbox 360)
2010 Patrician IV: Conquest by Trade
2010 Darkfall Online Distribution only
2010 M.U.D. TV
2009 Tropico 3
2009 Time of Shadows
2009 Dawn of Magic 2
2009 Ceville
2009 Grand Ages: Rome
2008 Winter Challenge 2008
2008 AGON - The Lost Sword of Toledo
2008 Imperium Romanum
2008 Political Machine 2008
2008 Racing Team Manager
2007 Jack Keane
2007 Hollywood Pictures 2
2007 Campus
2007 Star Assault
2007 Theatre of War
gollark: You are NEVER done sorting.
gollark: I've still got the ND, if you want that at all...?
gollark: That's the one time a nocturne has actually looked kind of good.
gollark: VRAM isn't as easily replaceable as actual RAM, so it'd probably be downloadmoregpu.
gollark: I don't think downloadmorevram exists.

References
  1. Fröhlich, Petra (10 January 2020). "Die größten Spiele-Entwickler in Deutschland 2020" [The largest game developers in Germany 2020]. GamesWirtschaft (in German).
  2. Jenkins, David (8 November 2008). "Kalypso Forms Realmforge Studios, Acquires Tropico 3". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  3. Jenkins, David (4 July 2009). "Kalypso grabs Ascaron assets, founds new studio". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  4. Cifaldi, Frank (19 June 2009). "Ascaron vets form new Gaming Minds studio". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  5. Kerr, Chris (9 June 2020). "Kalypso Media has acquired Port Royale developer Gaming Mind Studios". Gamasutra. Retrieved 9 June 2020.
  6. Graff, Kris (22 September 2010). "Kalypso Acquires Action RPG Demonicon, Other IP From The Games Company". Gamasutra. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  7. Günther, Von Yves (30 March 2016). "Skilltree Studios - Kalypso schließt Berliner Studio". Gameswelt.de (in German). Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  8. Handrahan, Matthew (3 April 2014). "Kalypso Media launches mobile arm". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  9. "Hellwig buys out Marcinek in Kalypso MBO". MCV/Develop. 5 January 2016. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  10. Donnelly, Joe (12 July 2018). "Commandos acquired by Kalypso Media, plans 'completely new games'". PC Gamer. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  11. Wales, Matt (13 November 2019). "Commandos 2, Praetorians HD remasters get January release date on PC". Eurogamer. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  12. Handrahan, Matthew (2 April 2020). "Third internal Kalypso studio revealed as Claymore Game Studios". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
  13. Blake, Vikki (11 December 2019). "Kalypso Media opens new studio in Frankfurt". MCV/Develop. Retrieved 2 April 2020.
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