Bohemia Interactive Studio
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Bohemia Interactive Studio (BIS) is an independent computer and console game developer based in Prague, the Czech Republic. BIS currently employs over 30 game developers in their Prague based research and development studio. The company is managed by Marek Španěl (b. 1973), who is also co-owner of the company.
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[edit] Operation Flashpoint
The release of Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis in 2001 into the international market won BIS several prestigious awards. At London's ECTS show of 2001, BIS won the "Best PC Game Developer of the Year" award. In addition, BIS was also awarded "Rookie Studio of the Year" at GDC 2002.
The debut game of BIS, published by Codemasters, immediately became the top selling game in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia, Czech Republic and other countries. After this success BIS prepared a special US version of the game which launched in September 2001 and it also became one of the best selling games in the USA.
After OFP was released, the official expansion packs came onto the game market, officially titled Red Hammer and Resistance which brought significant engine updates. The development team continued (until 2005) to support the game with regularly released upgrades and patches over the Internet.
An Xbox version of Operation Flashpoint containing both original and the resistance campaign was released in November 2005. It was released under the name Operation Flashpoint: Elite.
[edit] Bohemia Interactive Australia
The spinoff studio Bohemia Interactive Australia (BIA) was formed by BIS and David Lagettie, where joint development of a special military training simulation program, VBS1, began in December of 2001. After thorough testing and field use (in cooperation with United States Marine Corps), VBS1 was made available in the fall of 2002 for qualified government clients and military organizations. On May 21 2004, VBS1 underwent limited public distribution. On August 14, 2004 it was released for North America; distribution was handled by Coalescent Technologies.
[edit] Current work
Bohemia interactive is currently working on two sequels for Operation Flashpoint: Armed Assault and a project known as "Game 2" (sometimes either of these games is referred to as Operation Flashpoint 2 but it's unlikely such a title will be used as does not own the rights to the title "Operation Flashpoint" and Bohemia Interactive is no longer cooperating with its former publisher Codemasters that owns the trade mark.) Armed Assault has currently been released in the Czech Republic, United Kingdom and Germany, and is set for a worldwide release in Q1 2007.
[edit] Released games/expansion packs
- Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis (Microsoft Windows) - June 2001
- Operation Flashpoint: Gold Edition (Windows) - November 2001
- Operation Flashpoint: Resistance (Windows) - June 2002
- Operation Flashpoint: GOTY Edition (Windows) - November 2002
- Operation Flashpoint: Elite (Xbox) - October 2005
- ArmA: Armed Assault (Windows) - November 2006
- VBS1 (Windows) - November 2006 - 2002 , 2004 (worldwide)
[edit] Upcoming games
- "Game 2" (working title) - Expected release is unknown