Koch Media
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| Koch Media | |
|---|---|
| Type | Ltd. |
| Founded | 1994 |
| Headquarters |  Hampshire, United Kingdom, UK |
| Key people | Craig McNicol, CEO |
| Industry | Interactive entertainment |
| Revenue | ▲€ 231 million (2007) |
| Employees | 300+ (2008) |
| Website | Koch Media official website |
Koch Media is a media enterprise started in 1994 by Franz Koch and Dr. Klemenz Kundratitz. Today, it employs more than three hundred people.
Koch Media is a leading producer and marketer of digital entertainment including software, games, cinema and DVDs. Sales, marketing and distribution stretch right across Europe and, since April 2008, the USA. With its head office in Planegg, Munich, Koch Media has offices in Germany, England, France, Austria, Switzerland, Italy and the USA. As a producer of computer games, Koch Media goes by the name Deep Silver.
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[edit] History
- 1994: Founding of the group Koch Media Holding, Hoefen (Austria), and establishment of subsidiaries in United Kingdom, Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
- 1995: Signs exclusive distribution contracts with National Geographic, and EMME Interactive. Publishes first “multimedia titles”
- 1996: Signs exclusive distribution contracts with Peter Gabriels “realworld studios”, Letts, and Hutchinson Encyclopaedia
- 1997: Moves to 30,000 sq. ft. office and warehouse facilities in Basingstoke. Signs exclusive contracts with Cybermedia (later acquired by Mcafee).
- 1998: Moves into games distribution for the first time signing an exclusive distribution deal with Blue Byte (later acquired by Ubisoft) for its renowned Settlers series.
- 1999: Appointed by Dixons Stores as its partner for software referrals whereby all new software is recommended to be supplied by Koch Media.
- 2000: Signs the London Racer series from Davilex. The series will go on to sell over 1 million units in UK retail. Appointed as Lego Media’s exclusive UK distributor. Appointed as Steinbergs exclusive partner in the UK.
- 2000: Opening of Koch Media srl in Italy.
- 2001: Appointed by Nintendo as a distribution partner for the UK.
- 2002: Deep Silver established as a hard core gaming publisher, with its first title developed by the Bitmap Brothers. Acquires the Europress company from Atari.
- 2003: Signs distribution deal with Ascaron.
- 2004: Signs CDV, JoWooD, Phantagram and Webroot exclusively. Deep Silver launches X2 and Singles.
- 2005: Deep Silver publishes its first console titles, Europress announce collaboration with Nestle to publish a “Smarties” branded game on Playstation 2. Also sign exclusive distribution contracts with Onspeed and the Roland owned music software company “Cakewalk”. Koch Media finishes the year as the 19th largest publisher in the UK.
- 2005: Takeover of the French company “SG Diffussion” and conversion to KOCH Media SAS in Paris, France by 1st January 2006.
- 2006: Koch Media appointed as Nintendo’s preferred distribution partner in the UK.
- 2007: Deep Silver Vienna is born. The former Rockstar Vienna team concentrates on the production of high-quality titles for consoles.
- 2008: Koch Media opens a North America office in Los Angeles. This office serves as the center of sales and marketing activity in North America, as well as a conduit to developers there.
[edit] Business Domains
- MARKETING AND SALE OF DIGITAL MEDIA THROUGH ALL CHANNELS
Since 1994, Koch Media has had exclusive and non-exclusive sales rights to the marketing and sale of games and consumer software products to its customers, and advanced to become the market leader in Germany and Austria.
- DEVELOPMENT AND PUBLISHING OF GAMES AND CONSUMER SOFTWARE
Under the name of Deep Silver, a label created in 2002, Koch Media has brought games in several genres onto the market: from space sims to building and household sims, life sims, action games, racing games to role-play games, PC and console games.
[edit] Studio
In 2007, Deep Silver Vienna was started by the founders of the Rockstar Vienna team, and concentrates primarily on developing and producing full-price titles for consoles.
[edit] Partners
The company's own sales activities, marketing and distribution extend throughout Europe, and it has formed strategic alliances with numerous software and games manufacturers: Ascaron, Braingame, D3P, G-Data, Gamelife, Kaspersky Lab, Lexware, Namco Bandai, Pinnacle, Square Enix, Sony Online Entertainment, System3, etc.
