Bohemia Interactive

Bohemia Interactive a.s.
Private
Industry Computer and video games
Interactive entertainment
Founded 1999
Headquarters Prague, Czech Republic
Key people
 Marek Španěl (CEO), Ondřej Španěl, Dean Hall
Products Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis
ARMA series
DayZ
Number of employees
 Over 160[1]
Subsidiaries Altar Games
Black Element Software
Centauri Production
Website http://www.bistudio.com/

Bohemia Interactive (BI), also known as Bohemia Interactive Studio (BIS), is an independent developer and publisher of video games, based in Prague, Czech Republic. Founded in 1999, the company's CEO is Marek Španěl, who is also the co-owner of the company.

Bohemia Interactive is a member of IDEA Games, which functions as a publisher and consultant for several independent developers.

Operation Flashpoint

Bohemia's release of Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis in 2001 into the international market won BI several prestigious awards. At London's ECTS show of 2001, BI won the "Best PC Game Developer of the Year" award. In addition, BI was also awarded "Rookie Studio of the Year" at GDC 2002.

The debut game of BI, published by Codemasters, immediately became the top selling game in the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia, Czech Republic and other countries. After this success BI 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.

Products

Title Type System Release Date Engine Developed Published
Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis Standalone Windows June 2001 Real Virtuality 1 Yes No
Operation Flashpoint: Gold Edition Standalone Windows November 2001 Real Virtuality 1 Yes No
Operation Flashpoint: Resistance Expansion Windows June 2002 Real Virtuality 1 Yes No
Operation Flashpoint: GOTY Edition Standalone Windows November 2002 Real Virtuality 1 Yes No
Operation Flashpoint: Elite Standalone Xbox October 2005 Real Virtuality 2 Yes No
ARMA: Armed Assault (worldwide) ARMA: Combat Operations (US) Standalone Windows November 2006 (Czech Republic/Germany), February 2007 (Europe), May 2007 (US) Real Virtuality 2 Yes
ARMA: Queen's Gambit Expansion Windows September 2007 (EU) Real Virtuality 2 Yes No
Alpha Prime[2] Standalone Windows November 2007 Enforce Yes
ARMA 2 Standalone Windows June 2009 Real Virtuality 3 Yes
Pat & Mat[3] Standalone Windows October 2009 N/A No Yes
ARMA 2: Operation Arrowhead Standalone Windows June 2010 Real Virtuality 3 Yes No
ARMA 2: British Armed Forces DLC Windows August 2010 Real Virtuality 3 Yes No
ARMA 2: Private Military Company DLC Windows November 2010 Real Virtuality 3 Yes No
Alternativa[4] Standalone Windows November 2010 N/A Yes
Pound of Ground[5] Standalone Windows November 2010 N/A Yes Acquired
ARMA 2: Firing Range Standalone Android & iOS July 2011 Yes Yes
Take On Helicopters Standalone Windows October 2011 Real Virtuality 3 Yes Yes
Take On Helicopters: Hinds DLC Windows March 2012 Real Virtuality 3 Yes Yes
ARMA 2: Army of the Czech Republic DLC Windows August 2012 Real Virtuality 3 Yes No
Carrier Command: Gaea Mission Standalone Windows, Xbox 360 September 2012 Enforce Yes Yes
Memento Mori[6] Standalone Windows November 2012 N/A No Yes Acquired
Fish Fillets 2[7] Standalone Windows November 2012 N/A Yes
ARMA Tactics Standalone Shield Portable May 2013 Unity [8] Yes Yes
ARMA 3 Standalone Windows September 2013[9] Real Virtuality 4 Yes Yes
Take On Mars Standalone Windows Final: TBA
Early Access: 1 August 2013[10] 		Enforce[11] Yes Yes
DayZ Standalone Windows, Playstation 4 Final: TBA
Early Access: 16 December 2013 		Enfusion Yes Yes
MiniDayZ[12] Standalone Windows 21 November 2014 - No Yes

Bohemia Interactive Simulations

Bohemia Interactive Australia (BIA) is a spinoff studio and was formed by BI and David Lagettie, where the joint development of a special military training simulation program, VBS1, began in December 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 21 May 2004, VBS1 underwent limited public distribution. On 14 August 2004 it was released for North America; distribution was handled by Coalescent Technologies. In 2008 most of development operations were moved to Prague, Czech Republic under newly formed Bohemia Interactive Simulations. Subsequently BIA was integrated as Asia-Pacific arm of Bohemia Interactive Simulations and Pete Morrison, previously Lead Developer, was appointed CEO. The company was acquired by The Riverside Company, a New York-based private equity firm, in January 2013.

Training programs

Services for professionals

The studio operates multiple high-end optical motion capture facilities equipped with leading motion analysis technology, such as Vicon, Vivid-900 3D scanner by Minolta, a RED One camera, lighting and related computer equipment. The technology is available for hire and was used in various in-house and external projects (e.g. Wanted, Universe at War: Earth Assault, Assassin's Creed 2).

Also, BI offers output data from its unique LINDA, software used to generate 3D models of trees and bushes specifically adjusted for real-time simulations and games.

Staff arrest on Lemnos

As reported by Greek media[14] on 10 September 2012, two Czech nationals were arrested on Lemnos and charged with espionage. They claimed to be working for Bohemia Interactive collecting pictures[14][15] and video footage for the development of Arma 3. The individuals, Ivan Buchta and Martin Pezlar,[16] were confirmed employees of Bohemia Interactive, but the company officially stated that they were on the island "with the sole purpose of experiencing the island's beautiful surroundings".[17]

According to Greek law, taking photographs et cetera of military installations is strictly prohibited for reasons of national security[18] and that the issue of the game causing potential threats to Greek national security was brought officially to the Greek Parliament and was discussed before in 2011.[19] After the arrest incident, Bohemia Interactive shut down access[20] to a thread named Greek Military started on 1 August 2012, on their official forum warning them and discussing legal and other problems concerning photographing and realistically depicting Greek military installations.

As of 15 January 2013, the detained BI employees were released on bail of 5000 Euro each.[21] The employees returned home to their families and await further legal action.

References

  1. ↑ "Company Brochure". BIStudio. Retrieved 21 May 2014.
  2. ↑ "Alpha Prime". Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  3. ↑ "Pat & Mat". Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  4. ↑ "Alternativa". Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  5. ↑ "Pound of Ground". Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  6. ↑ "Memento Mori". Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  7. ↑ "Fish Fillets 2". Retrieved 9 August 2013.
  8. ↑ "ARMA Tactics engine".
  9. ↑ "ARMA 3 Release Date". 8 August 2013. Retrieved 8 August 2013.
  10. ↑ "Take On Mars Release Date". 17 July 2013. Retrieved 3 August 2013.
  11. ↑ "Conformation of Enforce game engine". 18 June 2013. Retrieved 3 August 2013.
  12. ↑ Mailberg, Emanuel. "DayZ Dev Releases MiniDayZ, a Free, 2D Version of the Game". GameSpot. Retrieved 24 November 2014.
  13. ↑ . 3 July 2013 http://bisimulations.com/content/thu-07032014-2311/bohemia-interactive-simulations-releases-vbs3-v34. Retrieved 7 July 2014. Missing or empty |title= (help)
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 "Κατηγορούμενοι για κατασκοπεία δύο Τσέχοι που συνελήφθησαν στη Λήμνο (translation: Two Czech nationals arrested on Lemnos accused of espionage)". In.gr. 10 September 2012. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  15. ↑ "Greek police arrest two Czech men over suspected spying". ceskenoviny.cz. 11 September 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
  16. ↑ "Κατασκοπία, παιχνίδι ή και τα δυο; (translation: Epsionage, game or both?)". To Proto Thema. 11 September 2012. Retrieved 15 September 2012.
  17. ↑ "Game makers arrested over alleged spying in Greece". BBC. 13 September 2012. Retrieved 15 September 2012.
  18. ↑ 1.(Greek) Penal Code, article 149;in Greek : Ποινικός Κώδικας, άρθρο 149,
    2.(Greek) Compulsory Law 376/1936;in Greek with title,date and index details: Αναγκαστικός Νόμος 376/1936 «Περί μέτρων ασφαλείας οχυρών θέσεων», ΦΕΚ 546, Τεύχος Α', 18/12/1936 and
    3.(Greek) Legislative Decree 397/1947; in Greek with title,date and index details: Νομοθετικό διάταγμα 397/1947 «Περί προσθήκης διατάξεων εις το άρθρον 1 του Α.Ν. 376/1936 «περί μέτρων ασφαλείας οχυρών θέσεων»», ΦΕΚ 181, Τεύχος Α', 21/08/1947.
  19. ↑ "Πεδίο μάχης η Λήμνος στο ARMA 3 (translation: Lemnos a battlefield in ARMA 3)". I Kathimerini. 25 October 2011. Retrieved 15 September 2012.
  20. ↑ "ArmA dev confirms: staff arrested, accused of spying by Greek authorities". Eurogamer. 11 September 2012. Retrieved 17 September 2012.
  21. ↑ "Ivan & Martin Free on bail". 15 January 2013. Retrieved 3 August 2013.

External links