JoWooD Entertainment

JoWooD Entertainment AG
Industry Computer and video game industry
Fate Publishing label of Nordic Games GmbH
Founded 1995
Founders Andreas Tobler, Hans Schilcher
Defunct 2011
Headquarters Rottenmann, Austria
Products Gothic series
Painkiller series
SpellForce series
The Guild series
Owner Independent (Aktiengesellschaft)
(1995–2011)

JoWooD Entertainment AG was an Austrian computer game publisher of video games, founded in 1995 by Andreas Tobler. In 2011 the company went into administration and all assets were purchased by Nordic Games Holding. The JoWooD Entertainment brand is currently being used as a publishing label for Nordic Games GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nordic Games Holding.

Their games include the futuristic racing car game Beam Breakers which was released in 2002, action roleplaying games in the Gothic series, the Spellforce series, and the Industry Giant series of games. Other titles include Transport Giant, World War III: Black Gold, The Sting!, Hotel Giant, and other games of the Giants series. They also released Sam & Max and Neighbours from Hell. They also worked on AquaNox: Angel's Tears for the PlayStation 2.

History

JoWooD Productions Software AG was founded in 1995 in Ebensee by Dieter Bernauer, Johann Reitinger, Johann Schilcher and Andreas Tobler with its headquarters later moved to Liezen, Austria. It owned five subsidiaries in the last years: DreamCatcher Interactive, JoWooD Distribution Services, JoWooD Deutschland, JoWooD Iberica and Quantic Lab.

In August 2005, JoWood attempted to end their development agreement with developer Perception Pty because of a lack of quality on their "Stargate SG-1" product.[1] JoWood carried out this action believing they owned the licence for the game Stargate SG-1: The Alliance, which was disputed by Perception.[2] On 4 November 4, 2006, JoWooD announced the acquisition of DreamCatcher Games, in efforts to move to the North American gaming markets.[3] In October 2009 it was announced that JoWooD has changed its name from JoWooD Productions Software AG to JoWooD Entertainment AG.[4] At the same time JoWood also announced an agreement has been established between them and Valve Corporation to make future JoWooD titles available via Steam.[4]

On 7 January 2011, JoWooD officially filed for bankruptcy and announced that the company would prepare for "a procedure of capital reorganization".[5] However on 21 April 2011, JoWooD announced that, unable to negotiate with potential investors, they were officially facing bankruptcy proceedings and had withdrawn their application for a recapitalization plan.[6] In June 2011, JoWooD Entertainment all their assets and its subsidiary, Quantic Lab, was acquired by Nordic Games Holding AB. From this point on, JoWooD was no longer operating. All activities of the two companies were taken over by Nordic Games Holding.[7] On August 16, 2011 Nordic Games Holding announced that it had acquired JoWooD's products and brands and some of the companies labels, including The Adventure Company.[8] Following the acquisition it was announced that JoWood and the The Adventure Company would become publishing labels for Nordic Games GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nordic Games Holding.[9]

In April 2013, Nordic Games GmbH acquired the remaining properties still owned by the bankrupt American video game publisher THQ as part of the company's liquidation, including the Darksiders, Red Faction, and MX vs. ATV franchises. Nordic has stated it plans to find new distribution channels for some of its newly acquired properties, and is considering the third-party development of sequels.[10]

In the year 2014 the company Touchit Studio entered into a partnership with JoWood Entertainment, and rewriting all the rights of the game Neighbours From Hell in the distribution and editing in the Company Touchit Studio.

Touchit Studio was founded in Germany in the year 2009 by programmer and teacher John Doe.

Games published

References

  1. ↑ Jowood Terminates Development Agreement with Perception - PC News at GameSpot
  2. ↑ "Video Games, Wikis, Cheats, Walkthroughs, Reviews, News & Videos - IGN". IGN. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  3. ↑ "Aktuelle Aussendungen". euro adhoc - IR-Kommunikation. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 "Rietumu Guide". Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  5. ↑ GameZone. "JoWooD Entertainment Files for Bankruptcy". Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  6. ↑ "JoWood: Sanierungsverfahren gescheitert, Publisher ist am Ende". PC GAMES. Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  7. ↑ "JoWooD - Now Swedish … sort of! - RPGWatch Forums". Retrieved 16 April 2015.
  8. ↑ "JoWooD & The Adventure Company, wholly owned labels of Nordic Games GmbH.". Nordic Games. Archived from the original on 2011-08-17. Retrieved 2011-08-17.
  9. ↑ "Nordic Games Holding AB Group Acquires JoWood & The Adventure Company". Nordic Games. 2011-08-16. Archived from the original on 2011-08-17. Retrieved 2011-08-17.
  10. ↑ "The future of Darksiders, Red Faction and THQ's other IP at Nordic Games". Polygon. Retrieved 23 April 2013.
  11. ↑ "Alien Nations - PC". IGN. Retrieved 9 December 2013.

External links