JoWooD

JoWooD Entertainment AG (formerly JoWooD Productions Software AG, commonly referred to as JoWooD) was an Austrian video game publisher that was founded in 1995. JoWooD went into administration in 2011 and all assets were purchased by Nordic Games.

Its games include the futuristic racing car game Beam Breakers which was released in 2002, action role-playing 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.

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.

In May 2000, JoWooD went public through the prime market section of the Vienna Stock Exchange. Earlier on in the year, they invested 15% in publisher Media Publishing GmbH & Co KG, and acquired the developer Wings Simulations. In September, they acquired NEON Software in Germany and Massive Development in December.

On 18 January 2001, JoWooD announced that it had purchased a 70% stake in Dynamic Systems, a video game distributor founded by JoWooD co-founder Andrea Tobler, with which they already distributed JoWooD's products in Austria and Central Europe. On the same day, JoWooD and Dynamic signed a three-year strategic alliance with French publisher Infogrames, where the company would exclusively distribute JoWooD's titles in Germany, France and Benelux territories while JoWooD and Dynamic would exclusively distribute Infogrames' titles in Austria. In May, JoWooD purchased German distributor Leisuresoft from Infogrames, which was acquired in the latter's purchase of Hasbro Interactive earlier in the year but wasn't needed by Infogrames, which already had a German distribution unit. In August, the company secured a distribution deal with Disney Interactive to distribute their PC titles in German-speaking territories.

JoWooD suffered from heavy financial losses at the beginning of 2002 and was almost close to filing for insolvency. In May 2002, JoWooD announced the acquisition of Ravensburger Interactive Media and its core publishing label Fishtank Interactive from Ravensburger AG. With these acquisitions, JoWooD became the largest German video game company and would allow the publisher to enter the family-friendly market.

For 2003, JoWooD announced that they would pull out of the in-house distribution and sales business. They would sell Dynamic Systems to Koch Media in August. With this deal, Koch secured exclusive distribution rights to JoWooD products in Austria. Earlier in January, JoWooD entered into a deal with Encore Software to distribute nine of JoWooD's titles in North America.

On 8 April 2004, they expanded their distribution agreement with Koch to include Germany, Switzerland, Italy and the United Kingdom.

In January 2005, JoWooD exited the game development industry and shuttered all of their in-house studios. JoWooD Ebensee and Wings Simulations closed in January and Massive Development followed suit in May. In May, JoWooD signed a distribution deal with Nobilis for distribution of titles in Spain and Portugal. In August, they attempted to end their development agreement with developer Perception Pty because of a lack of quality on their "Stargate SG-1" product. JoWooD carried out this action believing they owned the licence for the game Stargate SG-1: The Alliance, which was disputed by Perception. In October, they once again extended their distribution deal with Koch Media to include co-publication of select JoWooD titles under the Deep Silver label.

Acquisition of DreamCatcher Games, formation of the JoWooD Group, and Insolvency (2006-2011)

On 4 November 2006, JoWooD announced the acquisition of DreamCatcher Games, in efforts to move to the North American game markets.

Throughout 2006-2007, JoWooD entered into several physical distribution agreements. In December 2006, Eidos Interactive secured the rights to distribute JoWooD titles in France, Spain and Benelux territories, while in January 2007, Pinnacle Software secured distribution rights in the United Kingdom. In August 2007, the JoWooD Group formed a budget casual game label named GS-Line.

In October 2009, JoWooD changed its name from JoWooD Productions Software AG to JoWooD Entertainment AG. At the same time, JoWood also announced an agreement with Valve to make available future JoWooD titles on Steam. It owned five subsidiaries in the last years: DreamCatcher Interactive, JoWooD Distribution Services, JoWooD Deutschland, JoWooD Iberica and Quantic Lab.

In May 2010, JoWooD entered into a deal with HMH to distribute and publish the Playmobil Interactive line of products globally except in Germany, while in the US they would be released by DreamCatcher.

On 7 January 2011, JoWooD officially filed for bankruptcy and announced that the company would prepare for "a procedure of capital reorganization". 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. In June 2011, JoWooD Entertainment, all their assets and its subsidiary, Quantic Lab, was acquired by Nordic Games. From this point on, JoWooD was no longer operating. All activities of the two companies were taken over by Nordic Games. On 16 August 2011, Nordic Games announced that it had acquired JoWooD's products and brands and some of the companies labels, including The Adventure Company. Following the acquisition, it was announced that JoWood and the Adventure Company would become publishing labels for Nordic Games, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nordic Games Holding.

Games published