JoWooD Entertainment AG (formerly JoWooD Productions Software AG, commonly referred to as JoWooD) was an

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

video game publisher A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that have been developed either internally by the publisher or externally by a video game developer. They often finance the development, sometimes by paying a video game developer ...

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 game An action role-playing game (often abbreviated action RPG or ARPG) is a subgenre of video games that combines core elements from both the action game and role-playing genre. Definition The games emphasize real-time combat where the playe ...

s in the ''

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'' series, the '' SpellForce'' series, and the ''

Industry Giant ''Industry Giant'' is a business simulation game for Windows. In 2002 a sequel, '' Industry Giant II'', was released. Gameplay Reception The game received "unfavorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic. However, ...

'' 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,

. It owned five subsidiaries in the last years: DreamCatcher Interactive, JoWooD Distribution Services, JoWooD Deutschland, JoWooD Iberica and Quantic Lab. In May 2002, JoWooD acquired Ravensburger Interactive and its sister company Fishtank Interactive. 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. JoWooD carried out this action believing they owned the licence for the game Stargate SG-1: The Alliance, which was disputed by Perception. On 4 November 2006, JoWooD announced the acquisition of DreamCatcher Games, in efforts to move to the North American game markets. In January 2007, JoWooD announced a UK distribution agreement with Pinnacle Software to allow the latter to distribute JoWooD's titles. 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 A valve is a device or natural object that regulates, directs or controls the flow of a fluid (gases, liquids, fluidized solids, or slurries) by opening, closing, or partially obstructing various passageways. Valves are technically fitting ...

to make available future JoWooD titles on

Steam Steam is a substance containing water in the gas phase, and sometimes also an aerosol of liquid water droplets, or air. This may occur due to evaporation or due to boiling, where heat is applied until water reaches the enthalpy of vaporizat ...

. 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 The Adventure Company was a Canadian video game developer and a former publishing division of DreamCatcher Interactive. It was sold to THQ Nordic GmbH THQ Nordic GmbH (formerly Nordic Games GmbH) is an Austrian video game publisher based in ...

. 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

References

{{Authority control Economy of Styria THQ Nordic Video game companies established in 1995 Video game companies disestablished in 2011 Defunct video game companies of Austria Video game publishers Austrian companies established in 1995 2011 disestablishments in Austria