Daedalic Entertainment GmbH is a German

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a large ...

and

publisher Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

based in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

. They are best known for developing

point-and-click adventure game An adventure game is a video game genre in which the player assumes the role of a protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and/or Puzzle video game, puzzle-solving. The Video game genres, genre's focus on story allows it to draw ...

History

Daedalic Entertainment was founded on 1 March 2007 in a small

office by

chief executive officer A chief executive officer (CEO), also known as a central executive officer (CEO), chief administrator officer (CAO) or just chief executive (CE), is one of a number of corporate executives charged with the management of an organization especiall ...

(CEO) Carsten Fichtelmann and

creative director A creative director (or creative supervisor) is a person who makes high-level creative decisions and, with those decisions, oversees the creation of creative assets such as advertisements, products, events, or logos. Creative director positions ar ...

Jan Müller-Michaelis. Prior to founding Daedalic, Fichtelmann was

marketing director A chief marketing officer (CMO), also called a global marketing officer or marketing director, or chief brand officer, is a corporate executive responsible for managing marketing activities in an organization. Whilst historically these titles may ...

for German publisher DTP Entertainment. Shortly afterwards, the adventure game ''1½ Knights – In Search of the Ravishing Princess Herzelinde'' was developed, named after the same film. On 28 August 2009, the adventure game ''

The Whispered World ''The Whispered World'' is a point-and-click adventure game for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It is designed by Marco Hüllen, developed by Daedalic Entertainment, and published by Deep Silver in Europe and by Viva Media in the United States ...

'' followed and the adventure title '' A New Beginning'', which focuses on climate change, was published on 8 October 2010. In 2011, the sequel to '' Edna & Harvey: The Breakout'' was released with the title ''Harvey’s New Eyes''. A year later, a new adventure named '' Deponia'' was released to the market, which received several awards as well. In May 2014, German publisher

Bastei Lübbe Bastei Lübbe is a major publisher of genre fiction, pulp fiction and non-fiction in the German language. It is based in Cologne, Germany. As of 2010, it was the largest independent book publisher in Germany, and it claims to be one of the thr ...

acquired a majority share of 51% in Daedalic Entertainment. The following July, Daedalic opened a subsidiary studio, Daedalic Entertainment Studio West, in

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in ...

. In November 2016, Daedalic laid off twelve of its roughly 150 employees, primarily from the production and marketing departments, and opted not to renew several temporary contracts. In February 2018, Daedalic opened a third studio, this time in

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and ...

under the name Daedalic Entertainment Bavaria. The new studio would consist of eight people, led by Oliver Machek, formerly of Klonk Games, as studio director and creative director, and by Stephan Harms,

chief operating officer A chief operating officer or chief operations officer, also called a COO, is one of the highest-ranking executive positions in an organization, composing part of the " C-suite". The COO is usually the second-in-command at the firm, especially if ...

of Daedalic, as CEO. In August 2018, as Bastei Lübbe faced severe financial issues, and started considering to sell their 51% stake in Daedalic. In early 2021, the Düsseldorf and Munich studios entered liquidation; the former had been inactive since after creative director Andreas Suika left in August 2019 for

Epic Games Epic Games, Inc. is an American video game and software developer and publisher based in Cary, North Carolina. The company was founded by Tim Sweeney as Potomac Computer Systems in 1991, originally located in his parents' house in Potomac, ...

, while the latter was emptied in late 2020 with all employees rehired by other Munich-based developers. Nacon announced its intent to acquire Daedalic in February 2022 through purchase of all controlling shares of the company for an estimated . The acquisition was confirmed in April 2022.

Games developed

Cancelled

* '' The Devil's Men''

Games published

References

External links

* {{Authority control Companies based in Hamburg German companies established in 2007 Video game companies established in 2007 Video game companies of Germany Video game development companies Video game publishers 2014 mergers and acquisitions 2022 mergers and acquisitions Nacon