EA Phenomic

EA Phenomic, originally founded as Phenomic Game Development, was a German development studio for computer games. It was known by the development of SpellForce series. As of 2006, the company was part of the EA group, 2013 was the closure.

History

Phenomic was founded in 1997 with headquarters in Ingelheim am Rhein by Volker Wertich under the name Phenomic Game Development. Wertich had already acquired as the inventor and creative head of the successful settlers series a reputation and was instrumental in the first and third part of the series on the development.

In August 2006, Phenomic Game Development was acquired by U.S. publisher Electronic Arts and renamed since then under the name EA Phenomic. In the group structure EA Phenomic was assigned to the Swedish development studio Digital Illusions CE. EA Phenomic was the first studio, which was acquired by Electronic Arts in Europe outside of the UK. Shortly after this acquisition was the U.S. publisher to acquire all shares of Digital Illusions CE known.

Electronic Arts announced that EA Phenomic will focus on the acquisition on the creation of online real-time strategy games.

In July 2013 it was announced that EA closed the studio and the 60 employees had dismissed.

Importance

Besides Crytek EA Phenomic is one of the few German studios of international importance. In the field of international reviews Phenomic is one of the most successful German development studios. From 2001 to 2006 there were only two developed in Germany PC games that could achieve a higher average score on Metacritic.com as SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars, namely Far Cry and Gothic.

A first in the SpellForce series is the unusually strong mixing of elements index real-time strategy and role-playing. On December 13, 2011 it was announced that EA Phenomic the web-based real-time strategy Free2Play game Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances developed.

Games

  • 2003: SpellForce: The Order of the Dawn (Windows)
  • 2004: Spellforce: Breath of Winter (Add-on, Windows)
  • 2005: SpellForce: Shadow of the Phoenix (Add-on, Windows)
  • 2006: SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars (Windows)
  • 2007: SpellForce 2: Dragon Storm ( add-on, Windows)
  • 2009: Battle Forge (Windows)
  • 2010: Lord of Ultima (Browser Game)
  • 2011: Command & Conquer: Tiberium Alliances (Browser Game)

From Phenomic employees is also called on the first and third parts of The Settlers series on the official website. The creative mind behind Phenomic is Volker Wertich, the inventor of the Settlers series.

Awards

German Developer Awards

The awards, which EA Phenomic has received at the German Developer Award:

2006 public vote

  • 2nd place in the category of best German RPG ( SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars )
  • 2nd place in the category Best German strategy game ( Spellforce 2: Shadow Wars )

Jury selection

  • 2nd place in the category of best German game ( Spellforce 2: Shadow Wars )
  • 3rd place in the category of best games graphics ( SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars )
  • 3rd place in the category Best Soundtrack / in-game sound ( SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars )
  • 2nd place in the category best cutscenes / intros ( SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars )
  • 2nd place in the category Best Game-/Leveldesign ( SpellForce 2: Shadow Wars )

2005

  • 3rd place in the category Best Soundtrack / in-game sound ( Spellforce: Shadow of the Phoenix )
  • 3rd place in the category best story / game world ( Spellforce: Shadow of the Phoenix )
  • 2nd place in the category Best Game / Level Design ( Spellforce: Shadow of the Phoenix )
  • 2nd place in the category Best RPG / adventure game ( Spellforce: Shadow of the Phoenix )

2004

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