Ascaron

Line

• Holger Flöttmann
• Heiko tom Felde

Ascaron ( up to October 1996 Ascon ) was a 1991 to July 2009, existing game developers based in Gütersloh. The renaming of Ascon in Ascaron was due to the possibility of confusion with the Ascom AG from Switzerland. The company name ( company ) was an invented term and has, just like the previous company from the Managing Director Holger Flöttmann, Thailon, no meaning.

History

Ascaron was one of the most successful and oldest developers of computer games in Germany. In addition to its own development activities, the studio has also appeared as a publisher or supported smaller development studios in their work.

Many well known people in the computer game industry worked at least temporarily for Ascaron, including Gerald Köhler, Celal Kandemiroglu, Daniel Dumont and Ralf Glau.

In addition to its headquarters in Gütersloh, the company had until July 2009 a studio in Aachen ( "Studio II", developed the Sacred series) and until April 2009, a subsidiary company called Quality Four GmbH in Potsdam, which was responsible for quality assurance. In addition, Ascaron had its own diplomatic mission ( " Ascaron Entertainment Ltd.. " ) In Birmingham, which autonomously continue selling title for the non- German speaking countries. Ascaron games have been sold worldwide in more than 30 countries. Was particularly well-known and popular and is the Football Manager game series kick. Forums and fansites testify even today the popularity of the game.

In 2009 the company introduced the second time in the company's history for the opening of insolvency proceedings at the District Court of Bielefeld. On 17 April 2009, a provisional liquidator has been appointed by this. Already on 31 August 2001, the day of the ten- year anniversary, Ascaron had to request the opening of insolvency proceedings. However, in early 2002 could be continued through formation of Ascaron Entertainment GmbH the business. The new company took over all the rights and the name.

The reason for the recent insolvency strong delays in the development of the game Sacred 2 were - Fallen Angel mentioned. Having no investor could be found, Ascaron was smashed. The development of the Sacred series led up to July 31, 2009 by Ascaron sister company Studio 2. The Publisher Deep Silver took over the rights to the Sacred series and the Support of Sacred 2 and its add-on. Kalypso Media acquired in June 2009, the trademark rights to Ascaron games and other assets from the bankruptcy estate, including games like Darkstar One, Port Royale and The Patrician. By Kalypso the development studio Gaming Minds was newly established also in Gutersloh, in which 15 former Ascaron developers are busy.

In-house developments

• 06 /1992: The Patrician ( published 02 /1993 as "CD -ROM Edition"; also released for the Amiga)
• 11/1993: kick (kick, the kick - series, was released 06 /1994 as "CD -ROM Edition"; was also released for Amiga)
• 06/ 1994: kick-off World Cup Edition ( also appeared for the Amiga )
• 07 /1994: Hanse - Die Expedition ( also appeared for the Amiga )
• 01/ 1996: Pole Position
• 06/ 1996: Elizabeth I
• 11/1996: Hexagon cartel, The
• 03/ 1997: Vermeer: The Art of heirs ( Windows version )
• 02/ 1998: kick-off 2: extension ( add-on to kick-off 2)
• 09/ 1998: kick-off 2 Gold ( combination of kick- 2: Extension and kick-off 2 with many new features )
• 11/1998: Grand Prix 500cc ( also appeared for the PlayStation under the name Extreme 500)
• 11/2000: Patrician 2
• 11/2001: Ballerburg ( also appeared for the PlayStation )
• 06/ 2002: Port Royale ( released a few months later, including mini- expansions as Port Royale Gold)
• 10/2003: Pirates: Ruler of the Caribbean
• 02 /2004: Sacred ( published 09/2004 with new features as " Sacred - New Edition " [ abroad under "Sacred Plus" known ] )
• 04 /2004: Port Royale 2
• 09 /2004: Vermeer 2
• 03/ 2005: Sacred Underworld ( add-on to Sacred or " Sacred - New Edition " )
• 05 /2006: Darkstar One
• 01 /2007: Tortuga - Two Treasures
• 10/2008: Sacred 2 - Fallen Angel ( released 05 /2009 for PS3 and Xbox 360)

Publisher activity

• 06/ 2001: King Of The Road
• 02/ 2003: Big Scale Racing
• 04/ 2003: Devastation
• 07/2004: Arena Wars