| JoWooD Entertainment AG | |
| Type: | Public |
| Industry: | Video games |
| Fate: | Bankruptcy |
| Hq Location City: | Rottenmann |
| Hq Location Country: | Austria |
| Subsid: | DreamCatcher Interactive |
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, , The Sting!, Hotel Giant, and other games of the Giants series.
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. 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.[1] JoWooD carried out this action believing they owned the licence for the game Stargate SG-1: The Alliance, which was disputed by Perception.[2]
On 4 November 2006, JoWooD announced the acquisition of DreamCatcher Games, in efforts to move to the North American game markets.[3]
In January 2007, JoWooD announced a UK distribution agreement with Pinnacle Software to allow the latter to distribute JoWooD's titles.[4]
In October 2009, JoWooD changed its name from JoWooD Productions Software AG to JoWooD Entertainment AG.[5] At the same time, JoWood also announced an agreement with Valve to make available future JoWooD titles on Steam.[5]
On 7 January 2011, JoWooD officially filed for bankruptcy and announced that the company would prepare for "a procedure of capital reorganization".[6] 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that, unable to negotiate with potential investors, they were officially facing bankruptcy proceedings and had withdrawn their application for a recapitalization plan.[7] In June 2011, JoWooD Entertainment, all their assets and its subsidiary, Quantic Lab, was acquired by Nordic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.[8] 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.[9] 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.[10]
| Release date | Title | Platform(s) | Developer(s) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Industry Giant | Microsoft Windows | JoWooD Productions | |
| Alien Nations[11] | Neo Software | ||
| [12] | Panzer Elite | Wings Simulations | |
| Keep the Balance | Item Multimedia | ||
| Innonics | |||
| Traffic Giant | JoWooD Productions | ||
| The Nations | JoWooD Vienna | ||
| The Sting! | Neo Software | ||
| Reflexive Entertainment | |||
| S.W.I.N.E.[13] | StormRegion | ||
| Rally Trophy | Bugbear Entertainment | ||
| AquaNox | Massive Development | ||
| Silver Style | |||
| [14] | SoftLab-NSK | ||
| Arx Fatalis | Microsoft Windows | Arkane Studios | |
| Xbox | Wizarbox | ||
| [15] | Microsoft Windows | Funatics Development GmbH | |
| Michael Schumacher Racing World Kart 2002 | Microsoft Windows | Radon Labs | |
| PlayStation | |||
| Industry Giant II | Microsoft Windows | JoWooD Productions | |
| Beam Breakers | Similis Software GmbH | ||
| Archangel | Metropolis Software | ||
| 4HEAD Studios | |||
| The Nations Nations Gold Edition / The Nations 2 | JoWooD Productions | ||
| Gothic II | Piranha Bytes | ||
| [16] | Similis Software GmbH | ||
| JoWooD Productions | |||
| [17] | Neighbours from Hell | JoWooD Vienna | |
| GameCube, Xbox | |||
| - Expansion Pack | Microsoft Windows | Piranha Bytes | |
| Massive Development | |||
| Chaser | Cauldron | ||
| [18] | JoWooD Productions | ||
| [19] | Railroad Pioneer[20] | Kritzelkratz 3000 | |
| [21] | Silent Storm | Nival Interactive | |
| [22] | Phenomic Game Development | ||
| Wings Simulations | |||
| [23] | Transport Giant | JoWooD Productions | |
| [24] | SpellForce: Breath of Winter - Expansion Pack | Phenomic Game Development | |
| [25] | SpellForce: The Shadow of the Phoenix - Expansion Pack | Phenomic Game Development | |
| Söldner: Secret Wars Reloaded | Wings Simulations | ||
| [26] | Söldner: Marine Corps - Expansion Pack | Wings Simulations | |
| [27] | JoWooD Vienna | ||
| Legend of Kay[28] | PlayStation 2 | Neon Studios Kaiko | |
| Microsoft Windows | Phenomic Game Development | ||
| The Guild 2[29] | 4HEAD Studios | ||
| Gothic 3[30] | Piranha Bytes | ||
| [31] | PlayStation 2 | ColdWood Interactive | |
| Microsoft Windows | |||
| [32] | Phenomic Game Development | ||
| [33] | The Guild 2 - Pirates of The European Sea - Stand-alone expansion pack[34] [35] | 4HEAD Studios | |
| [36] | Provox Games | ||
| SpellForce Universe Edition - Collection pack[37] | EA Phenomic | ||
| Gothic Universe Edition - Collection pack[38] | DreamCatcher Interactive | ||
| Mindware Studios | |||
| Handy-Games GmbH | |||
| The Golden Horde[39] | World Forge | ||
| Painkiller Universe - Collection Pack[40] | DreamCatcher Interactive | ||
| The Guild 2 - Venice - Stand-alone Expansion Pack | Trine Games[41] | ||
| - Expansion Pack | Trine Games Mad Vulture Games | ||
| HomeGrown Games | |||
| Yoga Wii | Wii | Trine Games | |
| Torchlight[42] | Microsoft Windows | Runic Games | |
| Spellbound Entertainment | |||
| Xbox 360 | Black Forest Games | ||
| PlayStation 3 | |||
| [43] | The Guild 2 - Renaissance - Stand-alone expanded edition | Microsoft Windows | 4HEAD Studios |
| DreamCatcher Interactive |