ArenaNet
| ArenaNet, Inc.
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|---|---|
 |
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| legal form | Subsidiary of NCsoft |
| founding | 2000 |
| Seat | Bellevue , Washington, USA |
| management | Mike Zadorojny ( Managing Director ) |
| Number of employees | > 300 |
| Branch | Software development |
| Website | arena.net |
ArenaNet , a game studio based in Bellevue near Seattle , was founded in March 2000 by former Blizzard employees Mike O'Brien, Patrick Wyatt and Jeff Strain. Initially the company was called Triforge, but was renamed ArenaNet in August 2000. The founders were previously involved in the development of successful titles such as Warcraft , Diablo , Warcraft 2: Tides of Darkness , StarCraft , StarCraft: Broodwar , Diablo 2 and Warcraft 3 as well as the online platform Battle.net . They recruited other employees from the pool of their old employer Blizzard Entertainment - the Blizzard North branch was particularly affected .
Her debut was the online game Guild Wars , which was marketed by ArenaNet as "Competitive Online Roleplaying Game" (CORPG).
ArenaNet was taken over in 2002 by the South Korean publisher NCsoft . In 2008 NCsoft bundled its activities in North America and Europe in the new subsidiary NC West . Jeff Strain and Patrick Wyatt then took on senior positions at NC West. But in 2009 Jeff Strain left NC West again and founded the new game studio Undead Labs . A larger number of employees followed his example in 2009/10 and joined his new company. Patrick Wyatt also left NC West in early 2010 and became Chief Operations Officer (COO) of En Masse Entertainment .
On October 3, 2019, the last remaining founding member and CEO, Mike O'Brien, announced that he was leaving his position as CEO as he was starting a new studio with the other Guild Wars 2 developers . Mike Zadorojny took over the position of managing director.
Publications
- Guild Wars (April 28, 2005, CORPG)
- Guild Wars: Factions (April 28, 2006, stand-alone add-on )
- Guild Wars: Nightfall (October 27, 2006, Stand Alone Add-on)
- Guild Wars: Eye of the North (August 31, 2007 add-on)
- Guild Wars 2 (August 28, 2012)
- Guild Wars 2 - Heart of Thorns (October 23, 2015)
- Guild Wars 2 - Path of Fire (September 22, 2017)
Web links
- Official ArenaNet homepage (English)
Individual evidence
- ↑ ArenaNet: Community Manager Aidan Taylor on the official Guild Wars 2 forum .
- ↑ Guild Wars cocreator leaves NCsoft ( Memento September 17, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
- ↑ a b Alexander Leitsch: President Mike O'Brien leaves ArenaNet - founds a new studio with GW2 developers. In: Mein MMO.de. October 4, 2019, accessed October 5, 2019 .