Daedalic Entertainment

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Daedalic Entertainment GmbH

logo
legal form GmbH
founding 2007
Seat Hamburg , Germany
management Carsten Fichtelmann (Managing Director),

Jan Müller-Michaelis (Creative Director)

Number of employees 60 (July 2020)
Branch Software development
Website www.daedalic.de

Jan Müller-Michaelis (left) and Marco Hüllen (right) (2007)

Daedalic Entertainment is a German computer game developer and publisher from Hamburg , who is particularly known for his adventures Edna Erbruch , The Whispered World and Deponia .

history

Daedalic Entertainment GmbH was founded at the beginning of 2007 by Carsten Fichtelmann , who had previously worked for almost six years at the Hamburg publisher dtp entertainment as Marketing Director and Head of Product Management. The company's name is derived from the mythical Greek inventor and artist Daedalus . The focus should be on games that have a “strong narrative character”.

The first title that the initially still small development team published on June 5, 2008, was the dark and humorous adventure game Edna breaks out , which emerged from a diploma thesis by Creative Director Jan Müller-Michaelis . It sold very well and received a number of major awards. Shortly thereafter, the game for the film 1½ Knights - In Search of the Adorable Herzelinde was released . This was followed on August 28, 2009 by the adventure title The Whispered World and on October 8, 2010, A New Beginning, an adventure game dealing with climate change, was released. In 2011 there was a sequel to Edna breaks out with the title Harvey's New Eyes . A year later, Deponia was launched, a new adventure game that also received numerous awards.

In May 2014 the German publishing group Bastei Lübbe announced the acquisition of a majority stake of 51% in Daedalic. Bastei Lübbe described the step as part of his growth strategy to become an internationally active, multimedia publishing house that can market its brands in all areas itself. In return, Daedalic hoped to gain new marketing opportunities for its previous game brands in the areas of books, comics, audio and film as well as additional capital to expand its existing business activities in order to more than double the company's turnover from six million euros in the 2013 to 2015 financial year. Carsten Fichtelmann was confirmed as the sole managing director of Daedalic. In July 2014 Daedalic Entertainment founded a branch in Düsseldorf under the name Daedalic Entertainment Studio West GmbH, the focus of which was to be outside the adventure genre.

In September 2015, Bastei Lübbe reduced its stake in Daedalic to 48% by selling 3% to Blue Sky Tech Ventures Limited. In July 2016, Wirtschaftswoche reported allegations against the management of the Bastei Lübbe of having polished up the balance sheet with questionable deals. Accordingly, the buyer Blu Ventures is probably just a London mailbox company controlled by Bastei Lübbe.

At the end of 2016, Daedalic announced that it would reduce the number of its 150 employees at that time by making redundancies and not extending fixed-term contracts. After only months before he wanted to break out a “gigantic wave of releases”, Carsten Fichtelmann described the situation as “modest and gloomy”. The revenues per title have recently declined more and more with significantly increased costs. At Bastei Lübbe, managing director Thomas Schierack had to vacate his post in September 2017 due to repeated accounting errors and losses, and his digital strategy for the group was described as having failed. His successor, Carel Halff, announced that he would be reviewing all of the Group's activities. Although he attested Daedalic an “impressive company history”, he demanded lasting evidence that “significant advantages can be achieved for Bastei Lübbe”. According to the Handelsblatt report, Daedalic's elaborate novel adaptation of Die Säulen der Erde “did not even come close”, which is why Bastei Lübbe made an impairment of three million euros in June 2018. Overall, however, Daedalic was able to increase its sales by 40% to nine million euros through Shadow Tactics: Blades of the Shogun and The Long Journey Home, among others . Despite the increased turnover, as a result of the lack of profits, the production workforce was halved from 150 to almost 80 employees in 2017 and 2018 due to layoffs and emigration, including employees from Daedalic Studio West, whose contracts were largely not renewed. No further productions at Studio West were announced after the release of The Long Journey Home . In January 2018, its headquarters were relocated from Düsseldorf to Wuppertal.

Daedalic's reorientation towards games outside the adventure genre was consolidated by the emigration of authors such as Kevin Mentz and Matthias Kempke, as well as the layoffs in the creative area. As a result, The Devil's Men was discontinued, a title that was already in development in 2014 and paused due to the prioritized production of The Pillars of the Earth . In February 2018 Daedalic Entertainment opened another branch in Munich under the name Daedalic Entertainment Bavaria GmbH. Stephan Harms took over their management in addition to his function as COO of the main company. Studio manager and creative director became Oliver Machek, one of the founders of Klonk Games UG ( Shift Happens) . With him, the eight Klonk employees also moved to Daedalic. As a first project, the studio announced a new game from Daedalic co-founder Jan Müller-Michaelis under the name Superlatent , which received government funding of € 150,000 in 2017.

In March 2019, Daedalic Entertainment announced an action adventure based on the book license of The Lord of the Rings , which will revolve around the character of Gollum and be entitled The Lord of the Rings: Gollum . The game is slated for a release in 2021. This also caused the parent company Bastei Lübbe to initially suspend the search for a buyer or joint venture partner for Daedalic. In May 2020 Bastei Lübbe finally sold 41% of the shares to the two managing directors Carsten Fichtelmann and Stephan Harms as part of a management buyout and only retained a minority stake of 10% in Daedalic. Despite a book value of 4.9 million euros reported by Bastei Lübbe, the purchase price was only 410,000 euros.

Games

As a developer

As a publisher

Awards

As a studio

  • German Developer Award 2009 (Studio of the Year)
  • German Developer Award 2013 (Studio of the Year)

For individual publications

Edna breaks out :

The Whispered World :

  • German Developer Award 2009 (Best German Youth Game, Best Story)
  • German Computer Game Award 2009 (Best Youth Game)

A New Beginning :

  • German Developer Award 2010 (Best German Youth Game, Best Story, Best Soundtrack)
  • German Computer Game Award 2011 (Best German Game, Best Youth Game)

Winterfest - the educational game :

  • Lara Award 2010 (LARA Education Award)
  • E-learning competition EureleA 2011 (best media didactics)
  • Serious Games Award 2011 (Serious Games Award Gold)

The Skillz :

  • Serious Games Award 2010 (Serious Games Award Bronze)
  • German Developer Award 2010 (Best German Learning Game)

Harvey's new eyes :

  • German Developer Award 2011 (Best Adventure, Best Youth Game, Best Story, Best Art Design)
  • German Computer Game Award 2012 (Best Youth Game)

Living Stories - The Lost Heart :

  • German Developer Award 2011 (Best Children's Game)

Chaos on Deponia :

  • German Computer Game Award 2013 (Best German Game)

Goodbye Deponia :

  • German Developer Award 2013 (Best Adventure, Best Sound, Best Story)

FIRE :

  • German Computer Game Award 2015 (Best Children's Game)

The Long Journey Home :

  • German Computer Game Award 2018 (Best Production)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ After Daedalic sale: Bastei Lübbe AG gives up games business. In: GamesWirtschaft. July 14, 2020, accessed July 15, 2020 .
  2. ^ Christian Klaß: Daedalic - New German game publisher . In: Golem.de , March 22, 2007, accessed on March 6, 2018
  3. ↑ Bastei Lübbe acquires majority stake in Hamburg game developer . In: Börsenblatt , May 16, 2014, accessed on March 6, 2018
  4. ↑ Julian Dasgupta: Daedalic: Bastei Lübbe acquires majority share . In: 4Players , May 16, 2014, accessed March 6, 2018
  5. ↑ Katharina Göttsche: Daedalic: New studio founded in Düsseldorf . In: Computerbild , July 16, 2014, accessed March 6, 2018
  6. ↑ Bastei Lübbe reduces shares in Daedalic. In: book report . September 22, 2015, accessed March 6, 2018 .
  7. ↑ Sebastian Zelada: Daedalic involved in turbulence at Bastei Lübbe? (No longer available online.) In: GamesBusiness.de. August 25, 2016, archived from the original on June 25, 2017 ; Retrieved July 8, 2017 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.gamesbusiness.de
  8. ↑ Daedalic Entertainment: Bastei Lübbe corrects rating. In: GamesWirtschaft. August 24, 2016, accessed March 6, 2018 .
  9. ^ Peter Steinlechner: Games industry: Daedalic dismisses employees . In: Golem.de , November 22, 2016, accessed on March 6, 2018
  10. ↑ Georg Buschmann, Christof Schürmann: BörsenWoche and Bastei Lübbe: Danger recognized, share banned. In: Wirtschaftswoche. Accessed December 31, 2018 .
  11. ↑ Bastei Lübbe: Everything is put to the test. In: book report. November 22, 2017, accessed December 31, 2018 (German).
  12. ↑ Games economy: Bastei Lübbe: Daedalic parent company deep in the red. In: GamesWirtschaft.de. June 18, 2018, accessed December 31, 2018 (German).
  13. ↑ commercial register of Daedalic Entertainment Studio West GmbH of Hamburg (HRB 28681). Retrieved February 4, 2019 .
  14. ↑ Hans Pieper: Interview with Tim Krause-Murroni. In: Adventure-Treff . Retrieved on February 4, 2019 (German).
  15. ↑ Daedalic Entertainment Bavaria: Munich becomes Daedalic's third location. In: GamesWirtschaft.de. February 14, 2018, accessed March 6, 2018 .
  16. ↑ Games economy: 2017 balance sheet of the FFF Bayern: 1.28 million euros for games. In: GamesWirtschaft.de. February 1, 2018, accessed on February 4, 2019 (German).
  17. ↑ Maurice Weber: The Lord of the Rings: Gollum - Why Daedalic makes a game about the probably most unlikely LotR protagonist. In: Gamestar.de. March 25, 2019, accessed April 8, 2019 (German).
  18. ↑ Games economy: Because of Lord of the Rings: Bastei Lübbe stops Daedalic sales plans . In: GamesWirtschaft.de. July 11, 2019, accessed on May 19, 2020 (German).
  19. ↑ Bastei Lübbe AG sells majority stake in game developer Daedalic Entertainment - dgap.de. Retrieved May 19, 2020 .
  20. ↑ Gameswirtschaft.de: After Daedalic sale: Bastei Lübbe AG gives up games business. Retrieved July 26, 2020 .
  21. ↑ German Developer Award 2011 - German Game Developer Award . In: German Developer Award . deutscherentwicklerpreis.de. 2011. Retrieved April 6, 2018.
Computer games from the developer Daedalic Entertainment
Deponia range

Deponia (2012)  • Chaos auf Deponia (2012)  • Goodbye Deponia (2013)  • Deponia Doomsday (2016)

The black eye

The Black Eye: Satinav's Chains (2012)  • The Black Eye: Memoria (2013)  • The Black Eye: Blackguards (2014)  • The Black Eye: Blackguards 2 (2015)

Edna & Harvey

Edna Breaks Out (2008)  • Harvey's New Eyes (2011)

The Whispered World

The Whispered World (2009)  • Silence (2016)

Single track

1½ Knights: In Search of the Adorable Herzelinde (2008)  • A New Beginning (2010)  • The Night of the Rabbit (2013)  • 1954 Alcatraz (2014)  • Anna's Quest (2015)  • The Long Journey Home (2017)  • The Pillars of the Earth (2017)  • State of Mind (2018)