Rondomedia

rondomedia
legal form	GmbH
founding	April 1998, name changed on July 23, 2015 to astragon Sales & Services GmbH
Seat	Mönchengladbach , Germany
management	Kristina Klooss
Branch	Software development
Website	www.rondomedia.de

The rondomedia Marketing & Vertriebs GmbH is a German publisher of computer games . The company is mainly active in the lower or middle price segment.

history

Rondomedia was founded in April 1998 by André Franzmann, who is still the majority shareholder of the company today. Franzmann managed the company until January 2014, when his long-time managing director Kristina Klooss took over sole responsibility. The majority of the rondomedia group also include the publisher astragon Software GmbH and New Planet Distributions GmbH. At the end of July 2015, the rondomedia group was restructured, with the name of the subsidiary astragon being chosen as the future name of the group of companies. Rondomedia became astragon Sales & Services GmbH. This company mainly coordinates the retail activities of the group of companies. Astragon Software GmbH became astragon Entertainment GmbH as part of the restructuring. This is where the development and publishing activities of the astragon group have been bundled. A new company logo and a new CI, which will be presented to a wide audience for the first time at Gamescom 2015, round off the restructuring.

The original corporate goal was to establish itself with casual games and secondary marketing in the mid-price segment of the German games market. In 1998 the company entered into a partnership with the US publisher eGames (including eGames Mahjongg Master ), for which rondomedia took over the publication on the German market. The cooperation was extended in 2003, by then rondomedia had distributed around one million titles from eGames, around a third of which fell on the various versions of Mahjongg Master . Further collaborations were concluded with Atari , Ubisoft , THQ , Square Enix , Daedalic and other publishing partners, for whose games rondomedia in Germany mostly took on the marketing in the budget area ( best-of series). rondomedia also created a casual series called Play & Smile , Astragon also marketed the Bigfish Games series.

From 2008 the company benefited from the increasing success of simulations such as astragon's farming simulator and construction simulator . According to the company, a new target group - mainly men, 35 years and older - could be reached with the titles, which the leading game manufacturers did not serve. These would be addressed by the leisurely gameplay, the technical simulation, the low hardware requirements and the low price. In the trade press, however, the games hardly received any approval, as they could not compete with large-scale productions either in terms of production value or the design of the game principle. As of 2010, it was a question of comparatively inexpensive productions with sales figures of usually 50,000 up to a peak of around 250,000 copies before the start of secondary marketing. As of 2012, the company began to cut back on the secondary marketing and distribution of licensed titles in order to concentrate more on the international marketing of its own titles, especially in the simulation area. Today rondomedia is mainly active as a publisher in the areas of simulation and casual games for the Windows, Mac, iOS and Android platforms. rondomedia markets the products via traditional retailers, but also worldwide via online distribution. The company has also been operating the online portal simuwelt.de since April 2012 . The website is a sales, entertainment and news platform for fans of simulation games. In July 2015, the uniform name change to the astragon group took place.

Change of name

On July 23, 2015, the former rondomedia Marketing & Vertriebs GmbH was renamed astragon Sales & Services GmbH. The former astragon Software GmbH has been called astragon Entertainment GmbH since then. The background to this is the decision of the two former publishers rondomedia and astragon to operate as the astragon group from now on and thus achieve a uniform market presence. With a common logo and the common name astragon, the focus is on the market strength in the field of technical and everyday simulations, for which the former astragon Software GmbH was already known. While astragon Sales & Services will concentrate on distribution in the Germany - Austria - Switzerland region in the future, all games will be published by the publisher astragon Entertainment. Astragon Entertainment GmbH will also be responsible for the international marketing of the games and brands.

Games (excerpt)

• 18 Wheels of Steel (Windows)
• NBC protection simulator (Windows)
• ADAC: The Simulation (Windows)
• Airport Simulator 2013 (Windows)
• Construction Machine Simulator 2012 (Windows, Mac)
• The planner 4 (Windows)
• The Planner 5 - The Logistics Manager (Windows)
• Urban planning (Windows, Mac)
• Agriculture Planner (Windows, Mac)
• The Planner Industry Empire (Windows)
• Dig It! The excavator simulator (Windows)
• Euro Truck Simulator (Windows)
• Euro Truck Special: Truck maneuvering simulator (Windows)
• Fairground 2: The Ride Simulator (Windows)
• Fire Department 2014: The Simulation (Windows, Mac)
• Airport Fire Brigade Simulator (Windows)
• Airport Fire Brigade Simulator 2013 (Windows, Mac)
• German Truck Simulator (Windows)
• Track Construction Simulator 2014 (Windows)
• Big Fireworks Simulator (Windows)
• Harvey's New Eyes (Windows)
• Logistics Company (Windows)
• Police 2 Law and Order (Windows)
• Police - The realistic simulation of everyday life in the German police force (Windows)
• Police 2013 (Windows)
• Recycle: Garbage Collection Simulator (Windows)
• Rescue 2013: Everyday Heroes (Windows)
• Rescue: Everyday Heroes US Edition (Windows)
• Scania Truck Driving Simulator - The Game (Windows)
• THW Simulator 2012 (Windows)
• Train-Control (iOS and Android)
• Truck Racing Simulator (Windows)
• Truck Simulator World Edition (Windows)
• Plant Fire Brigade Simulator 2014 (Windows)
• Rescue Service Simulator 2014 (Windows, Mac)
• Ship Simulator: The Sea Rescuers (Windows)
• Suspension Railway Simulator 2013 (Windows, Mac, Wii U)
• The Hunter (Windows - Online Game)
• Virtual Rides 2 (Windows)

Web links

• Homepage
• Rondomedia at MobyGames (English)
• Homepage of the astragon group
• Gamesindustry article on the name change

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Rondomedia founder André Franzmann withdraws ( Memento of the original from February 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) 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. 
2. ↑ eGames successful at rondomedia
3. ↑ Rondomedia sells eGame games ( Memento of the original from February 23, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
4. ↑ In conversation with the master of the simulators