Blue byte

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Blue Byte GmbH

logo
legal form GmbH
founding 1988
Seat Dusseldorf , Germany
management Benedikt Grindel
Number of employees 293
sales EUR 23 million
Branch Software development
Website www.bluebyte.com/de
As of March 31, 2017

The Ubisoft Blue Byte GmbH , headquartered in Dusseldorf is a German computer game developer . The company, which was also active as a publisher for many years , is one of the best-known and longest active companies in the German computer game industry. Founded in 1989 by Thomas Hertzler and Lothar Schmitt as Blue Byte, it has been a subsidiary of the French publisher Ubisoft since 2001 and is now the umbrella organization for the Group's German activities. Blue Byte currently comprises the three development studios Ubisoft Düsseldorf (originally Blue Byte), Ubisoft Mainz (originally Related Designs ) and Ubisoft Berlin.

Since the beginnings in the dying home computer era , Blue Byte has published over 30 titles under its own name on numerous platforms. The best-known brands include the strategy game series The Settlers with around three million copies sold worldwide, Battle Isle with 650,000 copies sold and, since 2007, the Anno series with several million copies sold. In addition, the studios are involved as co-developers in many of the international productions of the Ubisofts group.

Since its inception, the company has worked with many well-known representatives of the German developer scene. Among them Thomas Friedmann , Thomas Häuser and Thorsten Knop , who later founded Funatics , the Spellbound founder Armin Gessert , Siedler inventor Volker Wertich and Anno producer Christopher Schmitz.

Company history

Blue Byte was founded in 1988 by Thomas Hertzler , previously Head of Development at Rainbow Arts , and Lothar Schmitt in Mülheim an der Ruhr . The first published titles included the jump 'n' run Twinworld (distributed by Starbyte ), the tennis simulation Great Courts (published by Ubisoft ), which became the developers' first major success with 515,000 copies sold, and the puzzle game Atomino in 1990 ( distributed by Psygnosis ).

Spurred on by the first successes, Blue Byte began developing a turn-based strategy game. Blue Bytes, the publisher at the time, viewed the project rather skeptically and ultimately rejected it. Therefore, Blue Byte decided to act as a publisher in the future and to distribute and market its own games itself. The strategy game titled Battle Isle was released in 1991 and was the first installment in one of the company's two game legends. An add-on followed in 1992 and the Historyline based on the same technology : 1914–1918 . The shoot 'em up Apidya was also released in 1992 .

1993 turned out to be an extremely successful year for Blue Byte. The company released the second Battle Isle add-on, a Jump 'n' Run called Yo! Joe and the second part of the Battle Isle saga ( also published in the US by Accolade ), which became another success for the company. However, it achieved final fame this year through the build-up strategy game The Settlers ( Amiga ), which is one of the milestones in the gaming scene today and the cornerstone of Blue Bytes' success. SSI released the game in the US under the name Serf City .

Blue Byte logo prior to the takeover by Ubisoft

At the turn of the year 1993/1994, Hertzler was able to poach the remaining five-person development team from the German studio Thalion Software , including studio founder Erik Simon . The team began work on an RPG based on the successful Thalion titles Ambermoon and Amberstar . In 1994 a branch was established in Northampton , England , to target the English-speaking market in Europe from there. The game The Settlers was ported to MS-DOS due to its great success . A year later, a branch in Schaumburg , Illinois , USA followed, in order to gain a foothold in the North American market. In addition, the third part of the Battle Isle series, Battle Isle 3: Shadow of the Emperor , the board game The Totally Crazy Rally and the adventure Chewy: ESC from F5 appeared in 1995 .

The year 1996 brought the ultimate breakthrough for Blue Byte with the release of The Settlers II: Veni, Vidi, Vici and the accompanying add-on. This was followed by the role-playing game Albion by the Thalion team and the submarine simulation creep speed developed by Massive . In 1997, Blue Byte released the action game Extreme Assault and the tactical game Incubation , which was an offshoot of the Battle Isle series with 3D graphics. Incubation also received very good reviews in the media internationally (it was voted “turn-based game of the year” by PC Gamer magazine) and became an insider tip, but was not able to achieve any economic success. With the newly founded development team Murder of Crows based in Austin , Texas , Blue Byte found its first US partner. It took over the development of the online game Shadowpact .

Constant financial problems, together with the focus of decision-makers on the US market, ensured creative bloodletting. In 1997 and 1998, many veteran and experienced developers left the company to work for other developers or founded their own studios. For example, a team led by Thomas Friedmann founded the Funatics development studio .

The third part of the Die-Siedler series followed in 1998 and was even able to surpass the success of its predecessors. Although Blue Byte had previously announced that it would no longer implement games for the Macintosh due to a lack of support from Apple , the company changed its mind and developed a port of The Settlers III . In the same year Blue Byte was able to conclude a distribution agreement with SouthPeak Interactive for the distribution of The Settlers III in North America, whereby the game series was also known there (under the name The Settlers ). The tennis simulation Game, Net & Match! Was published as the third part of the Great Courts series ! offered extensive internet options for the first time. In 1998, in cooperation with Stern Online , Blue Byte even started an Internet tournament with over 100 participants. Also in 1998 Ferris Productions acquired the licensing rights for an arcade version of Extreme Assault . In November, the US office moved from Schaumburg to Austin, Texas, one of the centers of the US development industry, to be closer to the Murder of Crows development team. The branch was headed by Mark Hall.

In 1999, the Attic founder Hans-Jürgen Brändle came to Mülheim as product manager for the Siedler range . Blue Byte also acquired the worldwide distribution rights to Stephen King 's first multimedia project Stephen King's F13 and Dragon's Lair 3D from Dragonstone Studios . Dragon's Lair 3D was a continuation of the very well-known and successful original Dragon's Lair and the company hoped not only for high sales figures but also for greater brand awareness in the United States and thus better opportunities for its other games on the US market. After problems at SouthPeak Interactive became apparent, Blue Byte relied on Interplay as a distributor for North America. In May 1999, Blue Byte announced that it would launch its own online gaming service called GAME.NET . This should be used for all multiplayer games of the games published by Blue Byte, especially the online game Shadowpact . In mid-1999, Blue Byte decided to merge all of its European sales and marketing operations. The English branch was closed, sales and marketing were now carried out centrally in the main branch in Mülheim. In addition, after almost two years, production of the innovative online strategy game Shadowpact had to be stopped again, the release of which was originally planned for the fourth quarter of the year.

In 2000, Blue Byte was very committed to the Internet . It took the American development studio Palestar under contract, the Blue Bytes online game Battle Isle: Darkspace should develop. In late 2000, in its major e-commerce business plan , the company announced that it would invest over $ 3 million in online development and bring more information and services to customers online. The sale of games in North America should henceforth be handled primarily through Blue Bytes' online shop Blue Byte Direct . One of the reasons for this business venture was probably Blue Bytes' difficulties with marketing and selling their games in the US. The new focus on the online area also included the opening of the online game service Blue Byte Game Channel (previously called GAME.NET). This service is used to host all multiplayer games in Blue Byte games. It also offers chats , forums and other activities for fans. In January 2002 there were already 100,000 registered members.

In July 2000, Blue Byte acquired the distribution rights for the flight simulation IL-2 Sturmovik from the developer 1C: Maddox Games . In North America it should only be sold through its own online shop, in the rest of the world traditionally in a store. The Settlers IV expected by the fans had to be postponed. As a consolation, you could buy The Settlers collectible figures and Blue Byte published the successful mini-game Bats for Thieves . The official fourth part of the Battle Isle series, The Andosia Conflict , published at the end of 2000 and programmed by the Slovak studio Cauldron , was the last product under their own direction for the time being. Due to some design weaknesses, it could not completely convince the fans.

In February 2001, Blue Byte Software was finally bought up by the French publisher Ubisoft for around 26 million marks along with its game brands. Hertzler left the company and from then on only worked as a "freelance consultant", according to the press release. The management passed to Odile Limpach, Managing Director of Ubisoft Germany, who was supported by Benedikt Grindel. Ubisoft took over Blue Bytes previous sales activities, for example for the games IL-2 Sturmovik and Dragon's Lair 3D , which from then on appeared under the Ubisoft logo. The development studio was continued under its traditional name and logo, but the work was initially limited to the continuation of the most successful core brand, Die Siedler . In February, shortly after the takeover, the long-awaited The Settlers IV was released , which attracted negative attention due to many bugs . The two following add-ons, on the other hand, were more balanced and qualitatively more convincing. Other productions have been discontinued by the new owner. In May, Ubisoft announced that it would not publish the online title Battle Isle: Darkspace because it was feared that the title would " dilute the Battle Isle series." Although the publisher announced that it wanted to continue the series, this promise was not fulfilled.

In 2003, Blue Byte's headquarters were relocated to Ubisoft's German headquarters in Düsseldorf . The Settlers series was continued in 2004 with The Settlers: The Legacy of Kings . In 2006, for the tenth anniversary of The Settlers II and the 25th anniversary of Ubisoft, a remake of The Settlers II was released under the name The Settlers II: The Next Generation . This was followed in 2007 by Die Siedler VI: Rise of a Kingdom , which won the German developer award in the same year. With Die Siedler 7 , the last single-player release of the Die-Siedler series was released in 2010 . In the same year, Die Siedler Online , a web-based free-to-play game that won the German Computer Game Award 2011 , was released. After the German publisher Sunflowers Interactive was acquired by Ubisoft in 2007, Blue Byte took over the production of the Anno series , which, however, was still developed at Related Designs in Mainz. In 2009 Anno 1404 and Anno - Create a New World (for Wii & DS) were released. In 2011 Anno 2070 followed , which used a future scenario for the first time and won the German Developer Award in 2012 . With Anno Online , a web-based free-to-play version of the Anno series was finally released in 2012 . In April 2013, Related Designs was completely taken over by Ubisoft and renamed Blue Byte Mainz on June 18, 2014.

On September 1, 2014 Odile Limpach handed over the management of Blue Byte to Benedikt Grindel. Anno 2205 was published on November 3, 2015 and won a total of three prizes at the German Developer Award in the categories: Best Graphics, Best PC Game & Best German Game. The new blue byte strategy became known in the context of Gamescom 2016. Accordingly, Blue Byte is withdrawing from the free-to-play business. Among other things, browser games such as Silent Hunter Online and Panzer General Online will be switched off. Instead, the studios in Düsseldorf and Mainz specialize in the two own brands ( Die Siedler , Anno ) and the PC optimization of Ubisoft console games such as For Honor . In October 2016, the development of the Free2play game Anno Online was also stopped.

On April 19, 2017, Blue Byte announced the opening of a third studio in Berlin in order to gain additional development capacities for the international large-scale production of the Ubisoft group. Despite the assignment under Blue Byte, the studio was founded under the name Ubisoft Berlin, Blue Byte was again renamed Ubisoft Blue Byte. In the presentation of the company, the name Blue Byte stands above all for games from the genre of development strategy, while the German developer studios are now also working on other productions of the group. With the reference to the parent company, the international reputation should be used to attract new skilled workers. As part of Gamescom 2017, it was also announced that Blue Byte Mainz is working on Anno 1800 and thus on a new part of the Anno series. In August 2019, the previous studios were also renamed Ubisoft Düsseldorf and Ubisoft Mainz, with Ubisoft Blue Byte remaining as the umbrella organization for the German studios. In April 2019, Anno 1800 was released on the Epic Store and Uplay.

Development and publications

Games as a developer

  • Great Courts (international: Pro Tennis Tour ) (1989)
  • Twin World (1989)
  • Great Courts 2 (international: Pro Tennis Tour 2 ) (1990)
  • Atomino (1990)
  • Tom and The Ghost (1990)
  • Battle Isle (1991)
  • Battle Isle Data Disk I (1992)
  • Historyline: 1914-1918 (1992)
  • The Settlers (1993)
  • Battle Isle Data Disk II: The Moon of Chromos (international: Battle Isle '93 ) (1993)
  • Battle Isle 2 (1993)
  • Battle Isle 2 Scenery CD: Legacy of Titan (1994)
  • The Totally Insane Rally (1995)
  • Battle Isle 3: Shadow of the Emperor (1995)
  • Albion (1995)
  • The Settlers II: Veni, Vidi, Vici (1996)
  • The Settlers II Mission CD (1996)
  • The Settlers II Gold Edition (1997)
  • Incubation: Battle Isle Phase Four (1997)
  • Incubation Mission Pack (1997)
  • Extreme Assault (1997)
  • Game, Net & Match! (1998)
  • The Settlers III (1998)
  • The Settlers III Mission CD (1999)
  • The Settlers III: The Secret of the Amazons (1999)
  • The Settlers III Gold Edition (2000)
  • Battle Isle Platinum (a compilation of all previous Battle Isle parts including incubation and all add-ons) (2000)
  • The Settlers: Lashes for Thieves (2001)
  • The Settlers IV (2001)
  • The Settlers IV Mission CD (2002)
  • The Settlers IV: The Trojans and the Elixir of Power (2002)
  • The Settlers IV Gold Edition (2002)
  • The Settlers IV: The New World (2002)
  • The Siedler Platinum Edition (a compilation of all previous Die-Siedler Gold Editions) (2003)
  • The Settlers: Legacy of Kings (2004)
  • The Settlers: Legacy of Kings - Nebelreich (2004)
  • The Settlers: Legacies of Kings - Legends (2005)
  • The Settlers: Legacy of Kings Gold Edition (2005)
  • The Settlers II: The Next Generation (2006)
  • The Settlers II: The Next Generation - Vikings (2007)
  • The Settlers: Rise of a Kingdom (2007)
  • The Settlers: Dawn of Cultures (2008)
  • The Settlers: Rise of a Kingdom - Empire of the East (Mission Pack) (2008)
  • Anno 1404 (in collaboration with Related Designs ) (2008)
  • The Settlers 7 (2010)
  • The Settlers - My City (2010)
  • The Settlers Online (2010)
  • Anno 2070 (in collaboration with Related Designs) (2011)
  • Anno Online (browser game variant of the Anno series) (2013)
  • Silent Hunter Online (2013)
  • Might & Magic: Heroes Online (2013)
  • Panzer General Online (2013)
  • Assassin's Creed: Identity (2014)
  • Anno 2205 (2015)
  • Champions of Anteria (2016)
  • Anno 1800 (2019)
  • The settlers 2019

Play as a publisher

  • Battle Isle (1991)
  • Battle Isle Data Disk I (1992)
  • Historyline: 1914-1918 (1992)
  • Yo! Joe! Beat the Ghosts (1993, developed by Scipio, released under the Blue Bytes label "Play Byte")
  • The Settlers (1993)
  • Battle Isle Data Disk II: The Moon of Chromos (1993)
  • Battle Isle 2 (1993)
  • Battle Isle 2 Scenery CD: Legacy of Titan (1994)
  • Battle Isle 3: Shadow of the Emperor (1995)
  • Albion (1995)
  • Chewy: Esc by F5 (1995, developed by New Generation Software )
  • The Settlers II: Veni, Vidi, Vici (1996)
  • The Settlers II Mission CD (1996)
  • The Settlers II Gold Edition (1997)
  • Creep speed (1996, developed by Massive Development )
  • Incubation: Battle Isle Phase Four (1997)
  • Incubation Mission Pack (1997)
  • Extreme Assault (1997)
  • Game, Net & Match! (1998)
  • The Settlers III (1998)
  • The Settlers III Mission CD (1999)
  • The Settlers III: The Secret of the Amazons (1999)
  • The Settlers III Gold Edition (2000)
  • Stephen King's F13 (2000, developed by Presto Studios )
  • Battle Isle Platinum (2000)
  • Battle Isle: The Andosia Conflict (2000, developed by Cauldron)
  • The Settlers: Lashes for Thieves (2001, minigame)
  • The Settlers IV (2001)


Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Blue Byte GmbH - Annual financial statements for the business year from April 1st, 2016 to March 31st, 2017. December 15, 2017. Retrieved December 23, 2017 .
  2. ↑ The story of Blue Byte on GameStar .de
  3. ↑ Hans Ippisch: Thalion: End of a dream? In: Amiga Games special issue . tape 01/1994 , p. 60 f .
  4. ^ The developer Hans Jürgen Brändle. Retrieved August 13, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Battle Isle: Darkspace stopped. May 10, 2001, accessed August 13, 2020 .
  6. ↑ Related Designs - Ubisoft takes over Anno developers completely. April 12, 2013, accessed August 13, 2020 .
  7. ↑ Article by Gamezone from June 18, 2014
  8. ↑ Blue Byte: Grindel follows Limpach. Retrieved August 13, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Article by GamesWirtschaft from August 24, 2016
  10. ↑ Games economy: Blue Byte Berlin: Ubisoft relocates third studio. In: GamesWirtschaft.de. April 19, 2017, accessed on August 13, 2020 (German).
  11. ↑ Gameswirtschaft: Ubisoft Berlin: What will happen to the “Blue Byte” brand? In: GamesWirtschaft.de. August 31, 2017, accessed on August 13, 2020 (German).
  12. ↑ heise online: Blue Byte becomes Ubisoft and has more employees. Retrieved August 13, 2020 .
  13. ↑ Peter Bathke: Anno 1800 exclusively at Epic Store & Uplay - Ubisoft will remove the game for the release of Steam , March 29, 2019