Nival (company)

Last updated
Nival
Company type Private
Industry Video games
FoundedNovember 18, 1996 (1996-11-18)
Founder Sergey Orlovskiy
Headquarters,
Cyprus
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
Sergey Orlovskiy
(CEO)
Products Etherlords series
Blitzkrieg series
Silent Storm series
Heroes of Might and Magic V series
Prime World
Website nival.com

Nival is a video game developer and publisher founded by Sergey Orlovskiy in 1996. It is headquartered in Limassol, Cyprus.

Contents

History

The company was founded by Sergey Orlovskiy on November 18, 1996 as Nival Interactive, and became famous as the developer of several successful role-playing and strategy series, including Rage of Mages (known as Allods in Eastern Europe), Blitzkrieg , and Etherlords , all of which would receive sequels. Nival also created the Silent Storm engine and developed several games using it, beginning with the eponymous Silent Storm series in 2003. Among these was Heroes of Might and Magic V and two add-ons, published by Ubisoft.

Nival began to self-publish its own games in 2005. Nival financed and published external developers including KranX Productions, creators of King's Bounty: Legions and Bytex, developers of Berserk Online. In early 2005, the part of Nival operating under the name Nival Interactive was bought by Ener1 Group, a Florida-based holdings company, for around $10 million. On November 30, 2007, Sergey Orlovskiy regained full control of Nival Interactive. [1]

In early 2010, another part of Nival, Astrum Nival, was bought by Digital Sky Technologies for more than $100 million, becoming a part of Astrum Online Entertainment. Nival's internal development studios became focused on PC and mobile projects. Nival has developed and launched Prime World, King's Bounty: Legions . [2]

In December 2013, Nival raised $6 million in its Series A funding round led by Almaz Capital. The funds were to be used for global expansion. [3] In February 2017, Nival announced the world's first Neural Network AI for RTS for its game Blitzkrieg 3 . [4]

Now the company is making investments and providing advising support to innovative projects that explore video games, education, artificial intelligence, and new forms of interactive experiences.[ citation needed ]

Technology

Games

Related Research Articles

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<i>Blitzkrieg</i> (video game) 2003 video game

Blitzkrieg is a real-time tactics video game based on the events of World War II and is the first title in the Blitzkrieg series. The game allows players to assume the role of commanding officer during the battles of World War II that occurred in Europe and North Africa. Each country has its respective historically correct military units. Similar to the Sudden Strike games, Blitzkrieg focuses on battles rather than real-time strategy aspects like base building.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">New World Computing</span> American development studio for computer games

New World Computing, Inc. was an American video game developer and publisher founded in 1984 by Jon Van Caneghem, his wife, Michaela Van Caneghem, and Mark Caldwell. It was best known for its work on the Might and Magic role-playing video game series and its spin-offs, especially Heroes of Might and Magic. The company was purchased by and became a division of The 3DO Company on July 10, 1996 from NTN Communications, after NTN purchased New World Computing for $10 million in stock.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jon Van Caneghem</span> American video game designer

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<i>Etherlords</i> 2001 video game

Etherlords is a series of fantasy turn-based strategy and card-dueling video games for the PC, by Russian developer Nival Interactive. The first game was published November 15, 2001 by Ravensburger Interactive Media under their mature game label Fishtank Interactive. Prior to worldwide release it was released in Russia as Demiurges. It was followed two years later by a sequel, Etherlords II, which was published in Europe by DreamCatcher Interactive and in North America by Strategy First. A third game for the iOS and Android was released in 2014 titled Etherlords. It's a free-to-play game with automated battles.

<i>Silent Storm</i> 2003 video game

Silent Storm is a 2003 turn-based tactics video game developed by Nival Interactive and published by JoWood. The game is set in a fictionalized World War II Europe with science fiction elements.

Nival Interactive developed a proprietary game engine for its turn-based tactics video game Silent Storm. The engine was reused for Silent Storm: Sentinels, Night Watch, Hammer & Sickle and Day Watch. A modified version of this engine was used for Heroes of Might and Magic V. Akella used the engine for Jagged Alliance 3 in 2007 before that version of the game was cancelled in 2010.

<i>Blitzkrieg 2</i> 2005 video game

Blitzkrieg 2 is a real-time tactics computer game based on the events of World War II, the game is an evolution of its predecessor Blitzkrieg and is the second title in the Blitzkrieg. The game takes place in North Africa, the Pacific and Europe, and features the 6 different factions portrayed in the game that fought in their battle respective grounds during the war.

<i>Rage of Mages</i> 1998 video game

Rage of Mages is a PC game that combines role-playing and real-time strategy. Produced by Nival Interactive it was first released in Russia under the name of Allods: The Seal of Mystery. The game was published in April 1998 in the EU by Buka Entertainment and on October 13, 1998 in the US. It was re-released in 2016 on GOG.com.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Astrum Online Entertainment</span>

Astrum Online Entertainment is a Russian holding company which operates in the online entertainment market of Eastern Europe. Founded in the beginning of December 2007, it incorporated four companies, which specialize in development, publishing and operating online games: Nival Online, IT Territory, Time Zero, and Nikita Online. In summer 2008 the fifth company, the developer of online games called "DJ Games", joined in.

<i>Allods Online</i> 2010 video game

Allods Online is a free-to-play 3D fantasy MMORPG developed by Allods Team, formerly Astrum Nival, and published by Mail.Ru Group globally, with the international version operated by their subsidiary My.com. The game was originally released in North America on May 11, 2011.

<i>Kings Bounty: Legions</i> 2011 video game

King's Bounty: Legions is a social, turn-based strategy video game developed jointly by Nival and KranX Productions. It is based on the strategy game King's Bounty: The Legend, which is itself based on concepts from the much older King's Bounty developed in 1990 by New World Computing. It is currently available to play on Facebook, iPad, Windows Phone as well Android devices.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sergey Orlovskiy</span>

Sergey Orlovskiy is the founder and CEO of Nival, one of the oldest game development companies in Eastern Europe. In addition to heading Nival, Orlovskiy is a member of the board of directors of Alawar Entertainment.

Allods Team is a video game developer and a subsidiary of My.Games. Founded in September 2006, it was previously known as Nival Online and Astrum Nival. On February 24, 2010, Mail.Ru announced the 100% acquisition of Astrum Nival from its former owners. From that point, Astrum Nival acts under the name of Mail.Ru. On September 29, 2011, the studio was renamed to Allods Team.

<i>Rage of Mages II: Necromancer</i> 1999 video game

Rage of Mages II: Necromancer is a role-playing video game for Microsoft Windows that was developed by Nival and released in 1999. It is known as Allods 2: Master of Souls in Russia. It contains 43 missions and a multiplayer mode that allows play with up to 16 players.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Buka Entertainment</span> Russian video game developer and publisher

Buka Entertainment JSC — is one of the oldest Russian video game developers and publishers. Headquartered in Moscow, the company was officially established in 1994. Since 2008, it is a part of the 1C Company.

References

  1. "Sergey Orlovskiy regains full control of Nival Interactive". Nival Interactive. Archived from the original on October 9, 2010. Retrieved June 12, 2009.
  2. "Consolidation Creates New, Extraordinary Gaming Brand | 2011 | News Feed | News". Nival. 2011-04-28. Retrieved 2012-10-01.
  3. "Prime World strategy-game developer Nival raises $6M in latest funding round". VBGamesBeat. December 11, 2013. Retrieved January 3, 2014.
  4. "Nival announces the world's first Neural Network AI for RTS for its game Blitzkrieg 3".
  5. "Nival".
  6. "Prime World: Alchemy (Kindle Tablet Edition)". Amazon.