Aeria Games

Last updated
Aeria Games
Type Subsidiary
Industry Video games
Founded2006
Headquarters Berlin, Germany
Key people
Remco Westermann (CEO) [1]
Parent Gamigo
Website Aeria Games

Aeria Games, formerly known as Aeria Games and Entertainment, was an online game publisher. The corporate headquarters were in Berlin, Germany. [2]

Contents

Aeria Games was a privately-owned organization by Aeria Games & Entertainment Inc, later a subsidiary of ProSiebenSat.1 Media, [3] and later of Gamigo, which operated an Internet gaming portal for massively multiplayer online games. It focused on online games in multiple formats, client games, browser games, and mobile games. It published games for North America, South America and Europe.

History

Aeria Games was founded in Santa Clara, California, as Aeria Games & Entertainment. Two years later they opened their first international office in Berlin, Germany, which later became the company's headquarters. [4] On January 5, the company acquired ijji, 2012. [5]

The company also merged with Gamepot in late 2012. [6]

In February 2014, all its worldwide PC games business including its subsidiary Aeria Games Europe GmbH were sold to ProSiebenSat.1 Media. [7] In May 2016, Aeria Games merged with Gamigo and let go 100 of their formerly 260 employees in Berlin. [8]

In February 2023, the gaming portal was closed down after its remaining games were transferred to other publishing companies.

Its games were free-to-play and used a micropayment system to generate revenue (in-game item malls and advertising).

Community

As of July 2012, after the acquisition of Ijji the community had over 40 million registered members. [9]

Portal Closure

On December 20, 2022, Aeria Games announced the transfer of all its current games (Aura Kingdom, Grand Fantasia and Shaiya) to other publishers. The publishing company additionally released information that the Aeria Games portal would be closing down in February of 2023. [10]

Gamigo, the parent company of Aeria Games, subsequently confirmed on February 22, 2023, that the Aeria Games portal would be closing down on February 28, 2023. [10]

Client Games published

Browser games published (Aeria Browser)

Mobile games published

Client games published via Aeria Ignite

Games no longer published by Aeria Games

Related Research Articles

A massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) is a video game that combines aspects of a role-playing video game and a massively multiplayer online game.

Wizardry is a series of role-playing video games, developed by Sir-Tech, that were highly influential in the evolution of modern role-playing video games. The original Wizardry was a significant influence on early console role-playing games such as Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest. Originally made for the Apple II, the games were later ported to other platforms. The last game in the original series by Sir-Tech was Wizardry 8, released in 2001. There have since been various spin-off titles developed for the Japanese market.

A massively multiplayer online game is an online video game with a large number of players on the same server. MMOs usually feature a huge, persistent open world, although there are games that differ. These games can be found for most network-capable platforms, including the personal computer, video game console, or smartphones and other mobile devices.

In video games, a clan, community, guild or faction is an organized group of video game players that regularly play together in one or more multiplayer games. Many clans take part in gaming competitions, but some clans are just small gaming squads consisting of friends. These squads range from groups of a few friends to four-thousand plus person organizations, with a broad range of structures, goals and members. The lifespan of a clan also varies considerably, from a few weeks to over a decade. Numerous clans exist for nearly every online game available today, notably in first-person shooters (FPS), massively multiplayer games (MMO), role-playing video games (RPG), and strategy games. There are also meta-groups that span a wide variety of games. Some clans formed by groups of players have grown into multi-million dollar professional esports teams.

Sigil Games Online, Inc. was a computer game developer based in Carlsbad, California founded in January 2002 by Brad McQuaid and Jeff Butler, key development team members who created EverQuest, the most popular massively multiplayer online role-playing game before World of Warcraft. McQuaid and Butler left Sony Online Entertainment (SOE), the publisher of EverQuest, and formed Sigil Games Online to develop "the next big thing". McQuaid told the video game website IGN, "I find myself much happier at the results of assembling an all-star team of MMOG developers and focusing on making one ground-breaking, unprecedented project, as opposed to being spread thin like I was as VP/CCO at Verant/SOE.". Sigil released their only game "Vanguard: Saga of Heroes" on January 30, 2007 after several well publicized delays and a last minute switch from publishing with Microsoft to publishing again with SOE. On May 15, 2007, SOE announced that they had completed a transaction to purchase key assets of Sigil Games Online. As a result, SOE now owns Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, described as Sigil's "tent pole property".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mythic Entertainment</span> Defunct video game developer

Mythic Entertainment was an American video game developer based in Fairfax, Virginia that was most widely recognized for developing the 2001 massively multiplayer online role-playing game Dark Age of Camelot. Mythic was a prolific creator of multiplayer online games following its establishment in the mid-1990s.

<i>Vanguard: Saga of Heroes</i> 2007 video game

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes was a high fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed by Sigil Games Online and published by Sony Online Entertainment (SOE). The game was released on January 30, 2007 and initially sold around 242,000 copies, while the number of active subscriptions was estimated to be around 130,000, to drop in the next months to about 40,000. On May 15, 2007, it was announced in a press release that Sony Online Entertainment had acquired key assets from Sigil Games Online, including all rights to Vanguard.

<i>GunZ: The Duel</i> 2005 video game

GunZ: The Duel, or simply GunZ, was an online third-person shooting game, created by South Korean-based MAIET Entertainment.

<i>Fantasy Earth Zero</i> 2006 video game

Fantasy Earth Zero was a 2006 massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed for Microsoft Windows. Originally developed by Puraguru and Multiterm under the title Fantasy Earth: The Ring of Dominion, it was released by Square Enix as a paid product through its PlayOnline service. It relaunched under Gamepot as a free game, and was later handled by developers SoftGear and Ocean Frontier and was transferred back to Square Enix. Under the premise of a world where rival kingdoms engage in frequent conflicts, players choose an allied kingdom and fight against each other in groups of up to fifty players. The game closed down in September 2022.

Dreamlords was a massively multiplayer online real-time strategy (MMORTS) game, developed by Swedish game developers Lockpick Entertainment. Dreamlords was online only, and was free to play with an option to pay for additional benefit. It included in-game currency called Tribute that was used to buy items like spells to aid the players. The game used both a browser game and a downloadable real-time strategy client. Dreamlords also includes elements of role-playing video games.

OGPlanet was a publisher of free-to-play, massively multiplayer online (MMO), downloadable PC games, based in Torrance, California, with offices in Vancouver, Berlin, London and Seoul. Although their games were free-to-play, OGPlanet offered "Astros", an in-game currency that players could purchase online through Xsolla using a variety of payment methods including credit and debit cards and PayPal; Astros were used for in-game enhancements. On 29 September 2017, the final game being published by OGPlanet, Uncharted Waters Online, was shut down for transfer to Papaya Play and the OGPlanet website taken offline.

<i>Project Torque</i> 2008 video game

Project Torque, also known as Level-R outside North America and HEAT Online for the 2010 North American version, is a multiplayer online racing game (MMORG) with partially chargeable content, or micro-transactions, originally developed by Invictus Games. It features gameplay elements such as tuning and customization.

Kunlun Group or their alternative name KoramGame, is a Hong Kong software developer and publisher.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trion Worlds</span> American video game developer

Trion Worlds was an American video game developer. It focuses primarily on MMOs, particularly of the MMORPG and MMORTS genres. The company was founded in 2006 by Lars Buttler and Jon Van Caneghem, who had each previously worked for NCSoft and left in 2009 to join Electronic Arts.

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

Nikita Online is a Russian publisher and developer of online games. Founded in 1991 and originally named NIKITA, it became the first Russian game company.

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

GMO Gamepot, Inc. was one of Japan's leading game publishers of massively multiplayer online games and mobile games.

<i>Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms</i> Video game

Game of Thrones: Seven Kingdoms was a fantasy massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) under development by Bigpoint and Artplant. The game was based on the television series Game of Thrones.

Datcroft Games is an international video game developer and publisher. The company was founded in 2004 with no involvement of external investors or institutional / VC funds. The Datcroft Games currently has more than 50 specialists working across 7 countries.

Scarlet Blade and Queen's Blade was a sci-fi/fantasy adult massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) by Korean developer Liveplex, released in Asia in 2012. It was localized to English by Aeria Games and released to the West in March 2013. The game closed in March 2016 due to economical and technical reasons. From April 2016 the game is hosted by Vendetta Gaming Network.

References

  1. "Aeria || Corporate Website". About.aeriagames.com. Archived from the original on 2015-11-08. Retrieved 2015-12-17.
  2. "aeria games | Massively Overpowered". Archived from the original on 2023-05-04. Retrieved 2023-05-04.
  3. "ProSiebenSat.1 Group Acquires Aeria Games Europe". ProSiebenSat.1 Media AG. February 27, 2014. Archived from the original on 14 July 2014. Retrieved 12 July 2014.
  4. "Aeria Games entlässt die Hälfte der Berliner Belegschaft". www.gruenderszene.de. 2016-07-01. Archived from the original on 2016-07-23. Retrieved 2016-07-18.
  5. "Aeria Games Acquires ijji Games in Conjunction With Investment Funding From NHN Corporation". www.businesswire.com. 2012-01-05. Archived from the original on 2012-03-19. Retrieved 2012-04-08.
  6. "Aeria Games and Gamepot Merge to Create a Global Force in Multi-Platform, Free-to-Play Gaming". www.finance.yahoo.com. 2012-12-17. Archived from the original on 2013-04-13. Retrieved 2013-02-06.
  7. "Aeria Games Sells European Subsidiary to ProSiebenSat.1 Games". www.aeriagames.com. 2014-02-27. Archived from the original on 2014-03-06. Retrieved 2014-02-27.
  8. "Aeria Games entlässt die Hälfte der Berliner Belegschaft". www.gruenderszene.de. 2016-07-01. Archived from the original on 2016-07-23. Retrieved 2016-07-18.
  9. "Exclusive: Aeria Takes Flight". [a]listdaily. 2012-07-24. Archived from the original on 2012-10-30. Retrieved 2012-12-07.
  10. 1 2 "Closure of the Aeria Games Portal & latest updates about the Transfer". aurakingdom.aeriagames.com. Archived from the original on 2023-02-27. Retrieved 2023-02-26.
  11. "Aeria Games List". WWGDB Games. Archived from the original on 4 May 2023. Retrieved 5 April 2023.
  12. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "Aeria Games & Entertainment, Inc". MobyGames. Archived from the original on 2023-05-04. Retrieved 2023-05-04.
  13. "EA and Aeria Games Team Up to Launch Battlefield Heroes on Aeria Games Network | Battlefield Heroes". Battlefieldheroes.aeriagames.com. 2011-09-21. Archived from the original on 2012-10-22. Retrieved 2012-12-07.
  14. "Turf Battles shutting down June 18 2010". 2 June 2010. Archived from the original on 8 August 2018. Retrieved 7 August 2018.