Warcraft is a franchise of video games, novels, and other media created by Blizzard Entertainment. The series is made up of five core games: Warcraft: Orcs & Humans, Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness, Warcraft III: Reign of Chaos, World of Warcraft, and Hearthstone. The first three of these core games are in the real-time strategy genre, where opposing players command virtual armies in battle against each other or a computer-controlled enemy. The fourth and best-selling title of the franchise is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), where players control their character and interact with each other in a virtual world. Warcraft is one of the highest-grossing video game franchises of all time, having grossed $11.2 billion in lifetime revenue, as of 2018.
Disney Interactive Studios, Inc. was an American video game developer and publisher owned by The Walt Disney Company through Disney Interactive. Prior to its closure in 2016, it developed and distributed multi-platform video games and interactive entertainment worldwide.
DreamCatcher Interactive Inc. was a Canadian video game publisher founded in 1996 by Richard Wah Kan. It was best known for its adventure games. In 2006, the company became a subsidiary of JoWooD Entertainment. In 2011, the company went into administration along with its parent JoWooD and all assets were purchased by Nordic Games Holding. The DreamCatcher Interactive brand is currently being used as a publishing label for THQ Nordic.
The Adventure Company was a Canadian video game developer and a former publishing division of DreamCatcher Interactive. It was sold to THQ Nordic GmbH in 2011 following DreamCatcher's parent assets being sold after entering administration.
Gothic II is a role-playing video game by German developer Piranha Bytes and the sequel to Gothic. It was released on 29 November 2002 in Germany and in North America on 28 October 2003. The game was published by JoWooD Productions and Atari, Inc.
JoWooD Entertainment AG was an Austrian video game publisher that was founded in 1995. JoWooD went into administration in 2011 and all assets were purchased by Nordic Games.
Gothic 3 is a fantasy-themed open world action role-playing game for Microsoft Windows developed by Piranha Bytes. It is the sequel to Gothic II.
ZootFly was a Slovenian video game developer specializing in the development of action adventure games for the Xbox, Xbox 360, PS3 and PC. ZootFly was a member studio of the International Game Developers Association (IGDA).
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic (KOTOR) is an RPG video game series, based on an earlier comic book series, and with a subsequent new comic book series, all based on the fictional universe of Star Wars by George Lucas. The first title and subsequent MMORPG series were developed by BioWare, while the second was done by Obsidian Entertainment per LucasArts' request. All were published by LucasArts. Both comic series were published by Dark Horse Comics. Both series act as prequels to the video games.
Arcania: Gothic 4 is an action role-playing video game, spin-off of the Gothic series, developed by Spellbound Entertainment. It was published by JoWooD Entertainment in 2010.
Spellbound Entertainment AG was a German video game developer based in Offenburg. The company is best known for the Desperados series.
Demon's Souls is an action role-playing game developed by FromSoftware for the PlayStation 3 under the supervision of Japan Studio. It was published in Japan by Sony Computer Entertainment in February 2009, in North America by Atlus USA in October 2009, and in PAL territories by Namco Bandai Partners in June 2010. The game is referred to as a spiritual successor to FromSoftware's King's Field series.
Forsaken Gods is a standalone expansion for Gothic 3. It was developed by Trine Games and published by JoWooD Productions. The game was released in Europe and North America in 2008. An Enhanced Edition was released in 2011 developed by Mad Vulture Games.
SpellForce 2: Faith in Destiny is the second expansion for SpellForce 2, developed by Indian studio Trine Games. It was released on June 19, 2012, after several delays.
Gothic is an action role-playing game franchise created by German developer Piranha Bytes and since May 2019 owned by THQ Nordic.
Neverwinter is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by Cryptic Studios for Microsoft Windows in 2013, Xbox One in 2015, and PlayStation 4 in 2016. Based on the fictional Forgotten Realms city of Neverwinter from Dungeons & Dragons, Neverwinter is a standalone game and not part of the previous Neverwinter Nights series.
Western role-playing video games are role-playing video games developed in the Western world, including The Americas and Europe. They originated on mainframe university computer systems in the 1970s, were later popularized by titles such as Ultima and Wizardry in the early- to mid-1980s, and continue to be produced for modern home computer and video game console systems. The genre's "Golden Age" occurred in the mid- to late-1980s, and its popularity suffered a downturn in the mid-1990s as developers struggled to keep up with changing fashion, hardware evolution and increasing development costs. A later series of isometric role-playing games, published by Interplay Productions and Blizzard Entertainment, was developed over a longer time period and set new standards of production quality.
THQ Nordic GmbH is an Austrian video game publisher based in Vienna. Formed in 2011, it is a publishing subsidiary of Embracer Group. Originally named Nordic Games, as was the parent company, both companies were renamed THQ Nordic in August 2016 after the parent company had acquired the "THQ" trademark in 2014. THQ Nordic's core portfolio comprises assets that were acquired from other developers and publishers, such as from JoWooD Entertainment and its subsidiaries DreamCatcher Interactive and The Adventure Company in 2011, THQ in 2013, and NovaLogic in 2016. THQ Nordic has acquired and established several subsidiary studios, including Black Forest Games, Bugbear Entertainment, Gunfire Games, HandyGames, Piranha Bytes, Purple Lamp Studios and Rainbow Studios.
Black Forest Games GmbH is a German video game developer based in Offenburg. The company was founded in July 2012 by a team of 40 staff members, including chief executive officer Andreas Speer, previously employed by Spellbound Entertainment, which filed for insolvency earlier that year. As of August 2017, it is a subsidiary of THQ Nordic. As of June 2019, the company employs 66 people.
SpellForce is a real-time strategy and role-playing series created by Phenomic and currently owned by THQ Nordic. The first release was published by JoWooD Productions and Encore Software in 2003, and by THQ Nordic in 2017.
