Fishlabs

Last updated

Fishlabs GmbH
Company type Division
Industry Video games
Founded2004;20 years ago (2004)
Founders
  • Michael Schade
  • Christian Lohr
Headquarters
Hamburg
,
Germany
Products
  • Galaxy on Fire
  • Chorus
Number of employees
70 [1]  (2024)
Parent Deep Silver (2013–present)
Website fishlabs.de

Fishlabs GmbH (formerly Fishlabs Entertainment GmbH and Deep Silver Fishlabs) is a German video game developer based in Hamburg. Founded in 2004 by Michael Schade and Christian Lohr, the studio is best known for its Galaxy on Fire series. [2] Following a brief bankruptcy proceeding, Fishlabs was acquired by Koch Media and reorganized as part of their game publishing label Deep Silver.

Contents

History

Fishlabs was founded in 2004 by Michael Schade and Christian Lohr, incorporated under the name Fishlabs Entertainment GmbH. [3] That same year, the company received a round of financing, which allowed them to pay for development expenses for several years while generating revenue from their releases. [4] It developed advergames like Barclaycard's Waterslide Extreme. [5] In May 2010, Fishlabs planned a series B round and announced its plans to move into the massively multiplayer online games market. [6]

By mid-2013, Fishlabs had run out of money; in October, 25 jobs were cut before the company went into self-administration. [4] On 2 December, media company Koch Media announced that it had acquired Fishlabs, which would henceforth operate as the dedicated mobile studio for its game publishing label, Deep Silver. [3] As the agreement was an asset deal, all of Fishlabs' assets, including 52 employees, were transferred to Koch Media and incorporated in a new division, called Deep Silver Fishlabs. [4] The company's former legal entity, Fishlabs Entertainment GmbH, was to be dissolved, and both founders left the company. [3] Schade and Lohr left the company and founded Everspace developer Rockfish Games. [7] As result of the change in ownership, and the associated financial stability, Fishlabs also moved into video game publishing. [4]

In March 2022, Fishlabs received €5.5 million in funding from the German government for the company's Project Black. Described as a third-person action game, the project was expected to be completed by August 2026. [8] By January 2023, the company employed 95 people. [9] In September, Embracer Group, the parent company of Koch Media (now known as Plaion), underwent cost cutting restructuring. Project Black was cancelled and about 12 employees were laid off. [10]

Fishlabs then pitched a new Red Faction game following the closure of series developer Volition. Despite initial positive reception, the title was cancelled in November 2023 and around 50 Fishlabs employees were laid off. [10] [11]

List of video games

YearTitlePlatform(s)
2008Motoraver 3D J2ME
2009Galaxy on Fire iOS, Symbian, J2ME, Android, Zeebo
2009Powerboat Challenge iOS, J2ME, Zeebo
2009Rally Master Pro iOS, J2ME, Symbian, Zeebo
2009Deep 3D J2ME,Symbian
2010 Galaxy on Fire 2
2011 Android, Macintosh, iOS, PC
Snowboard Hero iOS, Android
2013Galaxy on Fire: Alliances
2014 Secret Files: Sam Peters
Secret Files: Tunguska Android, iOS
2015Galaxy on Fire: Manticore Rising TvOS
Lost Horizon Android, iOS
Secret Files: Sam Peters Android
2016Galaxy on Fire 3: Manticore iOS
Sacred Legends Android, iOS
The Interactive Adventures of Dog Mendonça & Pizza Boy
2017Galaxy on Fire 3: Manticore Android
Galaxy on Fire: Alliances
2018Dead Island: Survivors Android, iOS
Manticore: Galaxy on Fire Nintendo Switch
2019 Saints Row: The Third - The Full Package
2020 Saints Row IV: Re-Elected
2021 Chorus Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Stadia, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S
2023 Valheim Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S

Related Research Articles

Ubisoft Blue Byte GmbH is a German video game holding company owned by Ubisoft. It was founded in October 1988 by Thomas Hertzler and Lothar Schmitt as a developer and was best known for developing the Anno and The Settlers series. The studio was acquired by Ubisoft in 2001. Related Designs was merged into Blue Byte in 2013, and a third studio in Berlin was established in 2018. Since 2019, Ubisoft Blue Byte acts as the parent company of Ubisoft's three German studios, which became branded as Ubisoft Düsseldorf, Ubisoft Mainz and Ubisoft Berlin. The three studios comprise 695 employees as of August 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Crytek</span> German video game and software company

Crytek GmbH is a German video game developer and software developer based in Frankfurt. Founded by the Yerli brothers in Coburg in 1999 and moved to Frankfurt in 2006, Crytek operates additional studios in Kyiv, Ukraine and Istanbul, Turkey. Its former studios included Crytek Black Sea in Sofia, Bulgaria, Crytek UK in Nottingham, and Crytek USA in Austin, Texas. Crytek is best known for developing the first instalment of the Far Cry series, the Crysis series, and the open world nature of their games which showcase the company's CryEngine. As of August 2024, Crytek is the largest game developer in Germany with 405 employees.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Piranha Bytes</span> German video game developer

Piranha Bytes GmbH was a German video game developer based in Essen. It was best known for their Gothic and Risen series of role-playing video games.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deep Silver</span> Austrian video game publisher

Deep Silver is an Austrian video game publisher and a division of Plaion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rockstar Vienna</span> Austrian video game developer

Rockstar Vienna was an Austrian video game developer and a studio of Rockstar Games based in Vienna. Peter Baustädter, Niki Laber, and Hannes Seifert founded the studio as Neo Software in January 1993 as they neared the completion of Whale's Voyage. The game led Neo Software to early success, as did 1994's The Clue!, which sold over a million copies, and enabled the company to relocate from Seifert's house in Hirtenberg to offices in Vienna. After Neo Software's Alien Nations sold more than a million copies in 1999, Computec Media acquired a majority stake in the company, seeking it to produce online games. It then sold the studio and several other businesses to Gameplay.com in February 2000, which sold Neo Software to Take-Two Interactive in January 2001 as part of a subsidiary exchange.

CipSoft GmbH is a German video game developer based in Regensburg. Founded in 2001, it is the developer of Tibia. As of August 2024, the company employs 100 people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Deck13</span> German video game developer and publisher

Deck13 Interactive GmbH is a German video game developer and publisher based in Frankfurt. The company was founded in July 2001 by the team behind Artex Software, a studio that primarily developed video games for RISC OS, such as Ankh: The Tales of Mystery. Originally bearing the name TriggerLab, the company was renamed to Deck13 after the release of its first game, Stealth Combat, in 2002. Deck13 is best known for developing the action role-playing games Lords of the Fallen and The Surge. Deck13 also operates a Hamburg-based subsidiary studio, Deck13 Hamburg.

Plaion is a German-Austrian media company headquartered in Höfen, Tyrol, Austria, with an operating subsidiary based in Planegg, Germany. The company was founded in 1994 by Franz Koch and Klemens Kundratitz. The company operates video game publishing labels Deep Silver, Prime Matter and Ravenscourt, the video game developers Warhorse Studios and Milestone, as well as a film distribution arm, Plaion Pictures. Koch Media's parent company, Koch Media Holding, was acquired by Swedish holding company Embracer Group in February 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bigpoint</span> German video game developer

Bigpoint GmbH is a German video game developer. The company develops stand-alone browser-based games as well as social network games. Bigpoint has over 200 million registered users. Bigpoint.com states that 337,104,419 players are registered in the top right corner, as of 10/10/13. NBCU has featured some of Bigpoint's games on the websites of some of its cable channels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kalypso Media</span> German video game publisher

Kalypso Media Group is a German video game developer and publisher. Founded in 2006 in Worms, the group includes four companies, in Germany, the United Kingdom and the United States and has studios, Realmforge Studios, Gaming Minds Studios, Claymore Game Studios, and Nine Worlds Studios. Kalypso is best known for publishing Tropico, Sudden Strike, Dungeons and Railway Empire series.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Travian Games</span> German video game developer

Travian Games GmbH, based in Munich, is a medium-sized German company in the software industry that has specialized in developing and marketing PC and browser games. Travian Games also acts as an international publisher for selected game titles. Since 2017, the largest company in the video game industry in Bavaria has been a member of the BIU – Bundesverband Interaktive Unterhaltungssoftware. Moreover, Lars Janssen, CEO of Travian Games, has been serving as a board member of Game – the Association of the German Games Industry since 2018.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Wooga</span> German game developer

Wooga is a German game software company based in Berlin that develops story-driven casual games for mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets and social networks like Facebook. It has developed mobile games such as June's Journey, Pearl's Peril and Switchcraft. The company is part of the social games company Playtika. Their name comes from the words "World of Gaming".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">HandyGames</span> German video game developer

www.handy-games.com GmbH is a German video game developer and publisher based in Giebelstadt. In July 2018, the company was acquired by THQ Nordic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black Forest Games</span> German video game developer

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 August 2024, the company employs 50 people.

Daedalic Entertainment GmbH is a German video game publisher and former developer based in Hamburg. They developed various point-and-click adventure games.

Yager Development GmbH is a German video game developer based in Berlin.

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

Limbic Entertainment GmbH is a German video game developer based in Langen. The studio was founded in 2002.

King Art Games is a German video game developer. The company created the point-and-click adventure The Book of Unwritten Tales, including its prequel called The Critter Chronicles and the sequel The Book of Unwritten Tales 2. Their other project that uses similar gameplay mechanics, is the point-and-click adventure The Raven: Legacy of a Master Thief.

<i>Everspace</i> 2017 video game

Everspace is a 3D space shooter with roguelike elements developed and published by German studio Rockfish Games. It was released in 2017. A sequel, Everspace 2 was released in 2023.

Embracer Group AB is a Swedish video game and media holding company based in Karlstad. The company comprises 10 operative groups: Amplifier Game Invest, Asmodee, CDE Entertainment, Coffee Stain, Dark Horse Media, Deca Games, Easybrain, Freemode, Plaion, and THQ Nordic.

References

  1. ↑ Fröhlich, Petra (15 August 2024). "Die größten Games-Studios in Deutschland 2024" [The largest game studios in Germany in 2024]. GamesWirtschaft (in German). Archived from the original on 15 August 2024. Retrieved 15 August 2024.
  2. ↑ Etherington, Darrell (11 February 2013). "Galaxy On Fire Space Sim MMO For iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch Coming In Q3 2013". TechCrunch . Archived from the original on 3 February 2019. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
  3. 1 2 3 Corriea, Alexa Ray (2 December 2013). "Galaxy on Fire developer Fishlabs purchased by Koch Media". Polygon . Archived from the original on 3 February 2019. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Chapple, Craig (14 May 2014). "'It was the hardest time we've ever gone through': How Fishlabs came back from the brink". MCV . Archived from the original on 9 February 2019. Retrieved 3 February 2019.
  5. ↑ Dredge, Stuart (27 July 2009). "Fishlabs reveals Waterslide Extreme iPhone stats". pocketgamer.biz. Retrieved 9 February 2024.
  6. ↑ vaughn597 (12 May 2010). "Next10: Fishlabs to move into mobile MMOGs, Series B round planned". TechCrunch . Archived from the original on 16 February 2018. Retrieved 27 August 2017.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  7. ↑ Handrahan, Matthew (31 January 2018). "Rockfish Games: Building success, piece by piece". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 7 March 2022.
  8. ↑ Gameswirtschaft (4 April 2023). "Games-Förderung: 5,5 Mio. € für Chorus-Studio Fishlabs". GamesWirtschaft.de (in German). Retrieved 21 June 2024.
  9. ↑ Fröhlich, Petra (16 January 2023). "Die größten Games-Studios in Deutschland 2023 (Update)" [The largest game studios in Germany in 2023 (update)]. GamesWirtschaft (in German). Archived from the original on 21 January 2023. Retrieved 21 January 2023.
  10. 1 2 Evans-Thirlwell, Edwin (20 June 2024). "How Embracer's cuts killed a potential Red Faction sequel and gutted a promising studio". Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Retrieved 21 June 2024.
  11. ↑ Phillips, Tom (28 November 2023). "Layoffs hit Galaxy on Fire, Chorus developer Fishlabs - sources". Eurogamer . Retrieved 28 November 2023.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.