External links
- Official website
- Battlefront.com profile at MobyGames
| Industry | Video games |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1997 |
| Founder | Steve Grammont Charles Moylan |
| Products | Combat Mission Strategic Command Theatre of War |
| Website | Battlefront.com |
Battlefront.com is a video game developer and publisher. Battlefront specialises in war-related games, including turn-based and real-time strategies, as well as simulations of air, land and naval military vehicles.
Apart from publishing the self-developed Combat Mission series, the company publishes games created by other studios (such as 1C Company), including Strategic Command and Theatre of War series. [1]
The company began life as Big Time Software when Charles Moylan and Steve Grammont decided to form an independent game company. [2] They produced the successful and unique Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord to critical acclaim in 1999. [3] The fledgling company utilized an online sales model and published a manifesto on its website pledging dedication to its fanbase.
The company continued to grow as subsequent titles in the CM series were released, and other publishers began to partner with BTS. A name change to battlefront.com, coinciding with the domain name of the official website, followed.
| Release date | Title | Genre | Platform | Developer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2000 | Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord | Hybrid turn-based / real-time strategy | Macintosh, Windows | Battlefront.com | First game in the Combat Mission series |
| 2002 | Strategic Command: European Theater | Turn-based strategy | Windows | Fury Software | First game in the Strategic Command series |
| 2002 | Combat Mission II: Barbarossa to Berlin | Turn-based / real-time strategy | Macintosh, Windows | Battlefront.com | Second game in the series |
| 2003 | Combat Mission 3: Afrika Korps | Turn-based / real-time strategy | Macintosh, Windows | Battlefront.com | Third game in the series |
| 2005 | T-72: Balkans On Fire! | Vehicle simulation | Windows | 1C Company | |
| 2005 | Down in Flames | Vehicle simulation | Windows | Dan Verssen Games | |
| 2005 | Strategic Command 2: Blitzkrieg | Turn-based strategy | Windows | Fury Software | Second game in the series |
| 2006 | DropTeam: Mechanized Combat in the Far Future | Real-time strategy | Linux, Macintosh, Windows | TBG Software | |
| 2006 | Down in Flames: Eastern Front | Vehicle simulation | Windows | Dan Verssen Games | Expansion pack of Down in Flames |
| 2007 | Theatre of War | Real-time strategy | Windows | 1C Company | First game in the Theatre of War series |
| 2007 | Combat Mission: Shock Force | Turn-based / real-time strategy | Windows | Battlefront.com | Fourth game in the series |
| 2007 | Strategic Command 2: Weapons and Warfare | Turn-based strategy | Windows | Fury Software | Expansion pack of Strategic Command 2 |
| 2008 | Strategic Command 2: Patton Drives East | Turn-based strategy | Windows | Fury Software | Expansion pack of Strategic Command 2 |
| 2008 | Strategic Command WWII Pacific Theater | Turn-based strategy | Windows | Fury Software | Third game in the series |
| 2008 | Combat Mission: Shock Force - Marines | Turn-based / real-time strategy | Windows | Battlefront.com | Expansion pack of Combat Mission: Shock Force |
| 2009 | Combat Mission: Shock Force - British Forces | Turn-based / real-time strategy | Windows | Battlefront.com | Expansion pack of Combat Mission: Shock Force |
| 2009 | Theatre of War 2: Africa 1943 | Real-time strategy | Windows | 1C Company | Second game in the series |
| 2009 | Theatre of War 2: Centauro | Real-time strategy | Windows | 1C Company | Expansion pack of Theatre of War 2: Africa 1943 |
| 2009 | Empires of Steel | Turn-based strategy | Windows | Atomicboy Software | |
| 2009 | PT Boats: Knights of the Sea | Simulation | Windows | Akella | |
| 2009 | Combat Mission: Afghanistan | Turn-based / real-time strategy | Windows | Snowball | Will be the fifth game in the series [4] |
| 2010 | Strategic Command WWII Global Conflict | Turn-based strategy | Windows | Fury Software | Fourth game in the series |
| 2010 | Theatre of War 2: Kursk 1943 | Real-time strategy | Windows | 1C Company | Expansion pack of Theatre of War 2: Africa 1943 |
| 2010 | CM:SF - NATO | Turn-based / real-time strategy | Windows | Will be the third Module for Shock Force | |
| 2010 | CM: Battle for Normandy | Turn-based / real-time strategy | Windows/Mac | Initial game of the CM:X2 game engine set in World War II. | |
| 2012 | Combat Mission: Fortress Italy | Turn-based / real-time strategy | Windows/Mac | Second title of the CM:X2 game engine set in World War II | |
| 2014 | CM:Red Thunder | Turn-based / real-time strategy | Windows/Mac | Third title of the CM:X2 game engine, first to be set on the Eastern Front of World War II. | |
| 2014 | Combat Mission: Black Sea | Turn-based / real-time strategy | Windows/Mac | Set in fictional Ukraine-Russia-NATO war. | |
| 2016 | Combat Mission: Final Blitzkrieg | Turn-based / real-time strategy | Windows/Mac | Set in WWII. | |
| 2018 | Combat Mission: Shock Force 2 | Turn-based / real-time strategy | Windows/Mac | Battlefront.com | Same as Shock Force 1, But graphic improved a bit |
| 2021 | Combat Mission: Cold War | Turn-based / real-time strategy | Windows/Mac | Battlefront.com | The Timeline was set in during the Cold War era, But about what if the Soviet Union invaded West Germany and Europe, from a cold turn into the hot war. |
| Announced | Title | Genre | Platform | Developer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| First announced | Cancelled | Title | Genre | Platform | Developer | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2004 | 5 November 2009 [5] | Modern Naval Battles: World War II at Sea | Simulation | Windows | Dan Verssen Games | [6] Would be based on a board game of the same name |
| 2005 | 2009 | Combat Mission: Campaigns | Turn-based / real-time strategy | Windows | Hunting Tank Software | Had been in development well before 2005; work was mainly by private software company under license. [7] |
| 2005 [8] | 2009 | Histwar: Les Grognards [9] | Turn-based / real-time strategy | Windows |
Matt Faller spent nine years as chief information officer and project manager, leaving the company for employment with Software Generation Ltd. in August 2009. Faller's duties involved design, implementation and support of the battlefront's IT infrastructure and management of customer support. [10]
On July 1, 2010, battlefront hired Phillip Culliton as a "First Second Programmer" after operating for 13 years with a single coder. [11]
GameSpy was an American provider of online multiplayer and matchmaking middleware for video games founded in 1999 by Mark Surfas. After the release of a multiplayer server browser for Quake, QSpy, Surfas licensed the software under the GameSpy brand to other video game publishers through a newly established company, GameSpy Industries, which also incorporated his Planet Network of video game news and information websites, and GameSpy.com.
Combat Mission 3: Afrika Korps is a turn-based computer wargame about tactical battles in World War II. It is part of the Combat Mission series. It focuses on the campaigns in North Africa, East Africa, Italy, and Crete.
Combat Mission II: Barbarossa to Berlin is a 2002 computer wargame developed and published by Battlefront.com. A turn-based computer game about tactical battles in World War II, it is the sequel to Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord. The game has been described as the "reigning champ of east front tactical warfare for the PC."
Combat Mission: Beyond Overlord is a 2000 computer wargame developed and published by Big Time Software. It is a simulation of tactical land battles in World War II.
Over one hundred video games based on the Star Wars franchise have been released, dating back to some of the earliest home consoles. Some are based directly on films while others rely heavily on the Star Wars Expanded Universe.
Criterion Games is a British video game developer based in Guildford. Founded in January 1996 as a division of Criterion Software, it was owned by Canon Inc. until Criterion Software was sold to Electronic Arts in October 2004. Many of Criterion Games' titles were built on the RenderWare engine, which Criterion Software developed. Notable games developed by Criterion Games include racing video games in the Burnout and Need for Speed series. As of April 2017, Criterion Games employ approximately 90 people.
Matrix Games is a publisher of PC games, specifically strategy games and wargames. It is based in Ohio, US, and Surrey, UK.
Combat Mission: Shock Force is a computer wargame by American studio Battlefront.com in the Combat Mission series of games that covers a fictional United States invasion of Syria, focusing on U.S. Stryker brigades. It was released in 2007, marking the debut of the CMX2 game engine, the second generation of Combat Mission games.
IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover is a World War II combat flight simulator released in 2011. It was originally developed by the Russian software house 1C:Maddox Games but since 2012 it is under development by Team Fusion Simulations. In 2017 that latter released an improved version of the game under the name IL-2 Sturmovik: Cliffs of Dover - Blitz which started the so called Dover series. The basic Blitz game represents the Battle of Britain during the summer of 1940 while an add-on released in 2020 represents the air combats during the Western Desert campaign in North Africa in the period of 1940-1942. A second add-on is in the works to cover the leadup to and the Dieppe Raid with a release date of the second half of 2024.
Strategic Command is a series of computer video games developed by Fury Software and Battlefront.com, and published by Excalibur Publishing. Since the premiere of the first game in the series, Strategic Command: European Theater in 2002, eight further new titles and six expansion packs have been released, with the ninth game released in 2022, Strategic Command: American Civil War, being the most recent one. Including re-releases, expansions, and the 2019 bundle Strategic Command: Complete, 22 different titles are included in the series.
Strategic Command 2: Blitzkrieg is a grand strategy computer game developed by Canadian studio Fury Software, and published by Battlefront.com in 2006. The second game in the Strategic Command series, Blitzkrieg is a turn-based strategy set in World War II, focusing on the European Theater. The player controls all of either Axis or Allied states.
Strategic Command WWII Pacific Theater is a grand strategy computer game developed by Canadian studio Fury Software, and published by Battlefront.com in 2008. The third game in the Strategic Command series, Pacific Theater is a turn-based strategy set in World War II, focusing – for the first time in the series – on Asia and the titular Pacific Theater. The player controls all of either Axis or Allied states.
Down in Flames is a computer video game for Microsoft Windows, developed by American studio Dan Verssen Games and published by Battlefront.com in 2005. Closely based on a card-driven tabletop game of the same name, Down in Flames is a turn-based simulation of dogfights between World War II fighter planes. Some parts of the game also involve escorting and intercepting bombers.
1C Company is a Russian software developer, distributor and publisher based in Moscow. It develops, manufactures, licenses, supports and sells computer software, related services and video games.
The Farm 51 is a Polish video game developer founded in 2005 by Wojciech Pazdur and Kamil Bilczyński, which previously worked on the Painkiller series at People Can Fly, and Robert Siejka, former president of 3D Magazine. Originally, the company made some outsourcing contracts work for other studios, but then gathered enough IP to get funding from 1C Company for their 2009 debut project, NecroVisioN, and then its prequel, NecroVisioN: Lost Company. They were initially working on City Interactive's Alien Fear, but are no longer involved with the project. They released Deadfall Adventures in November 2013. Get Even was published by Bandai Namco Entertainment and released in June 2017. They released Chernobylite in July 2021. Their upcoming game, World War 3 is in development with publishers My.Games and The 4 Winds Entertainment.
Combat Mission is the name of a series of computer wargames simulating tactical battles. The series has progressed through two distinct game engines. The original game engine, referred to as 'CMx1' by the developer, Battlefront.com, powered a trio of games set in the Second World War. Combat Mission: Shock Force was released in July 2007 as the debut of the 'CMx2' game engine. The Combat Mission games are a mixture of turn-based gameplay and simultaneous real-time execution. The game environment is fully three-dimensional, with a "Wego" style of play wherein each player enters their orders into the computer simultaneously during pauses in the action, and then are powerless to intervene during the action phase. More familiar turn-based games use an "I-go/You-go" system of play.
Maximum Games, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Walnut Creek, California. Originally founded in 2009 as a publisher of family-oriented titles for the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii, the company shifted to publishing games of all genres for all ages across all platforms shortly after inception.
IL-2 Sturmovik is a series of World War II combat flight simulation video games originally created in 2001 by Russian video game developer Maddox Games under the brand name 1C:Maddox Games, following its association with 1C Company. Maddox Games left 1C Company in 2011. Since 2012, 1C's new developers are 1C Game Studios and Team Fusion Simulations. Thus, 1C Company currently owns the IL-2 Sturmovik label and runs three different accumulated generations of IL-2 games.
IL-2 Sturmovik: Great Battles is a set of standalone video games and the third generation game in the IL-2 Sturmovik series of combat flight simulators. The two first modules were released in 2013 and 2016 and it was not before November 2017 that the series officially received its current name. In 2019, the first World War I and tank modules in the entire IL-2 Sturmovik series were released.
CDV Software Entertainment AG was a German publisher of video games founded 1989 in Karlsruhe. On 17 April 2000 cdv became a Frankfurt stock market traded company. In the beginning of the 2000s, CDV was the biggest German publisher in the German video game market. As of the 2006 annual financial statements, the company also reported balance sheet over-indebtedness of EUR 1.9 million, which is, however, covered by a subordinated loan taken out in 2005 in the amount of EUR 3.8 million. The company's financial position is based on a balance sheet of EUR 1.9 million. They opened a UK office in 2008. In 2010, VG247 reported that they filed for preliminary insolvency when SouthPeak Games failed to pay a settlement. After only a few employees were still working in the company and the share price had been tumbling for some time, CDV filed for bankruptcy on 12 April 2010.
