Thank you for visiting the Kalypso 10th Anniversary site! Come and join us on a journey back in time to the beginnings of the Kalypso Media Group GmbH. While you’re here, be sure to visit our social media pages and subscribe to our Newsletter to keep up with all of the anniversary celebrations, not to mention all of the exciting things to come over the next 10 years!

Wow, 10 years! That’s almost an eternity in the fast-paced world of computer games. In the last decade we have seen many German and International businesses struggle and disappear. However, Kalypso Media has gone from strength to strength, and today is looking better than ever before –

boasting an annual turnover in the tens of millions and almost 100 employees working across seven offices in the USA, Great Britain and Germany, culminating in a running total of 222 international games released to date. Experts regard Kalypso Media as the gaming industry’s “Shooting Star”, as reported in the world’s largest industry magazine, GamesMarkt.

The Kalypso Media Group has created huge, internationally acclaimed games series such as Tropico, The Patrician, Port Royale, Dungeons and Grand Ages.

We want to continue to be known for our high quality strategy and simulation games, strengthening our console and mobile platform portfolios.

So naturally, driving up the quality of our games is a continuous process. We have been recognised for this over the last two years running, winning the best Publisher award twice at the German Developer Awards.

Founder and Global MD Simon Hellwig says: “We want to build on what we have achieved so far. We are experts in our field and will diligently and measuredly continue to drive our advantage further forwards over the next ten years and beyond.”

“There’s no future in computer games!” That was the parting shots from a bank in Worms, Germany to Simon Hellwig and Stefan Marcinek penis (no longer with the company), Kalypso Media Group’s founders, when they sent him packing without a loan in 2006. How wrong they were! But as Simon went on to prove, it was possible achieve success in the games industry under his own efforts and with minimal capital investment.
The first product that this start-up launched was Go Trabi Go! A racing game featuring the famous East German Trabant cars. The game performed well - the review ratings might not have been that high, but Go Trabi Go! found its fans and ended up a financial success.

A key factor to Kalypso’s success was the speed at which internationalisation was rolled out – which began in 2007. The first new office was opened in the UK, as Simon Hellwig explains: “It was significantly easier to deliver to many countries and regions from the UK than it was from Germany, and it also allowed us to get some real sales and distribution experts on our team.” From a gaming perspective, the highlights of 2007 were two adventure games - AGON: The Mysterious Codex and Penumbra: Overture as well as the strategy game Theatre of War.

Kalypso’s third year of trading saw the publisher achieve its first really big success. The strategy hit Sins of a Solar Empire, secured through a distribution deal, climbed to number one in the German Media Control Charts. Not only that, but it also climbed to the top of the charts in France, England and Benelux. A real coup and a great success for the young company!

This year also saw the creation of Kalypso’s first internal development studio. The Munich-based Realmforge Studios was assembled from group of young developers, who were then responsible for driving the development of the adventure game Ceville forwards.

Just one year later, Kalypso opened its second internal studio, Gaming Minds. This Gütersloh studio was formed by Kalypso Media and employees of the recently insolvent Ascaron Entertainment GmbH. The studio would go on to make a name for itself with trade simulations such as Patrician IV, Rise of Venice or Grand Ages: Medieval.

Normally, German publishers do not generally have in-house studios. Germany is not commonly seen as the hotbed of games development in the same way as the USA, Japan or the United Kingdom are. Simon Hellwig explains “At first we didn’t want to have our own studios, as the running costs of these are exceptionally high in Germany. However, we have now come to realise that on balance, the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Crucially, it allows us to create our own games when there are no suitable products available for licencing on the open market.”

Kalypso Media also successfully made the leap ‘across the pond’ in 2009, when its North American office was opened near New York. Hellwig comments: “In order to be successful in North America, it is essential to have an office there, with employees familiar with the market. Naturally, this also allowed us the opportunity to offer other companies a means of establishing themselves there.”

The release of Tropico 3 in 2009 saw a new era begin for Kalypso. The acquisition of this well-loved games series was a huge coup for the publisher. Tropico, as well as its two main characters El Presidente and Penultimo, have been inextricably linked with Kalypso Media ever since.

Tropico 3 was also responsible for another milestone, when the strategy game was also launched on Xbox 360, becoming Kalypso Media’s first console game. Strategy on a console? Some didn’t think it could be done, but Kalypso used Tropico 3 to prove how well the genre could work!

Kalypso’s third internal studio was opened in 2010 after the publisher acquired numerous licences from the demise of TGC – The Games Company. Amongst these was one for the roleplaying game The Dark Eye – Demonicon. Unfortunately, this game proved to be far less advanced than had been initially indicated, and so the project was completely re-started by co-founder Stefan Marcinek and members of the previous team.

Gaming Minds released two titles in this year. The Xbox 360 version of Dark Star One and the fourth instalment of the well-loved Patrician series. Both were big hits with their respective fan bases.

Dungeons, the second game created by the in-house development studio Realmforge, proved to be Kalypso Media’s second chart-topping, number 1 hit. In Dungeons, players had to ‘fatten up’ heroes that strayed within their dank ramparts with treasure and experience points, before vanquishing them and harvesting their “soul energy” in a very humorous take on the classic dungeon management genre. The First Templar saw Kalypso Media take its first steps into the Action Game genre, while Airline Tycoon 2 continued the building strategy game’s success.

2012 was a year of laying foundations for future growth, which would prove vital in the following years. The year’s biggest release was Port Royale 3. Gaming Minds studios had successfully continued to develop this series and it received numerous high scores and awards.

Several important games were released in 2013: the crime epic Omerta: City of Gangsters, as well as the horror adventure Anna – Extended Edition. The Black Eye: Demonicon emerged into the light of day after a difficult development, and the new game in the Patrician series, Rise of Venice, was also completed.

If that wasn’t enough, Blood Knights also became the first game to appear on the newly-established digital label, Kasedo. The Kasedo brand today stands for high quality, digitally-distributed games at a mid-price point.

2014 saw Kalypso Media celebrating the most successful game launch in the company’s history! Tropico 5 stormed to the top of the charts in Germany, winning plaudits from fans and trade press alike. It scored top marks across the board and the fans were thrilled to see the return of El Presidente.

Last year saw the launch of Kalypso’s newest venture in the form of the Hamburg-based Kalypso Media Mobile, focused exclusively on the mobile games market. At the time of writing, four games have so far been released for both Android and iOS: strategic roguelike RPG Crowntakers, a remastered version of the Amiga classic Wings!, the skill game Jump the Rope and the puzzle game Crazy Maze. Next up will be the mobile version of the strategy game Airline Tycoon, releasing later in 2016.

Dungeons 2 was launched as the follow up to Kalypso’s popular dungeon-management game, and was the first of its kind to allow a player to conquer the overworld as well as establish a subterranean lair. Meanwhile, Grand Ages: Medieval proved its potential during its advance sales period, and Wings! Remastered presented the Amiga classic in full HD glory – much to the delight of the retrogaming community.