Ikarion Software GmbH

Moby ID: 1898

Overview edit · view history

In the early 1990s Kingsoft GmbH (Located in Aachen, Germany's most western city) was well known as a budget game developer and publisher and delivered major stores like Toys'R'Us and Vobis in Germany. In 1993 Kingsoft's owner Fritz Schäfer had the idea to start a new full price range for PC and Amiga systems and therefore he founded Ikarion Software GmbH.

Throughout the first years the company focussed on business simulations, later they started to develop strategy games and Gameboy Advance Puzzle Games.

1998 Fritz Schäfer resigned his involvments with Ikarion and handed over the company to Norbert Beckers, Franz Stradal and Marc Oberhäuser. In 1999 the German publisher DTP Neue Medien GmbH bought stakes of Ikarion and financed several projects.

In August 2001 DTP went into finacial troubles and couldn't finance Ikarion anymore. During the administration time, Ikarion was not able to sign a final deal for the then-upcoming RPG Das Schwarze Auge: Armalion (Eidos, JoWood and Ubisoft were interested), so the company was closed in December 2001.

The core team still worked on the game and in May 2002 Franz Stradal managed to sign a deal with the German company Ascaron Entertainment GmbH. The team became Studio II Software GmbH (also located in Aachen, Germany) and reworked Armalion to the successful Sacred, which was released worldwide in 2004, seling 1.7 million copies by 2006. After releasing an expansion, as well as a sequel and its expansion, Studio II Software itself folded in 2009.

Credited on 14 Games from 1994 to 2001

Das Milliarden-Quiz (2001 on Windows)
Demonworld: Dark Armies (2000 on Windows)
Grand Ouvert (2000 on Windows)
Hattrick! Wins (1999 on Windows)
Bonn Ouvert (1998 on Windows)
Demonworld (1997 on Windows)
Project Paradise (1997 on DOS)
Battle Race (1996 on DOS)
Pinball Wizard 2000 (1996 on DOS)
Caribbean Disaster (1995 on DOS, Amiga)
Hattrick! (1995 on DOS, Amiga)
Mad News: Erweiterte CD-ROM Edition (1995 on DOS)
Mad News (1994 on DOS, Amiga)
Zeppelin: Giants of the Sky (1994 on DOS, Amiga)

History +

October 1, 2001

The company ceases operations.

Trivia +

The original name of Ikarion should have been Ikarus Software (chosen by Norbert Beckers), but unfortunately an Austrian business software company was named that way so they ended up with Ikarion.

Company location and contact information (circa 2001):

Ikarion Software GmbH

Bahnhofstr. 18-20

52064 Aachen

Germany

Telephone: +49 241 47 01 50

Fax: +49 241 47 01 525

eMail: [email protected]

Website: www.ikarion.de

Related Web Sites +

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