Blue Byte Software
Encyclopedia
Ubisoft Blue Byte is a video game developer
based in Düsseldorf
, Germany
, founded in 1988. The company has produced popular titles like Battle Isle and The Settlers
. In 2001, the company was purchased by Ubisoft
.
on October 1988. The first published game was the tennis
simulation Great Courts, released in 1989 by Ubisoft
(then called Ubi Soft). Blue Byte's first big success in Germany and Europe
was the turn-based strategy game Battle Isle, completed in 1991. Inspired by the Japan
ese game Nectaris
for the PC Engine, Battle Isle spawned numerous add-ons and sequels. The company's next big success followed in 1993 with the release of the managerial game Die Siedler, marketed internationally as The Settlers
. Settlers also had numerous sequels and became the most well-known of Blue Byte's products.
Over the years, Blue Byte developed and/or published
numerous innovative titles including Chewy: Escape from F5 and Albion, but most of them were not successful internationally. Efforts to break into the American
market, usually aided with publishing by Accolade, failed and success was limited to Germany and parts of Europe. In 1995 a Chicago based entrepreneur named Julian Pretto traveled to Germany and convinced the founders to open a North American office. Following the successful release of Battle Isle 2020 in the United States, Pretto left the firm to pursue other interests. Three years later, Blue Byte moved from Chicago, Illinois, to its new facilities in Austin, Texas.
The popular turn-based strategy
Battle Isle series
from the early 1990s achieved cult status similar to Settlers but when revised in 1997 as a 3-D
tactical game Incubation
similar to UFO: Enemy Unknown and later in 2001 Battle Isle: The Andosia War, which tried to breach the gap between turn-based strategies and real-time strategies
, it alienated many players who came to expect that the Battle Isle brand would represent traditional turn-based strategies.
In January 2001, Blue Byte was acquired by Ubisoft
, and tasked to focus on Blue Byte's two most popular series. As of 2004, Blue Byte released the newest game of the Settlers series under the name Die Siedler: Das Erbe der Könige (literally "The Settlers: Heritage of Kings"), followed by several expansions. Recently, they announced a re-release of The Settlers II with updated graphics and gameplay to be available in autumn 2006. A downloadable demo is now available from their website. Ubisoft and Blue Byte announced in October 2006 that they plan on releasing the newest title into The Settlers franchise in 2007 with the working title of The Settlers VI.
Video game developer
A video game developer is a software developer that creates video games. A developer may specialize in a certain video game console, such as Nintendo's Wii, Microsoft's Xbox 360, Sony's PlayStation 3, or may develop for a variety of systems, including personal computers.Most developers also...
based in Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf
Düsseldorf is the capital city of the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia and centre of the Rhine-Ruhr metropolitan region.Düsseldorf is an important international business and financial centre and renowned for its fashion and trade fairs. Located centrally within the European Megalopolis, the...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, founded in 1988. The company has produced popular titles like Battle Isle and The Settlers
The Settlers
The Settlers is a slow-paced simulation computer game by German developer Blue Byte Software, first released in 1993 for Commodore Amiga and in 1994 for the PC...
. In 2001, the company was purchased by Ubisoft
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. is a major French video game publisher and developer, with headquarters in Montreuil, France. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries....
.
History
Blue Byte Software was founded by Thomas Hertzler and Lothar Schmitt in MülheimMülheim
Mülheim an der Ruhr, also called "City on the River", is a city in North Rhine-Westphalia in Germany. It is located in the Ruhr Area between Duisburg, Essen, Oberhausen and Ratingen...
on October 1988. The first published game was the tennis
Tennis
Tennis is a sport usually played between two players or between two teams of two players each . Each player uses a racket that is strung to strike a hollow rubber ball covered with felt over a net into the opponent's court. Tennis is an Olympic sport and is played at all levels of society at all...
simulation Great Courts, released in 1989 by Ubisoft
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. is a major French video game publisher and developer, with headquarters in Montreuil, France. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries....
(then called Ubi Soft). Blue Byte's first big success in Germany and Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
was the turn-based strategy game Battle Isle, completed in 1991. Inspired by the Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
ese game Nectaris
Nectaris
Nectaris, occasionally released as Military Madness, is a series of sci-fi-themed, hex map turn-based strategy games for a variety of systems...
for the PC Engine, Battle Isle spawned numerous add-ons and sequels. The company's next big success followed in 1993 with the release of the managerial game Die Siedler, marketed internationally as The Settlers
The Settlers
The Settlers is a slow-paced simulation computer game by German developer Blue Byte Software, first released in 1993 for Commodore Amiga and in 1994 for the PC...
. Settlers also had numerous sequels and became the most well-known of Blue Byte's products.
Over the years, Blue Byte developed and/or published
Video game publisher
A video game publisher is a company that publishes video games that they have either developed internally or have had developed by a video game developer....
numerous innovative titles including Chewy: Escape from F5 and Albion, but most of them were not successful internationally. Efforts to break into the American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
market, usually aided with publishing by Accolade, failed and success was limited to Germany and parts of Europe. In 1995 a Chicago based entrepreneur named Julian Pretto traveled to Germany and convinced the founders to open a North American office. Following the successful release of Battle Isle 2020 in the United States, Pretto left the firm to pursue other interests. Three years later, Blue Byte moved from Chicago, Illinois, to its new facilities in Austin, Texas.
The popular turn-based strategy
Turn-based strategy
A turn-based strategy game is a strategy game where players take turns when playing...
Battle Isle series
Battle Isle series
Battle Isle is a series of turn-based tactics computer games developed in the 1990s by Blue Byte Software. The settings are wars on a fictional planet, Chromos.-Storyline:...
from the early 1990s achieved cult status similar to Settlers but when revised in 1997 as a 3-D
3D computer graphics
3D computer graphics are graphics that use a three-dimensional representation of geometric data that is stored in the computer for the purposes of performing calculations and rendering 2D images...
tactical game Incubation
Incubation (computer game)
Incubation: Time Is Running Out is a turn-based tactics computer game from Blue Byte Software released in 1997. In the game, the player controls a squad of soldiers against an alien threat...
similar to UFO: Enemy Unknown and later in 2001 Battle Isle: The Andosia War, which tried to breach the gap between turn-based strategies and real-time strategies
Real-time strategy
Real-time strategy is a sub-genre of strategy video game which does not progress incrementally in turns. Brett Sperry is credited with coining the term to market Dune II....
, it alienated many players who came to expect that the Battle Isle brand would represent traditional turn-based strategies.
In January 2001, Blue Byte was acquired by Ubisoft
Ubisoft
Ubisoft Entertainment S.A. is a major French video game publisher and developer, with headquarters in Montreuil, France. The company has a worldwide presence with 25 studios in 17 countries and subsidiaries in 26 countries....
, and tasked to focus on Blue Byte's two most popular series. As of 2004, Blue Byte released the newest game of the Settlers series under the name Die Siedler: Das Erbe der Könige (literally "The Settlers: Heritage of Kings"), followed by several expansions. Recently, they announced a re-release of The Settlers II with updated graphics and gameplay to be available in autumn 2006. A downloadable demo is now available from their website. Ubisoft and Blue Byte announced in October 2006 that they plan on releasing the newest title into The Settlers franchise in 2007 with the working title of The Settlers VI.
Games developed or published
- Great Courts (1989) - Sports (Tennis) simulation
- TwinworldTwinworldTwinworld is a computer game, published by UBI Soft for the Commodore 64, Amstrad CPC, Acorn Archimedes, Amiga and Atari ST computers in the late 1980s.-Summary:...
(1989) - PlatformPlatform gameA platform game is a video game characterized by requiring the player to jump to and from suspended platforms or over obstacles . It must be possible to control these jumps and to fall from platforms or miss jumps... - Great Courts 2 (1990) - Sports (Tennis) simulation
- Jimmy Connors Pro Tennis TourJimmy Connors Pro Tennis TourJimmy Connors Pro Tennis Tour is a video game developed by Blue Byte and released in 1993. It is the second video game to feature Jimmy Connors after his name was used for the 1993 game, Jimmy Connors Tennis.-Modes:...
(1990) - Sports (Tennis) simulation - Tom and The Ghost (1990) - ActionAction gameAction game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes diverse subgenres such as fighting games, shooter games, and platform games, which are widely considered the most important action games, though some...
- AtominoAtominoAtomino is a 1990 computer puzzle game originally for the Amiga, Atari ST and MS-DOS. A version was made for the Commodore 64 in 1991. The objective is to build molecules from atoms, with gradually increasing difficulty and speed....
(1991) - Puzzle - Battle Isle (1991) - StrategyStrategy gameA strategy game or strategic game is a game in which the players' uncoerced, and often autonomous decision-making skills have a high significance in determining the outcome...
- Battle Isle Data Disk I (1992) - Strategy
- Ugh!Ugh!Ugh! is an arcade/flight game developed by Bones Park Software Artistic and published in 1992 by PlayByte for the Amiga, Commodore 64 and DOS.-Summary:The game is a clone of Space Taxi...
(1992) - Puzzle - Battle Isle Data Disk II (1993) - Strategy, also known as Battle Isle '93 or Battle Isle: The Moon of Chromos)
- History Line: 1914-1918History Line: 1914-1918History Line: 1914-1918 is a turn-based tactics computer game developed in the 1990s by the German team Blue Byte Software. The storyline takes the player through various battles of the First World War...
(1993) - Strategy - The SettlersThe SettlersThe Settlers is a slow-paced simulation computer game by German developer Blue Byte Software, first released in 1993 for Commodore Amiga and in 1994 for the PC...
(1993) - Strategy - Battle Isle II (1994) - Strategy (also known as Battle Isle 2200)
- Battle Isle II Data Disk I (1994) - Strategy (also known as Battle Isle II: Titan's Legacy or Battle Isle II Scenery CD)
- Battle Isle III (1995) - Strategy (also known as Battle Isle 2220 or Battle Isle III: Shadow of the Emperor)
- AlbionAlbion (computer game)Albion is a single player computer role-playing game developed and published by Blue Byte Software for MS-DOS in . It was originally released in German, then translated to English for international release...
(1995) - RPG - Archimedean Dynasty (orig. Schleichfahrt) (1996) - Submarine Shooter
- Chewy: ESC from F5 (1996) - AdventureAdventure gameAn adventure game is a video game in which the player assumes the role of protagonist in an interactive story driven by exploration and puzzle-solving instead of physical challenge. The genre's focus on story allows it to draw heavily from other narrative-based media such as literature and film,...
(developed by New Generation Software) - The Settlers IIThe Settlers IIThe Settlers II: Veni, Vidi, Vici is a real-time strategy computer game, released by Blue Byte Software in 1996. Its gameplay is very similar to that of its predecessor, The Settlers, albeit with a Roman theme and improved graphics...
(1996) - Strategy - Dr. Drago's Madcap Chase (1997) - Strategy
- Extreme AssaultExtreme AssaultExtreme Assault was a personal computer game developed by Blue Byte Software. It was released in 1997. The games revolves around the player assuming control of the fictitious Sioux AH-23 helicopter to battle space aliens....
(1997) - Action - IncubationIncubation (computer game)Incubation: Time Is Running Out is a turn-based tactics computer game from Blue Byte Software released in 1997. In the game, the player controls a squad of soldiers against an alien threat...
(1997) - Strategy (also known as Battle Isle: Incubation) - Game, Net & Match! (1998) - Sport
- The Settlers IIIThe Settlers IIIThe Settlers III is a real-time strategy computer game developed by Blue Byte Software, being the second sequel to The Settlers, making it the third game in The Settlers series...
(1998) - Strategy - Star Trek: Starship CreatorStar Trek: Starship CreatorStar Trek: Starship Creator is a computer-based vehicle simulation game released by Simon and Schuster Interactive in 1998, as a spin-off of the Star Trek franchise....
(1999) - Stephen King's F13Stephen King's F13Stephen King's F13 is a collection of casual games developed by Presto Studios and released in 2000 by Blue Byte Software. The title F13 is a reference to the non-existent function key on standard PC keyboards, despite the fact that a F13 key exists on Macintosh keyboards in the form of a screen...
(2000) - Simulation - The Settlers IVThe Settlers IVThe Settlers IV is a real-time strategy video game developed by Blue Byte Software, being the third sequel to The Settlers and the fourth game overall in The Settlers series....
(2001) - Strategy - Battle Isle: The Andosia War (2001) - Strategy
- The Settlers: Heritage of Kings (2005) - Strategy
- The Settlers II 10th AnniversaryThe Settlers II 10th AnniversaryThe Settlers II 10th Anniversary Edition is a remake of the classic real-time strategy game The Settlers II. It was announced in July 2006. The Settlers II 10th Anniversary Edition features up-to-date 3D graphics and new gameplay additions...
(2006) - Strategy - The Settlers: Rise of an EmpireThe Settlers: Rise of an EmpireThe Settlers: Rise of an Empire , a real-time strategy game, is the sixth game in The Settlers series. It was developed by Blue Byte and published by UbiSoft, with a US release date of September 25, 2007, a European release date of September 28, and an Australian release date of September 30...
(2007) - Strategy - The Settlers: Rise of Cultures (2008) - Strategy (orig. Die Siedler: Aufbruch der Kulturen, not available in English language)
- Anno 1404 (2009) - (producer, developed by Related DesignsRelated DesignsRelated Designs is a German games development studio focused on strategy games for the PC. Ubisoft owns a 30% stake in the company after acquiring Sunflowers, the previous stakeholder, in 2007.-Developed games:*America - 2000*America Add On - 2001...
) - Anno 1404: Venice (2010) - (producer, developed by Related DesignsRelated DesignsRelated Designs is a German games development studio focused on strategy games for the PC. Ubisoft owns a 30% stake in the company after acquiring Sunflowers, the previous stakeholder, in 2007.-Developed games:*America - 2000*America Add On - 2001...
) - The Settlers 7: Paths to a KingdomThe Settlers 7: Paths to a KingdomThe Settlers 7: Paths to a Kingdom is a real time strategy and city-building video game developed by Blue Byte Software and published by Ubisoft. It was released on March 23, 2010 for Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. It is the seventh game in The Settlers series.-Gameplay:Paths to a Kingdom features...
(2010) - The Settlers - My City (2010) - Social game on Facebook
- The Settlers Online (2010) - Browser game
- Anno 2070Anno 2070Anno 2070 is a video game with city-building and real-time strategy gameplay elements. It was released on 17 November 2011 and was co-developed by Related Designs and Ubisoft Blue Byte and published by Ubisoft.-Summary:The scenario is set in the year 2070...
(2011) - (producer, developed by Related DesignsRelated DesignsRelated Designs is a German games development studio focused on strategy games for the PC. Ubisoft owns a 30% stake in the company after acquiring Sunflowers, the previous stakeholder, in 2007.-Developed games:*America - 2000*America Add On - 2001...
)