Astrum Online Entertainment

Astrum Online Entertainment, the leader of the interactive entertainment market of Eastern Europe, is a holding company, which incorporates Astrum Nival, IT Territory, Time Zero, Nikita Online and DJ Games.

Creation of Astrum Online allowed all the participants to formalize a united strategy in regards to their activities and also utilize their combined experience and infrastructure in order to perfect their businesses.

By consolidating the human and technical resources of all the companies which form the holding, Astrum Online can successfully compete on the international game market providing its users with high quality game products, 24/7 technical support for both its own online games and the localized titles, and an easy-to-use billing system.

Astrum Online owns popular game sites in Russian – Playit.ru and Woh.ru – and in German – Astrumo.

In the third quarter of 2008 the companies which form Astrum Online occupied around 60% of the Russian online entertainment market expressed in monetary terms. This figure continues to grow.

The main strategy of Astrum Online is expanding into new geographic markets. In autumn 2008 the Holding company entered the German and Chinese game markets with a successful launch of the localized German and Chinese versions of its hit MMORPG “Legend: Legacy of the Dragons”. In January 2009 Astrum Online entered the Turkish market with the localized version of the same title; “Legend: Legacy of the Dragons” is now available in Turkish as well. By the end of 2009 AOE is planning to enter game markets of France, Italy and Spain.

In the long term, Astrum Online is focused at MMO games which utilize the free-to-play business model. This allows the Holding company to remain a highly profitable business increasing its share both in local and global game markets. Astrum Online currently operates more than 30 MMO games, including such popular titles as “Legend: Legacy of the Dragons”, “Sphere”, “Territory”, “Three Kingdoms”, and “Perfect World”. In 2009 AOE is planning to launch its new MMORPG, “Allods Online”, which will continue the legendary game series with more than 10 years of history.

The total number of people playing games operated by Astrum Online exceeded 30 million players in Q2 2009. A considerable part of them are active users of the Internet game sites owned by the holding company.

Awards

2009 – International KRI Awards 2009 selected the massively multiplayer game Allods Online as the Best Game of the Year. The project also received People’s Choice Award

2008 — Legend: Legacy of the Dragons, an MMO game developed by IT Territory, was on the “People’s Top 10” list at Ru.Net (Russian Internet) Awards 2007 for the second year in a row.

2008 — Allods Online, an MMO game developed by Astrum Nival and to be launched in 2009, was awarded for “Best Online Game at KRI-2008” (Russia’s Game Developer Conference and Trade Show).

2008 — Nival Online (today known as Astrum Nival) was named “Best Developer at KRI-2008”.

2008 — The online game Three Kingdoms, developed and launched by IT Territory, received award for “Best Browser-Based Online Game” from GameLаnd, which is the only Russian award given out by the players themselves.

2008 — The online game Granado Espada, localized by Nival Online, was named “Best Foreign Game at KRI-2008”.

2007 — IT Territory was on the “Health and Leisure” shortlist at Ru.Net (Russian Internet) Awards 2007.

2007 — MMO game Legend: Legacy of the Dragons, developed by IT Territory, was on the “People’s Top 10” list at Ru.Net (Russian Internet) Awards 2007.

2007— MMO game BloodyWorld, developed by DJ Games, was on the “People’s Top 10” list at Ru.Net (Russian Internet) Awards 2007.

2007 — Igor Matsanuyk, president of Astrum Online Entertainment, was named the Man of the Decade in the Game Industry according to Rambler.

2005 — At KRI-2005 the game “Parkan II”, developed by Nikita.Online, was named “Best PC Game”, and the mobile version of the online game “Sphere”, developed by the same company, was named “Best Game for Portable Platforms”.

2004 — MMORPG Territory, developed and launched by IT Territory, was awarded for “Best Game” at the Russian Open Internet Contest.

2003 — Gaming site of the online game Territory, developed and launched by IT Territory, was awarded for “Best Gaming Site” at the Russian Open Internet Contest.

2001 — Nikita Skripkin, director of Nikita.Online, was named Man of the Year in the Game Industry according to Rambler.

1997 — Magic Dream, a computer game developed by Nikita.Online, was awarded for “Best Game Graphics”.

1996 — “Twigger”, a computer game developed by Nikita.Online, is the only Russian game which received two 100% ratings by the specialized gaming magazines, “Games Magazine” and “Pro Igri”. This game was even taken to the Mir space station.

1995 — Children’s computer game “Happy Birthday”, developed by Nikita.Online, won the first prize at Moscow Festival of Computer Graphics “Anigraf”.

1995 — A set of 26 educational games for children “Wunderkind Plus”, developed by Nikita.Online, was named “Best Educational Product of 1995-1996”.

Information about the companies of Astrum Online Entertainment

About Nikita.Online
Nikita.Online - was the first Russian game company to release an internally developed online client-based game - the fantasy MMORPG «Sphere». In many ways it can be said that the success of this project heralded the beginning of the client-based online gaming market in Russia. Currently Nikita.Online operates in the Russian market with 4 internally-developed projects – client-based «Sphere», «Sphere: Rebirth», «House-3» as well as the browser-based «WebRacing». By the end of 2009, the company plans to release four large online projects, including Sphere 2.

About TimeZero
Founded in November 2004, TimeZero specializes in developing and operating online browser games. In current commercial release and operation is browser based MMO game TimeZero running on a light client. Focusing on a high-technology software and hardware solution, company developed an unprecedented server platform that facilitates the production of online games of any size. In 2008, ”Destiny” online game, created with the experience gained from "TimeZero", was released. By the end of 2009 two more gaming projects are planned for launching - ”FunnyWar” and ”Ordalia”. All three games are based in the popular MMORPG genre and are aimed at different audiences.

In 2007 the online mobile game EvilTale was released. In addition, there is in operating phase internally developed social networking game portal Clan.Ru which provides a database covering leading worldwide game brands as well as free hosting for gaming clans.

About Nival Online
Nival Online is the leading operator, publisher and developer of online client-based games in Russia. Founded in 2006, Nival Online has development studios in Moscow and Voronezh and is the Russian publisher of Asian hits like Granado Espada, Perfect World and Pirate King Online (Piratia).

Key posts of Nival Online are held by industry professionals with many years of game development experience. In 2007, Entis Online, the first mobile-based MMO was released in partnership with the Russian mobile operator Megafon. It has gained incredible popularity in Russia and the CIS and was honored with the “Best Mobile Game” award at KRI 2007.

Nival Online’s internal development includes Allods Online, based on one of the most successful Russian gaming brands of the past 10 years. The game is due to be released in Q3 of 2009 and has the largest development budget of any Russian game title ever as well as one of the most experienced development teams in Europe, many of whom earlier worked on Heroes of Might and Magic V. Nival Online’s mid-term goals include releasing nearly 20 online games, both internally developed as well as licensed and localized international titles.

About Dark Joker Games
Dark Joker Games has started in 2004 as a new technologies division inside “BM-Trans” company. In September, 2005 it was transformed into dedicated company Dark Joker MULTIMEDIA and in October, 2005 a BloodyWorld was launched at Russian market - first full scale browser-based MMO of new company. In June, 2008 Dark Joker MULTIMEDIA was renamed to Dark Joker Games and joined into Astrum Online Entertainment holding – a biggest online entertainment holding in the Eastern Europe market.

About IT Territory
IT Territory is a developer and publisher of online games that was founded in 2004. Currently the leader in the online gaming market, with about 8 million registered users.

IT Territory has 14 online game projects, including: Legend: Legacy of Dragons, Territory, Internet Bugs, Three Kingdoms, Berserk Online as well as the gaming portals, Woh.ru, focused on online players, and Playit.Ru.

IT Territory Nord, founded in 2007, is a representative office of the company based in St. Petersburg.

IT Territory Casual, a division of the company, is the largest casual games publisher in Russia and maintains its own distribution network for these popular games.