Creative Assembly Sofia (formerly Black Sea Studios and Crytek Black Sea) is a Bulgarian

video game developer A video game developer is a broad term for a software developer specializing in video game development – the process and related disciplines of creating video games. A game developer can range from one person who undertakes all tasks to a larg ...

based in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. ...

. It was founded in May 2001 by Vesselin Handjiev. In July 2008, the company was acquired by

Crytek Crytek GmbH is a German video game developer and software developer based in Frankfurt. Founded by the Yerli brothers in Coburg in 1999 and moved to Frankfurt in 2006, Crytek also operates further studios in Kyiv, Ukraine and Istanbul, Turkey. ...

, which then sold it to

Creative Assembly The Creative Assembly Limited (trade name: Creative Assembly) is a British video game developer based in Horsham, founded in 1987 by Tim Ansell. In its early years, the company worked on porting games to MS-DOS from Amiga and ZX Spectrum platfor ...

in March 2017.

History

Black Sea Studios was founded by Vesselin Handjiev, the lead designer of '' Tzar: The Burden of the Crown'', on 7 May 2001 in

, Bulgaria. At the time, the company began developing three separate games: two

real-time strategy game Real-time strategy (RTS) is a subgenre of strategy video games that do not progress incrementally in turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time". By contrast, in turn-based strategy (TBS) games, players take turns to pla ...

s and one arcade-style

action game An action game is a video game genre that emphasizes physical challenges, including hand–eye coordination and reaction-time. The genre includes a large variety of sub-genres, such as fighting games, beat 'em ups, shooter games, and platform ...

. The company became known for its 2004 title ''

Knights of Honor The Knights of Honor (K. of H.), was a fraternal order and secret society in the United States in the late 19th and early 20th century. The Knights were one of the most successful fraternal beneficiary societies of its time. History The ori ...

'', a historical

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a subgenre of strategy video games that do not progress incrementally in turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time". By contrast, in turn-based strategy (TBS) games, players take turns to pla ...

game released for Microsoft Windows, and for the 2008 science fiction real-time strategy title ''

WorldShift ''WorldShift'' is a science fiction real-time strategy video game developed by Black Sea Studios and released in 2008. Plot In the 21st century, a mysterious object lands on Earth ending all known civilization. ''WorldShift'' is set thousands ...

''. In July 2008, German developer and publisher

announced their acquisition of the studio, and renamed it Crytek Black Sea. At the time, Black Sea Studios was based in

Sofia, Bulgaria Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

, with Vesselin Handijev was managing director. In May 2014, Crytek announced the development of their own

multiplayer online battle arena Multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) is a subgenre of strategy video games in which two teams of players compete against each other on a predefined battlefield. Each player controls a single character with a set of distinctive abilities that i ...

game using the

CryEngine CryEngine (stylized as CRYENGINE) is a game engine designed by the German game developer Crytek. It has been used in all of their titles with the initial version being used in '' Far Cry'', and continues to be updated to support new consoles and ...

, titled ''

Arena of Fate ''Arena of Fate'' is a cancelled free-to-play multiplayer online battle arena (MOBA) video game developed by Crytek Black Sea. The game was announced in May 2014, closed beta began on August 5, 2015. It featured five-against-five battles with lege ...

'' and under development at the Sofia studio. The game was shown at

E3 2014 The Electronic Entertainment Expo 2014 (E3 2014) was the 20th E3 held. The event took place at the Los Angeles Convention Center in Los Angeles, California. It began on June 10, 2014, and ended on June 12, 2014, with 48,900 total attendees. Ma ...

. In November 2016, founder Handjiev, together with Michael Peykov, formed a new video game company, Black Sea Games. In December 2016, Crytek announced that it would shut down five of its international studios, due to financial troubles, of which Crytek Black Sea was put up for sale. In March 2017, it was announced that the studio was acquired by British developer

(itself owned by Sega), and was renamed Creative Assembly Sofia. At the time, Crytek Black Sea had 60 employees. Under Creative Assembly, Creative Assembly Sofia developed

downloadable content Downloadable content (DLC) is additional content created for an already released video game, distributed through the Internet by the game's publisher. It can either be added for no extra cost or it can be a form of video game monetization, enabli ...

for '' Total War: Rome II'', including ''Empire Divided'' and ''Rise of the Republic''. It also developed a new game in the ''

Total War Saga ''Total War Saga: Thrones of Britannia'' is a strategy video game developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega, released on 3May 2018 for Microsoft Windows. The game was brought to macOS and Linux by Feral Interactive on 24 May 2018 and ...

'' series, '' Total War Saga: Troy''. In 2016, some of the people from Black Sea Studios founded Black Sea Games, which is now developing ''Knights of Honor II: Sovereign'', a sequel to ''

''.

Games developed

Cancelled

* ''

References

{{Crytek Bulgarian companies established in 2001 2008 mergers and acquisitions 2017 mergers and acquisitions Companies based in Sofia Crytek Sega divisions and subsidiaries Video game companies established in 2001 Video game companies of Bulgaria Video game development companies