Sega Black Sea EOOD, officially

doing business as A trade name, trading name, or business name is a pseudonym used by companies that do not operate under their registered company name. The term for this type of alternative name is fictitious business name. Registering the fictitious name with ...

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

video game developer A video game developer is 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 large business with em ...

based in

Sofia Sofia 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 part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

. 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 operates additional studios in Kyiv, Ukraine and Istanbul, Turkey. It ...

, 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 platfo ...

(a studio of

Sega is a Japanese video game company and subsidiary of Sega Sammy Holdings headquartered in Tokyo. It produces several List of best-selling video game franchises, multi-million-selling game franchises for arcade game, arcades and video game cons ...

) in March 2017.

History

Black Sea Studios (2001–2008)

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 does 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 pl ...

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, rhythm games and ...

. 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 The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a ...

'', a historical

real-time strategy Real-time strategy (RTS) is a Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games that does not progress incrementally in turn-based game, turns, but allow all players to play simultaneously, in "real time." By contrast, in Turn-based strategy, tur ...

game released for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...

, and for the 2008 science fiction real-time strategy title '' WorldShift''. In 2016, some of the former developers from Black Sea Studios founded Black Sea Games, which in 2022 released ''Knights of Honor II: Sovereign'', a sequel to ''

''.

Crytek Black Sea (2008–2017)

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 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 part of the country. The city is built west of the Is ...

, 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 Video game genre, subgenre of strategy video games in which two teams of Gamer, players compete on a structured battlefield, each controlling a single Player character, character with distinctive abilit ...

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 (video game), Far Cry'', and continues to be updated to sup ...

, 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 leg ...

'' 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.

Creative Assembly Sofia (2017–present)

In March 2017, it was announced that the studio was acquired by British developer

(itself owned by

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

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

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 turn-based strategy and real-time tactics video game developed by Creative Assembly and published by Sega, released on 3May 2018 for Windows. The game was brought to macOS and Linux by Feral Interacti ...

'' series, '' Total War Saga: Troy''. On 23 May 2023, '' Total War: Pharaoh'', focused on the

New Kingdom New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, 1995 * "New" (Daya song), 2017 * "New" (No Doubt song), 1 ...

period of

Ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

, was announced, with Creative Assembly Sofia's Todor Nikolov as Game Director. The game is slated for release in October 2023.

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