Nival is a Russian

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 ...

and publisher founded by Sergey Orlovskiy in 1996. It is headquartered in

Limassol Limassol (; el, Λεμεσός, Lemesós ; tr, Limasol or ) is a city on the southern coast of Cyprus and capital of the district with the same name. Limassol is the second largest urban area in Cyprus after Nicosia, with an urban population ...

Cyprus Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ...

, with development offices in

St. Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

and

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

, Russia.

History

The company was founded by Sergey Orlovskiy on November 18, 1996 as Nival Interactive, and became famous as the developer of several successful role-playing and strategy series, including '' Rage of Mages'' (known as ''Allods'' in Russia), ''

Blitzkrieg Blitzkrieg ( , ; from 'lightning' + 'war') is a word used to describe a surprise attack using a rapid, overwhelming force concentration that may consist of armoured warfare, armored and motorised infantry, motorized or mechanised infantry, ...

'', and ''

Etherlords ''Etherlords'' (russian: Демиурги) is a series of fantasy turn-based strategy and card-dueling video games for the PC, by Russian developer Nival Interactive. The first game was published November 15, 2001 by Ravensburger Interactive Medi ...

'', all of which would receive sequels. Nival also created the

Silent Storm engine Nival Interactive developed a proprietary game engine for its turn-based tactics video game ''Silent Storm''. The engine was reused for '' Silent Storm: Sentinels'', '' Night Watch'', ''Hammer & Sickle'' and '' Day Watch''. A modified version of th ...

and developed several games using it, beginning with the eponymous ''

Silent Storm ''Silent Storm'' is a 2003 turn-based tactics video game developed by Nival Interactive and published by JoWood. The game is set in a fictionalized World War II Europe with science fiction elements. An advanced game engine, the Silent Storm e ...

'' series in 2003. Among these was ''

Heroes of Might and Magic V ''Heroes of Might and Magic V'' is the fifth installment of the ''Heroes of Might and Magic'' fantasy turn-based strategy video game series. The game was released by Ubisoft in Europe on May 16, and then in the United States and Canada on May 2 ...

'' and two add-ons, published by

Ubisoft Ubisoft Entertainment SA (; ; formerly Ubi Soft Entertainment SA) is a French video game publisher headquartered in Saint-Mandé with development studios across the world. Its video game franchises include ''Assassin's Creed'', '' Far Cry'', ...

. Nival began to self-publish its own games in 2005. Nival financed and published external developers including KranX Productions, creators of '' King's Bounty: Legions'' and Bytex, developers of ''Berserk Online''. In early 2005, the part of Nival operating under the name Nival Interactive was bought by Ener1 Group, a Florida-based holdings company, for around $10 million. On November 30, 2007, Sergey Orlovskiy regained full control of Nival Interactive. In early 2010, another part of Nival, Astrum Nival, was bought by the largest Russian portal

Mail.Ru VK, known as Mail.ru Group until 12 October 2021, is a Russian technology company. It started in 1998 as an e-mail service and went on to become a major corporate figure in the Russian-speaking segment of the Internet. VK operates an e-mail s ...

for more than $100 million, becoming a part of Astrum Online Entertainment. Nival's internal development studios became focused on PC and mobile projects. In 2011, Nival Interactive was merged with Nival Network into a new company, called just Nival. Nival has developed and launched ''Prime World'', '' King's Bounty: Legions'' and has several projects in development. In December 2013, Nival raised $6 million in its Series A funding round led by Almaz Capital. The funds were to be used for global expansion. In February 2017, Nival announced the world's first

Neural Network A neural network is a network or neural circuit, circuit of biological neurons, or, in a modern sense, an artificial neural network, composed of artificial neurons or nodes. Thus, a neural network is either a biological neural network, made up ...

AI for its game '' Blitzkrieg 3''.

Games

*'' Rage of Mages'' (1998) **'' Rage of Mages II: Necromancer'' (1999) *'' Evil Islands: Curse of the Lost Soul'' (2001) *''

'' (2001) **'' Etherlords II'' (2003) **''

'' (2014) *''

'' (2003) **'' Blitzkrieg 2'' (2005) **'' Blitzkrieg 3'' (2017) *''

'' (2003) **'' Silent Storm: Sentinels'' (2004) **'' Hammer & Sickle'' (2005) *'' Hard Truck Apocalypse'' (2005) *''

Night Watch Night Watch or Nightwatch may refer to: Books * ''The Night Watch'', a 1977 memoir by Central Intelligence Agency officer David Atlee Phillips Novels * ''Night Watch'', a 1972 novel by American screenwriter Lucille Fletcher * ''Night Watch'', a 1 ...

'' (2005) *''

'' (2006) **'' Heroes of Might and Magic V: Hammers of Fate'' (2006) **'' Heroes of Might and Magic V: Tribes of the East'' (2007) *''

Allods Online ''Allods Online'' is a free-to-play 3D fantasy MMORPG developed by Allods Team, formerly Astrum Nival, and published by Mail.Ru Group globally, with the international version operated by their subsidiary My.com. The game was originally released i ...

'' (2010) *'' King's Bounty: Legions'' (2011) *''

Emaki or is an illustrated horizontal narration system of painted handscrolls that dates back to Nara-period (710–794 CE) Japan. Initially copying their much older Chinese counterparts in style, during the succeeding Heian (794–1185) and Kam ...

'' (2012) *''

Prime World ''Prime World'' was a freemium MMORPG, massively multiplayer online role-playing game and multiplayer online battle arena hybrid game, internally developed by Nival (company), Nival and available for Microsoft Windows, PC and macOS, Mac with compa ...

'' (2012) **'' Prime World: Alchemy'' (December 2012) **'' Prime World: Defenders'' (2013) **'' Prime World: Defenders 2'' (2015)

References

External links

Official website
{{Authority control Companies based in Saint Petersburg Russian companies established in 1996 Video game companies established in 1996 Video game companies of Russia Video game development companies Video game publishers Privately held companies of Russia