JoWooD Entertainment AG

Austria Founded 1995

JoWooD Entertainment AG (formerly JoWooD Productions Software AG, commonly referred to as JoWooD) was an Austrian video game publisher that was founded in 1995. In June 2011, JoWooD Entertainment all their assets and its subsidiary, Quantic Lab, was acquired by Nordic Games Holding AB. From this point on, JoWooD was no longer operating. All activities of the two companies were taken over by Nordic Games Holding. On 16 August 2011 Nordic Games Holding announced that it had acquired JoWooD's products and brands and some of the companies labels, including The Adventure Company. Following the acquisition it was announced that JoWood and the Adventure Company would become publishing labels for Nordic Games GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Nordic Games Holding.

JoWooD Entertainment AG at a Glance

If you are browsing PlayPile to learn about Austrian publisher JoWooD Entertainment AG, you will find they were active from 1999 until their acquisition in 2011. The company published 18 games on our platform and developed just one. Their output was heavily concentrated in the 2000s, where they released 17 titles compared to only a single game in the late 1990s. This shift coincides with their rise as a major publisher before Nordic Games Holding acquired all their assets in June 2011. JoWooD focused heavily on PC platforms, publishing 15 games for Microsoft Windows. They also had a smaller presence on consoles like PlayStation and PlayStation 2, with two titles each, while releasing one game each for Game Boy Color, Xbox, and Wii. Their genre portfolio was diverse but leaned toward adventure games, which made up eight of their published titles. Strategy and role-playing games were also significant parts of their catalog, with five strategy titles and four RPGs. They touched on sports, simulation, and real-time strategy as well. The quality of their work varied over time. The average rating across the seven rated titles is 75.5 out of 100. Their best work appeared early in their operational history. Alien Nations released in 1999 scored an impressive 89.6, and Mayday: Conflict Earth followed with 85 in 2000. The Gothic series also stands out as a high point for the publisher, with Gothic II scoring 83.7 and the original Gothic at 81.9. However, later releases show a decline in critical reception. Aquadelic GT from 2007 scored only 60, and their recent entries like Yoga Wii in late 2009 lack high ratings on our list. While they had four great titles and two good ones, their output did not maintain that initial peak consistency. They published several editions of Gothic 3 between 2006 and 2009, but these later releases do not match the acclaim of their earlier RPGs. JoWooD produced a solid catalog for PC gamers in the early 2000s before ceasing operations as an independent entity.

Total Games

75.5

Avg Rating

1999

First Release

2009

Latest Release