Duesseldorf/Germany, July 23, 2020 – Until now, the year of 2020 has unfortunately seen little occasion for celebration. Which is a shame, as the team behind the German astragon group does have quite a few reasons to be merry this year – and all of them have some relation to the number 20. In two months, on September 20 to be exact, it will be their one-year anniversary of moving into the new modern headquarters in the heart of Duesseldorf/Germany. This alone would already be a great occasion to let some corks pop. But why celebrate only a one-year anniversary if you can clink your glasses to a whopping 20 instead? It was on July 25, 2000 in a North-Rhine Westphalian city called Hagen that Dirk Walner launched a new business venture that within the next two decades would become known as one of the most successful German games publishers: astragon Entertainment.
astragon Software, so the name of the company until 2015, was first known for their focus on casual games, but this changed in 2005 one year after merging with rondomedia Marketing & Vertriebs GmbH (founded in 1998 by André Franzmann) and a first move to the now joint HQ in Moenchengladbach/Germany, when astragon decided to publish its very first simulation game: Ship Simulator 2006. This game proved to be the entrance into a gaming genre that would from then on shape the future of astragon and ultimately lead to its long-lasting success. The market launch of the first Farming Simulator created by the independent Swiss developer studio GIANTS Software in 2008 by astragon finally managed to catapult the whole formerly rather niche gaming genre into the spotlight of public awareness, where it keeps attracting new fans with each year going by. And this not only in the German language market – the astragon brand has become a household name all around the globe when it comes to digging, harvesting, building, or driving in virtual worlds on PC, consoles, and mobile devices.
astragon Entertainment itself has also seen continuous growth and change during the last two decades: In 2015, the two companies astragon Software GmbH and rondomedia Marketing & Vertriebs GmbH formed the astragon group - consisting of astragon Entertainment GmbH and astragon Sales & Services GmbH. In 2017, founder Dirk Walner handed over the reins of astragon Entertainment to Julia Pfiffer und Tim Schmitz, who continue lead the company in his best interest as co-CEOs. 2019 saw the move of the now 40-strong team to their new office in the heart of North-Rhine Westphalia’s state capital Duesseldorf.
astragon Entertainment of course remains eager to bring new and exciting virtual adventures to game fans all around the world in the coming future. Simulation fans can be looking forward to the continuation of some well-loved simulation series but also new experiences like Liftoff: Drone Racing, which will be published in fall/winter 2020. Tactics- and Sci-Fi-enthusiasts can – also in fall 2020 - seize the unique opportunity to control 32.000 drones in gripping deep space battles in Drone Swarm, which is currently in development by stillalive studios in Austria.
Looking back, all of this is something one can be immensely proud of. Which we definitely are! In this spirit: Happy Birthday, astragon Entertainment!
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