Ascaron had its headquarters in
Gütersloh, a town in western Germany. It had a development studio in
Aachen and an international office in
Birmingham in the United Kingdom. Ascaron had a particular focus on strategy and management games. Among its early successes were the
Patrician series (a trading simulation) and the
On the Ball series (a soccer team management simulation). More recently, the company had developed games such as
Port Royale (a pirate/trading simulation game),
Sacred (an
RPG) and
Darkstar One (a space combat simulation). Ascaron was also known for publishing or distributing many games from smaller developers and publishers. Examples of games distributed by Ascaron in the UK include ''
King's Bounty: The Legend, Audiosurf and several games in the TrackMania''-series. The company distributed games from other European publishers, such as and
Focus Home Interactive. In April 2009, the company was unable to pay its debts and went into
administration, citing the extended development time of
Sacred 2: Fallen Angel as the reason. The company continued trading in the hope that a solution could be found but was ultimately dissolved in July 2009, with
Kalypso Media purchasing many of the licenses and assets from Ascaron Entertainment, with the notable exception of the licence for
Sacred, which was acquired by
Deep Silver (Germany).
Gaming Minds Studios was then launched by Kalypso and former Ascaron employees. 15 former Ascaron developers joined the Gaming Minds Studios. As of April 2010, Ascaron UK was still in operation, acting as a distributor for other publishers. Customers include
Paradox Interactive. ==Games==