Kalypso Media was founded on 16 August 2006 by Simon Hellwig and Stefan Marcinek. One year later, a branch was opened in
Bracknell, UK, and in June 2009, another in
Ridgewood, USA. In 2009, the group opened its second UK outlet in the form of Kalypso Media Digital Ltd. in
Leicester. Kalypso Media Digital Ltd. is responsible for the online marketing of its own games and the products of other providers. In November 2008, it founded the subsidiary Realmforge Studios GmbH, based in
Munich, and integrated Boxed Dreams, developer of
Ceville. Kalypso was able to acquire rights to its series
DarkStar One,
Patrician and
Port Royale in June 2009, though left other assets like the
Sacred series with Ascaron. Kalypso also acquired fifteen former Ascaron employees to establish its second internal studio, Gaming Minds Studio, in
Gütersloh, of which it held 60% ownership, the other 40% owned by Daniel Dumont and Kay Struve, former Ascaron employees that were named to run Gaming Minds. The studio was rebranded as Skilltree Studios in 2014, but in March 2016, Kalypso opted to close the studio. Kalypso founded a sister company for
mobile gaming development, Kalypso Media Mobile, in April 2014 in
Berlin. The studio’s first mobile and tablet games were released a year later in May 2015. In January 2016, Stefan Marcinek sold his shares in the Kalypso and left the company, leaving Simon Hellwig as sole shareholder. Kalypso acquired the
Commandos,
Imperial Glory, and
Praetorians series from
Pyro Studios in July 2018. Pyro, whose work has been more focused on supporting
Ilion Animation Studios, welcomed Kalypso's opportunity to bring its titles back to the market. Kalypso later announced high-definition remasters of
Commandos 2 and
Praetorians
for early 2020, and the formation of its third internal studio, Claymore Game Studios, to develop new games in the
Commandos series. In October 2021, it announced a new studio in
Munich called
Nine Worlds Studios, which is named after the nine worlds of
Norse mythology. They will be responsible for creating a new
Tropico entry. Project Manager Thomas Schneider, formerly of Aesir Interactive, was hired to lead in setting up the studio. On 18 October 2022 Kalypso announced that co-founder Simon Hellwig had died. == Subsidiaries ==