dtp / Anaconda Games Opens Internal Development Studio

German publisher dtp / Anaconda Games (Drakensang: The Dark Eye, Legend - Hand of God) sends word they are in the process of founding an internal development unit.
Creative Director Steffen Rühl is currently seeking more or less a full set of leads and directors with international experience. Studio language will be English.
dtp is, according to the German PR, the biggest customer for German development studios. They stress their intention to further extend this position. The internal studio will not replace external structures, it will allow dtp to do additional online and offline projects, stand alone or in cooperation with other projects by external developers.
More information.

More news from other studios:

SEK Ost (Paraworld) closes.
http://www.ageofdinocraft.com/index_en.html

The Rockstar Vienna (Max Payne series, GTA series; -> conversions for last gen consoles) founders announced they will open a new studio soon.

SEK made the big mistake to publish the game Paraworld at the SAME time as Anno 1701 !

They should've known that Anno is a mega-seller here in Germany.

Stupid management decision.

They knew it. Same publisher.
The problem was rather that there is no market for games with dinosaurs.

Originally Posted by Gorath
They knew it. Same publisher.
The problem was rather that there is no market for games with dinosaurs.

And certainly not a mediocre game with dinosaurs …

Thatīs arguable. The reviewers here saw it near the top of all those big budget RTSes released in the last two years, while overseas it was perceived as average.

I haven't played the full game since I'm not really much of an RTS player but from the demo it seemed to me like ParaWorld is an AoE 2 clone and a well done one, too.
ParaWorld certainly lacks originality (other than the dino theme) but to call it "mediocre" seems a bit harsh to me unless the demo is not a good representation of the qualities of the full game.
AoE 2 is considered a classic by many. ParaWorld -despite "only" being a rather straight clone of that classic- would have deserved to turn into a success IMHO.

BTW, I think that Gorath and Alrik are both right. The failure to sell well was probably a mix of the unusual dino theme and the fact that the 2nd half of 2006 was crowded by so many so called "high profile" releases (just to name the strategy games: Anno 1701, Company of Heroes, some Warhammer game, Star Wars EAW expansion, Spellforce 2, HoMM V + expansion, LotR: Battle for Middle Earth 2 + expansion, Rise of Legends, and probably more…).

Gamers with Jobs' contributor and one-time The Fall PR guy JD worked for SEK.