Creative Assembly Sofia


Creative Assembly Sofia is a Bulgarian video game developer based in Sofia. It was founded in May 2001 by Vesselin Handjiev. In July 2008, the company was acquired by Crytek, which then sold it to Creative Assembly in March 2017.

History

Black Sea Studios was founded by Vesselin Handjiev, the lead designer of ', on 7 May 2001 in Sofia, Bulgaria. At the time, the company began developing three separate games: two real-time strategy games and one arcade-style action game. The company became known for its 2004 title Knights of Honor, a historical real-time strategy game released for Microsoft Windows, and for the 2008 science fiction real-time strategy title WorldShift.
In July 2008, German developer and publisher Crytek announced their acquisition of the studio, and renamed it Crytek Black Sea. At the time, Black Sea Studios was based in Sofia, Bulgaria, with Vesselin Handijev was managing director. In May 2014, Crytek announced the development of their own multiplayer online battle arena game using the CryEngine, titled Arena of Fate and under development at the Sofia studio. The game was shown at E3 2014. In November 2016, founder Handjiev, together with Michael Peykov, formed a new video game company, Black Sea Games.
In December 2016, Crytek announced that it would shut down five of its international studios, due to financial troubles, of which Crytek Black Sea was put up for sale. In March 2017, it was announced that the studio was acquired by British developer Creative Assembly, and was renamed Creative Assembly Sofia. At the time, Crytek Black Sea had 60 employees. Under Creative Assembly, Creative Assembly Sofia developed downloadable content for ', including Empire Divided and Rise of the Republic. It is developing a new game in the Total War Saga series, .

Games developed

Cancelled