Yager Development

German video game developer

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Yager Development GmbHCompany type| Private

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Industry| Video games
Founded| 1999; 26 years ago (1999)
Founders|

* Uwe Beneke
* Roman Golka
* Philipp Schellbach
* Timo Ullmann
* Mathias Wiese

Headquarters|

Berlin

Germany

Key people

| Timo Ullmann (managing director)

Number of employees

| 130[1] (2024)
Parent| Tencent (2021–present)
Website| yager.de

Yager Development GmbH is a German video game developer based in Berlin.

## History

[edit]

Yager Development GmbH was founded in 1999 by five friends from East Berlin: Timo Ullmann, Uwe Beneke, Roman Golka, Philipp Schellbach and Mathias Wiese.[2] Ullmann and others had previously worked at the Babelsberg developer company Terra Tools, from which Yager and Radon Labs emerged.[3]

The company developed five of its own games between 1999 and 2024, self-published two of them and worked on several co-development projects.[4]

The studio's first work, Yager, released in 2003, was released in the USA in 2004 under the title Aerial Strike: Low Altitude - High Stakes. To more clearly represent a distinction between the first game's name and the studio's name, the company is officially spelled as YAGER (in capital letters) and the 2003 game as Yager.[5] About nine years later, in June 2012, Spec Ops: The Line, the second title developed by Yager Development, was released. The game was internationally praised in particular for its sophisticated plot and staging, which repeatedly presents the player with morally critical decisions.[6] At the German Developer Awards 2012, Spec Ops: The Line won the most prizes with five awards, namely in the jury category as "Best Action Game" and in the academy categories "Best German Game", "Best Storyline", "Best Graphics" and "Best Console Game". At the same time, Yager Development was named "Best Studio" in Germany[7] and Spec Ops: The Line won numerous international awards.[8]

At E3 2014 in Los Angeles, it was announced that Yager had taken over the development of Dead Island 2 instead of Techland, but publisher and rights holder Deep Silver withdrew responsibility from the development studio in July 2015. The reason given was differences in the view of the game.[9] Furthermore, Yager's collaboration with Six Foot on the development of Dreadnought was announced at E3 2014. The game was released for the PlayStation 4 in June 2017[10] and for PC in October 2018[11] while the publishing was taken over by Grey Box. For Dreadnought, Yager received the German Developer Prize 2017 in the "Best Technical Achievement" category.[12]

In 2019, Yager announced the release of the PvPvE FPS The Cycle into Early Access during Gamescom 2019 Opening Night Live. This was the first game in the studio's history developed and published by Yager and was initially only available on the PC via the Epic Games Store.[13] The game ran for three seasons but underwent a pivot in 2021 from the original PvPvE looter shooter approach to an FPS extraction shooter. In June 2022, the title was officially released as The Cycle: Frontier on Steam and EGS.[14]

In 2020, the Chinese online company Tencent acquired a minority stake in Yager. Tencent wants to help the studio expand its development and publishing activities. Regardless of Tencent's participation, Yager continues to run the studio independently and develop its own games.[15] In June 2021, Tencent acquired a majority stake in the studio.[16] In January 2024, Yager carried out a significant rebranding of the studio, announcing not only a new logo, website, and corporate identity, but also a completely new communication strategy.[17] As part of this communication, Yager's past and current co-development projects with other studios were also announced, including with Funcom on Dune: Awakening[18] and with Sharkmob on Exoborne.[19]

Yager currently employs around 130 people at its headquarters in Berlin-Kreuzberg, making it one of the largest game developers in Germany.[20]

## Developed games

[edit]

Release year  | Title  | Genre  | Publisher(s)  | Platform(s)

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|
|
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2003  | Yager | Combat flight simulation | THQ | Microsoft Windows, Xbox
2004  | Aerial Strike: Low Altitude - High Stakes | Combat flight simulation | DreamCatcher Interactive, Kemco | Microsoft Windows, Xbox
2012  | Spec Ops: The Line | Third-person shooter | 2K Games | Linux, macOS, Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 3, Xbox 360
2017  | Dreadnought | Combat flight simulation | Grey Box  | Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4
2019  | The Cycle | FPS looter shooter | Yager Development  | Microsoft Windows (EGS)
2022  | The Cycle: Frontier | FPS extraction shooter | Yager Development  | Microsoft Windows (EGS / Steam)

## Co-developed games

[edit]

Development year  | Title  | Genre  | Publisher  | Release year

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|
|
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2012–2015  | Dead Island 2 | Action role-playing game | Deep Silver | 2023
2018  | HYENAS | First-person shooter | Sega | Cancelled
2018–2021  | Outriders | Co-op action rpg shooter | Square Enix | 2021
2022–2024  | Dune: Awakening | Open world survival MMO | Funcom | To be announced
2023–ongoing  | Exoborne | Third-person extraction shooter | Sharkmob / Level Infinite | To be announced

## References

[edit]

1. ^ Fröhlich, Petra (15 August 2024). "Die größten Games-Studios in Deutschland 2024" [The largest game studios in Germany in 2024]. GamesWirtschaft (in German). Archived from the original on 15 August 2024. Retrieved 15 August 2024.
2. ^ "25 Jahre Computerspiele von Yager : Fünf Freunde bewahren den Tüftlergeist aus DDR-Tagen". Der Tagesspiegel Online (in German). ISSN 1865-2263. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
3. ^ Gießler, Denis (21 November 2018). "Videospiele in der DDR: Die Stasi spielte mit". Die Zeit (in German). ISSN 0044-2070. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
4. ^ "Portfolio". YAGER - TRUE TO THE GAME. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
5. ^ "About". YAGER - TRUE TO THE GAME. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
6. ^ Axel Hengstbach (29 June 2012). "Test: Actionspiel für PC, PS3, Xbox 360. Spec Ops – The Line: Das Anti-Kriegs-Kriegsspiel" [Test für PC, PS3 und Xbox 360. Spec Ops – The Line: The anti-war war game]. COMPUTER BILD SPIELE (in German). Archived from the original on 14 November 2012. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
7. ^ "Golem.de: IT-News für Profis". www.golem.de. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
8. ^ "Awards". YAGER - TRUE TO THE GAME. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
9. ^ Matthew Handrahan, ed. (15 July 2015). "Yager dropped from Dead Island 2 after 3 years". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
10. ^ "Dreadnought Out Today, New Details on Havoc Mode". PlayStation.Blog. 6 June 2017. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
11. ^ Khan, Imran. "Layoffs At Dreadnought Developer Six Foot (Update: Studio Confirms)". Game Informer. Archived from the original on 25 December 2018. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
12. ^ "Timo Ullmann on LinkedIn: Dreadnought just received an Award for Best Technical Achievement at the… | 11 comments". www.linkedin.com. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
13. ^ Dornbush, Jonathon (19 August 2019). "Yager's The Cycle Now Out in Early Access on Epic Games Store - Gamescom 2019". IGN. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
14. ^ McWhertor, Michael (25 May 2022). "Spec Ops: The Line studio to launch The Cycle in June, after nearly 3 years of early access". Polygon. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
15. ^ Gameswirtschaft (10 February 2020). "Tencent steigt bei Berliner Studio Yager ein". GamesWirtschaft.de (in German). Retrieved 6 May 2024.
16. ^ Danielle Partis, ed. (22 June 2021). "Tencent acquires majority stake in Yager". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
17. ^ "We are celebrating 25 years of YAGER!". YAGER - TRUE TO THE GAME. 24 January 2024. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
18. ^ "YAGER supports Funcom with the co-development of Dune: Awakening". YAGER - TRUE TO THE GAME. 24 January 2024. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
19. ^ Admin (25 April 2024). "YAGER uses its Extraction-Shooter experience to support Sharkmob". YAGER - TRUE TO THE GAME. Retrieved 6 May 2024.
20. ^ Gameswirtschaft (24 January 2024). "Yager: Neuer Marken-Auftritt zum 25jährigen Jubiläum". GamesWirtschaft.de (in German). Retrieved 6 May 2024.

## External links

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