Ascaron-Entertainment posts

If you have been wondering when Sacred 2: Ice and Blood would be released in the US, wonder no more. The expansion pack to the 2008 released action-RPG and the last game from its developer Ascaron Entertainment before its shut down earlier this year, will be heading to the US via Steam on November 13. Pricing for the expansion has yet to be revealed.

According to the Steam pre-order page, Sacred 2 Ice and Blood will add over 30 hours of gameplay to the original game with two new regions to explore along with new monsters, items and a new playable character called The Dragon Mage.

It's now official. The well known German-based game developer Ascaron Entertainment has now closed its doors completely. The company, best known for the action-RPG games Sacred and it's recent sequel Sacred 2, declared bankruptcy a few months ago and recently sold off much of their assets to Kalypso Media. The final blow was apparently made late last week as Ascaron's Studio 2 was also shut down, according to a message board post on the Sacred web site.

So what about the previously announced plans for a Sacred 2 add-on, title Ice and Blood? According to the message board post, "The Addon (PC version) is almost finished, a hand full of devs are still there and will work at the last bits required." The plan is for Deep Silver to publish the add-on in Germany in late August but there's no word yet on a US release for Ice and Blood.

[Via Blue's News]

While there's no word yet on when this will reach the US, publisher Deep Silver has announced the first details on Sacred 2: Ice and Blood, the promised expansion pack to the 2008 fantasy RPG from developer Ascaron Entertainment. The German-language press release reveales that the expansion is due out sometime before the end of 2009 and will include a new playable character, the Dragonmage, along with two new areas, new quests and monsters and the usual more.

CDV published the original game in the US but at the moment there's no word if they will be handling the expansion as well. In the meantime the first screenshots from Sacred 2: Ice and Blood have been released (via PCGamesHardware.com)

Gallery: Sacred 2: Ice and Blood

Earlier this week we reported that a group of now former Ascaron Entertainment team members teamed up with publisher Kalypso Media to form Gaming Minds Studios. In addition to forming a new dev studio, Kalypso Media bought out a number of game properties previously owned by Ascaron.

Not listed among those games was the Sacred series of action-RPGs. Now comes word that Ascaron still holds the rights to the game franchise. In a post on the Sacred message boards, the company's community manager Anca Adelina Finta stated, "Studio 2 (subsidiary company of Ascaron) has the licence for Sacred 2 and the devs will continue working at the Addon as they did before." In its recent bankruptcy announcement Ascaron announced that both an addon as well as Sacred 3 was in development. Finta states, "In a nutshell, the Addon is not affected by anything and will come as planned."

Last April developer Ascaron Entertainment, best known for their Sacred action-RPG series, declared bankruptcy but said that operations would continue while they found a buyer. Now it appears at least part of the company has been bought out by Kalypso Media which will result in the formation of a new game developer.

In a new (German language) press release today Kalypso Media revealed that 15 former Asceron Entertainment team members have formed a new team called Gaming Minds Studios. The team is owned by Kalypso who has also purchased a number of game properties from Ascaron, including the Port Royale, Darkstar One and The Patrician series of games. Specific financial terms were not disclosed. Gaming Minds Studios is currently working on the third game in The Patrician series which will be released sometime this summer.

Not mentioned in the press release is the fate of Ascaron's Sacred series. In its bankruptcy statement, Ascaron stated that 500,000 copies of the PC version of Sacred 2 had been sold by the end of 2008. The PS3 and Xbox 360 versions shipped to stores in May and Ascaron stated at the time that a Sacred 2 expansion pack as well as Sacred 2 were already in the works.

It looks like one of the more successful game developers in Germany is in a bit of trouble. This weekend Ascaron Entertainment, best known in the US for the Sacred series of action-RPG games, has filed for bankruptcy protection, according to a note on the company's German language web site (the English version has yet to be updated).

Ascaron released Sacred 2 in the fall of 2008 and so far it has sold more than 500,000 copies worldwide by the end of 2008 according to the statement. Xbox 360 and PS3 versions of the game are complete and will ship out sometime in the end of May. However the delays in making of Sacred 2 have caused the company to go into bankruptcy protection. The statement said they already started discussions with a number of companies that could result in one of them buying out Ascaron. In the meantime development has continued on a Sacred 2 expansion pack and also on Sacred 3.

[Via Voodoo Extreme]

Ascaron's recent fantasy action-RPG Sacred 2 has been out for about five months now but apparently the development team isn't quite ready to give up working on the game. German-based PCGameshardware.com got a chance to see a new version of the game at the CeBit expo this week. The new version adds PhysX support from Nvidia to the game.

Apparently the dev team were not able to add the PhysX support before the game went gold last fall but an upcoming patch will enable some new PhysX driven effects in the game. The above video shows off an example of what the new effects will look like. They don't really affect Sacred 2's gameplay; they simple augment paricle effects for things like character spell visuals. The patch is slated for release later this March.

The Gametap digital download service continues to release new chapters of its episodic game series American McGee's Grimm. Today the latest episode is released, based on the Mulan legend, as as with previous releases this new chapter is free to play for the next 24 hours. As you may know the development team behind the game, Spicy Horse, is now working on their next project which is a new title in the American McGee's Alice series for publisher EA.

Gametap has also put one of their library tites into the "free-to-play" section until March 5. This time it's Sacred Gold, the 2004 fantasy action-RPG and its expansion pack from developer Ascaron Entertainment. Of course Ascaron has already released a ful sequel, Sacred 2, that was released for the PC back in October. In addition Gametap has returned a number of game titles to their free section, including Psychonauts, Metal Slug and Tomb Raider: Legend. They won't stay free forever as Gametap plans to rotate games in and out of the free section once a month.

CDV's recent action-RPG sequel Sacred 2 was released last November but this week fans of the game got a special and unexpected downloadable treat. CDV decided to offer a free PDF version of the title's official art book. It has now been released on the CDV web site (an printed art book was included in the Collector's Edition of the retail game).

The "Art and Vision" PDF download offers fans a glimpse into the making of the game developed by Ascaron Entertainment. It includes original character designs, renders and other details. Even if you haven't played the game it's still a solid look at the artistic side of making a fantasy action-RPG.

Download the Sacred 2 Art Book (42 MB)

When it comes to a genre like action-RPGs, you've played them all if you've spent an hour or so with one. No matter the title, no matter the setting, the goals are approximately the same: kill hordes of monsters, scavenge the world for loot, and hopefully sport better gear than your friends. In that capacity, Sacred 2: Fallen Angel is the consummate archetype of the genre. It doesn't do anything special, but for those who can't get enough mouse-clicking mayhem, Sacred 2 makes for a good time.