In Germany, games are made, especially MMOs. A year ago, we featured the Berlin studio Yager on MeinMMO:
Germany has a high-profile MMO studio – We spoke to the CEO
Corona hits many industries hard, but some computer games did better than ever in 2020. The Regensburg company CipSoft has been distributing the MMORPG Tibia (PC) for over 20 years and can now pay its employees royalties that essentially double their annual salary. The online role-playing game boomed in 2020, as CipSoft reports.
This MMORPG is about: The MMORPG Tibia has been on the market since 1997. It has been developed by the company CipSoft in Regensburg for over 20 years. Originally, Tibia was born as an idea to create more than just a text-based game. Over the decades, it has grown into a company with nearly 90 employees, still based in Regensburg.
Here in Germany, the MMORPG was largely pushed into the niche and hidden gem category in the 2000s by other new MMORPGs like WoW or Runes of Magic, but in other countries around the world, Tibia is still a big topic. The MMORPG is much more relevant in Poland, Venezuela, Brazil, Chile, and Sweden than it is here in Germany.
We keep reporting on Tibia at MeinMMO. Because the game tells great stories as a “typical MMORPG”:
- Players are looking for a boss that has been hidden for a decade
- bid on a unique item for thousands of US dollars
- or support their family in Venezuela by farming gold in Tibia
German MMORPG has been growing for years, increases player count
This is how the MMORPG is doing financially: They are doing excellently. The company states:
- In the average year 2020, the number of active players in Tibia rose by one third to over 100,000
- The revenue of CipSoft increased to around 25 million euros and grew by 10 million euros – fueled by the Tibia marketplace where players can buy and sell characters to each other
- The profit before tax rose by about 115% to 14.5 million euros, as despite the significant revenue increase in 2020, the company’s expenses remained largely constant, as CipSoft explains
According to Stephan Vogler, one of the founders of CipSoft:
“Five years ago, our total annual revenue was just under ten million euros. Since then, we have managed to significantly increase our revenue each year, although the dramatic increase in 2020 was of course not foreseeable.”
Stephan Vogler
Employees receive essentially double salary for 2020
This is how employees benefit: The company states: Through royalties, the employees of CipSoft receive so much money that it corresponds to an additional annual salary. Since March 2020, CipSoft employees have been working from home and have had a lot of work that was not always easy, as emphasized. Therefore, they are particularly pleased to be able to distribute such a high profit sharing now.
Additionally, CipSoft donated 200,000 euros to Doctors Without Borders, UNICEF, and the “Germany Helps” campaign, as the company reports. With the money, they aim to support the fight against COVID-19.
We plan to publish a large interview with CipSoft shortly on MeinMMO.
In Germany, games are made, especially MMOs. A year ago, we featured the Berlin studio Yager on MeinMMO:
