Website Official website Number of employees 66 (2015) | ||
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Industry Computer and video gamesInteractive entertainment Video games | ||
Mafia 2 title theme animatic 2010 2k czech
2K Czech a.s. (previously known as Illusion Softworks and Silver Wish Games) is a game development company located in Brno, Czech Republic. The company focuses mostly on first-person and third-person shooter games, and is widely known for the Mafia series. Since the foundation in 1997, till the sale to Kush Games (a subsidiary of Take-Two Interactive) ten years later, its owners and key managers were founders Petr Vochozka and Jan Kudera. In September 2008, the company was renamed 2K Czech. As of October 2010, it had 188 employees.
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History
The company's first well known game was Hidden & Dangerous, a tactical shooter game in 1999, where the player takes control of a four-man British Special Air Service team executing a number of important sabotage and/or rescue campaigns during World War II. This game also represents the beginning of cooperation with worldwide publisher Take-Two Interactive.
Their first 3D game was the not so famous - Flying Heroes, which featured fantasy mid-air action duels. In this game, Illusion Softworks presented a brand new 3D engine called the Ptero-Engine (named after The Pterodon company, which co-developed the software).
The company prepared its own LS3D engine for the game Mafia: The City of Lost Heaven, which was first released in 2002. The game met with great acclaim from critics and was even labeled the best game about the Mob because of its original plot and revolutionary capabilities within its gameplay.
In 2003, Illusion Softworks released two games. The first being a first-person shooter entitled Vietcong, which was situated in the Vietnam War. This game had also been developed alongside Pterodon, using their enhanced Ptero-Engine II. The second game was a continuation to their first tactical shooter: Hidden & Dangerous 2, also made with the LS3D engine. The official sequel to Vietcong titled Vietcong 2, was released in 2005 (once again in cooperation with Pterodon).
In August 2010, they released Mafia II, the long-awaited sequel to the original Mafia game. That same year, they also released three DLC missions for the game. 2K Czech released their first sports game, the third sequel to the popular tennis franchise: Top Spin 4. They were working on another first-person shooter game entitled Enemy In Sight, but it is currently shelved.
On 1 September 2011, it was reported that 40 staff members from Brno studios and 10 from Prague studios had lost their jobs.
The company was previously composed of two different game studios from Brno and Prague. On 10 January 2014, 2K Games announced that the Prague branch of 2K Czech is to be closed and relocated to Brno. Also some developers from Prague and Brno are being transferred to 2K headquarters in Novato, California.
In 2015, with the announcement of Mafia III, 2K Czech announced via their website that they will be helping to assist Hangar 13 to develop the game.