Innova (company)


Innova is an international localization company, which works with multiplayer games, mobile, and browser online games. Lineage 2 by Korean NCSoft is the most renown project with more than 3 mln registered users in Russia.
Also the company implemented and launched in Russia and CIS countries such online games as Blade & Soul, Aion, Ragnarok Online, Crowfall, Ironsight, Point Blank, RF Online, R2 Online, PlanetSide 2, Dragon’s Prophet, Kingdom Under Fire 2, Halo Online.
The company partners with such labels as NCSoft, Zepetto, CCR Inc., Webzen, NEXON, Bigpoint, Microsoft, Daybreak Game Company LLC, Blueside and many others.

About the company

The company was founded in 2006 by George Chumburidze, Armen Gasparyan, Vasily Medvedev, Oleg Sambikin and Gevork Sarkisyan were among its founders. In 2009, Sambikin and Medvedev exited the business and founded the company-developer Syncopate.
At the time of the company's creation, the online games market in Russia was in the "gray zone", foreign games were mainly adapted by "pirates". The first licensed game released by the company was RF Online of the Korean company CCR.
In 2007-2018 Innova localized and published 40 massively multiplayer online games and multiplayer browser games in Russia, including Lineage II, :ru:R2 Online|R2 Online, Aion, Blade & Soul and others, becoming one of the largest Russian players in the video game market.
In summer of 2010 Innova developed and released a single launcher for localized games. In January 2012, the team released a new platform 4game. In December 2010, the company launched an online movie theater Ayyo, which provided video-on-demand and download-to-own paid access to films. In the following years, Ayyo showed both profit and loss, and in March 2017 it was frozen in the midst of the general unprofitability of the Russian online cinema market.
In the beginning of 2010 Innova became one of the largest Russian Internet companies: in the rating published by the Russian Forbes in 2011, it was ranked 22nd with annual revenues of $36 million, and a year later — 23rd with a turnover of $50 million. In January 2016, the users community of the online portal about video games Goha.ru, based on the results of voting, awarded Innova the title of the best MMORPG publisher in the CIS within the framework of the Goha Awards 2015.

Investments

In late 2013, Innova bought exclusive rights to develop the Mexican network of game training parks KidZania in Russia, United States, Canada and France from a subsidiary of the Kuwaiti company M.H. Alshaya Co.. Investments in the project, made by Innova shareholders and partner companies, amounted to $25–30 million. In January 2016, the first Russian KidZania opened in the shopping center Aviapark on the Khodynka field in Moscow. At the end of 2016, the investment advisory firm Winter Capital Partners, associated with Russian businessman Vladimir Potanin, acquired 21.5% of Luxembourg's Innova Partners, the operator of KidZania edutainment parks. Investments were aimed at supporting international expansion: the company plans to open parks in 2018-2019 in Los Angeles, Dallas, Chicago, and Paris in 2018-2019.
Also in late 2013, Innova became a co-owner of the Russian digital distribution system for legal video content Pladform, founded by Armen Gulyan. Georgy Chumburidze invited :ru:Таврин, Иван Владимирович|Ivan Tavrin as a co-investor in the project. Innova played a role of the project’s financial investor with a smaller control package, with Armen Gulinyan, the founder of Pladform, remaining responsible for the management. In 2016, Pladform merged with the Russian video hosting Rutube, as a result of which 33.3% of the merged company Ruform transferred to Gazprom-Media holding, and the remaining shares were divided between Pladform co-owners.

Financial indicators

Localized and published games are free for users, and main source of revenue is transactions in video games, when players pay for items in gaming stores. The company did not disclose its financial indicators. In 2013, Russian Forbes estimated Innova's revenue at $50 million, and in 2016 the annual turnover of the company minus KidZania amounted to several billion rubles.

Games

The table shows the years of games launching by Innova. Active games are those whose official servers are supported.

Active

Closed

YearGameGenreDeveloper
2008Ace OnlineMMORPG, shooter gameMasangSoft
2009FreeStyle OnlineMMOG, sports gameJC Entertainment
2010KartRiderMMOG, racetrackNexon
2010Crazy Arcade BnBMMO, Arcade game, strategyNexon
2010Atlantica OnlineMMORPG, strategyNdoors Interactive
2010Bomzhi Onlinebrowser MMOG, adventureAdventura
2012АРВ: ReloadedMMO, actionK2 Network
2012Shadow CompanyMMOFPSDoobic Game Studios
2013PlanetSide 2MMOFPSDaybreak Game Company
2014Dragon's ProphetMMORPGRunewaker Entertainment
2014Chaos Fightersmobile MMOG, action, fightingChengdu Chukong Technology Co
2014Pocket Fortmobile MMORTSNoumena Innovations
2015Astronestmobile MMORTSANGames
2015Ballisticbrowser MMOFPSRumble Entertainment
2015Earth Keepermobile Arcade gameRaw Hand
2015Gladiators online: Death Before Dishonorbrowser MMOG, actionDorado Games
2015Chibi Kingsmobile MMORPGEkkorr Games
2015Tiny Fortmobile MMORTSNoumena Innovations
2015Tank Herobrowser MMOGClapfoot Inc
2015DrakensangMMORPGBigpoint
2017Kingdom Under Fire IIMMORTS, MMORPGBlueside

History

2006
● The company established
2007
RF Online, Innova's first fantasy MMORPG project, is released. The game servers are launched on January 16 at 23:15.
2008
● Lineage 2, the first MMO in the world with mass battles, was launched
● R2 Online, a classic MMO with a diverse battle system, was launched
● 4game, a gaming platform with easy access to all Innova's projects, was launched in Russia and CIS
2009
● Point Blank, a team-based online shooter, was released to become a world-class cyber sport in the future
● Aion, an MMORPG with epic battles on earth and in the sky, was released
● The first Miss Lineage 2 contest was held. Later it became an annual event till 2017.
2010
● Atlantica Online, a unique turn-based MMORPG, was released
● Point Blank 5x5 Elite Cup, an ESL e-sports tournament, began. It welcomed 128 teams
2011
● Innova held a large Point Blank Cyber Series tournament with the support of Russian e-Sport Federation. Qualification games took place in 14 cities all over the country. The tournament prize pool was 1 million rubles.
● Ayyo, a movie streaming site, was launched
● Lineage 2 Europe was launched by Innova
● Bloodline Chamions project by Stunlock Studios was launched
2012
●, an online multiplayer action game, was launched.
● Shadow Company, an online first person shooter, was launched
● Digit War, an in-house mobile game, was launched in cooperation with TouchLab  
2013
● PlanetSide 2 developed by Daybreak Game Company was released. It was a widescale MMOFPS with thousands of players and hundreds of vehicles fighting on the same battlefield.
● Innova held the Point Blank Russian Championship that takes place in 12 different cities with the grand final in Moscow.
● Innova took the 23rd place in Forbes list of Top 30 largest Russian IT companies.
● Fanuts Fantasy Football, an online strategy, and browser-based MOFPS Offensive Combat were launched
2014
● Innova entered the mobile online gaming market with online strategy Pocket Fort and action-packed Chaos Fighters
● The first 4game TV ads were aired PlanetSide 2, Lineage 2, Point Blank, Aion, and Atlantica Online commercials were aired by TNT, STS, 2x2 TV channels.
● The PlanetSide 2 promotion website won a prestigious FWA award.
● Innova and StarLadder held the 10th anniversary Point Blank SLTV season.
● Lineage 2 Classic, a hardcore Lineage 2 version based on the first patch, was launched with access through a paid subscription
2015
● Innova moved to a new, larger, office. The office is nominated for the Best Office Awards and featured on Office Snapshots.
● The browser-based games Vkontakte social network, Ballistic, Tank Hero and Gladiators Online: Death Before Dishonor, were launched
● Innova's team put in an immense amount of work into Halo Online — a first-person shooter developed by Microsoft. The project is supposed to be launched exclusively for the Russian market, but the release is canceled due to the decision of Microsoft to remake the game.
● Chibi Kings, Tiny Fort, Astronest and Earth Keeper mobile games were launched
● 4gamer — our news portal — was launched, with Alexey Makarenkov appointed as editor-in-chief.
● Battle of the Generals, the biggest Point Blank competition ever held in Russia, was held. During the four-week event, the participants choose one of 3 sides and fight for prizes. Every team is led by one of our community managers.
● Innova's own e-sports platform, Arena 4game, was launched.
● Innova was recognized by GoHa Awards as the Best MMORPG publisher in CIS countries.
● Browser-based MMOFPS Ballistic was launched
● Innova partnered with Dorado Games to bring Gladiators Online: Death Before Dishonor to Russian-speaking countries.
2016
● Blade & Soul, a next-generation action/MMO game with spectacular fights and seductive characters, was launched.
● Innova opened the first edutainment park in Russia — KidZania Moscow.
● Innova's team created an official website for the Russian KidZania Moscow, which later was used by other countries.
● Innova received two audience awards at the GoHa Awards 2015: Most Anticipated MMORPG, for releasing Blade & Soul, and The Best MMORPG publisher in the CIS.
● Innova held the first Russian Blade & Soul championship.
2017
● Innova decided to focus on the online gaming business, thus ending the support of KidZania Moscow.
● An R2 Online international tournament took place in Russia for the first time. The event was held at the e-sports club GamerStadium. The Russian team FreePlay won the tournament.
● Together with StarLadder, Innova held the Point Blank world championship, PBWC`2017.
● Kingdom Under Fire 2, a hybrid of strategy and MMORPG, was launched
● Tele2 Gamecenter, which localized 8 mobile games, was opened with support from Innova
2018
● The release of Crowfall, an MMORPG by ArtCraft, the creators of Ultima Online, was announced
● Large update of the 4game platform, including redesign and 4game Center launcher, was released
● Innova held its first festival, L2fest, a tribute to the 10th anniversary of Lineage 2 in Russia
● Ragnarok Online, one of the oldest MMORPG, was re-launched
● Access to 4game and RF Online was opened for Brazil
● Innova collaborated with Pearl Abyss and became an official operator Black Desert Online in cooperation with the developer.

4game

is an international platform offering games by .
● In 2011 4game was opened in Europe with Lineage 2.
● In 2018 RF Online was launched in Brazil.
● In 2014 the platform also opened a of single-player games by other companies, such as Bethesda, Steam and Uplay.
● In 2015 became a platform for the information portal packed with content about the gaming industry. The project was led by Alexey Makarenkov.
● Starting from summer 2018, all online games are launched in the in-house desktop application.

E-Sports

Innova is an active supporter of Russian eSports. The company held a range of Point Black events together with the eSports Federation, such as Cup of Russia, Russian Championship, WCG. With the support from Innova Russian Point Blank teams have become World Championship winners multiple times. In 2016 the first MMORPG championship was held in Russia for Blade & Soul, in 2017 - for R2 Online.
● In 2010 Point Blank 5x5 Elite Cup, an ESL e-sports tournament, began. It welcomed 128 teams
● In 2010 Point Blank was at the World Cyber Games 2010
● In 2011 Innova held a large Point Blank Cyber Series tournament with the support of Russian e-Sport Federation. Qualification games take place in 14 cities all over the country. The tournament prize pool was 1 million rubles.
● In 2013 Innova held the Point Blank Russian Championship that takes place in 12 different cities with the grand final in Moscow.
● Innova and StarLadder hold the 10th anniversary Point Blank SLTV season.
● In 2015 Innova's own e-sports platform, Arena 4game, was launched.
● In 2016 Innova held the first Russian Blade & Soul championship.
● In 2017 international tournament took place in Russia for the first time. The event was held at the e-sports club GamerStadium. The Russian team FreePlay won the tournament.
● Together with StarLadder, Innova held the Point Blank world championship, PBWC`2017.
● In 2018, the Russian server teams became the World Champions in Blade & Soul

Links