: 1993 ::

This year is a kind of a starting point for our company when the decision is made to start developing and publishing PC software.

:: 1995 ::

Due to the join-up of several companies devoted to PC games development our company is founded and the Akella trade mark is registered.

:: 1996 ::

Starting from 1996 we present our products at all international software exhibitions like E3, ECTS and Milia.

:: 1997 ::

Akella becomes the first Russian company to officially localize and publish a foreign game in Russia - the arcade racing POD by Ubisoft that was highly acclaimed by the Russian gamers.

:: 1998 ::

We devote our efforts to developing PC games and software. We also continue localizing and publishing foreign PC games. During the next 2 years Akella publishes the sequel to POD ¨C POD Gold from Ubisoft, the quest UFOs from H+A and a set of educational programs from Young Genius. We also pay sharp attention to local developers, publishing different Russian games and multimedia products.

:: 2000 ::

This year is marked with the release of Sea Dogs, a pirate sim that quickly gains a world reknown. Sea Dogs is a meta-game combining sails simulation with role-playing and action elements. The game is built on a genuine sea engine "Storm" developed by Akella, and possesses stunning graphics and realistic physics. Sea Dogs is published by 1C company in Russia and by Bethesda Softworks abroad. It is highly acclaimed by the local and foreign press as well as being admired by gamers throughout the world. The first sea game by Akella establishes a challenging standard for pirate sims for the next 3 years. Again, Akella breaks the ground!

Later this year Akella develops astounding graphics for Persian Wars, a RTS by Cryo Interactive.

:: 2001 ::

More efforts are aimed on establishing contacts with future foreign partners. The agreements with several major companies are arranged on publishing localizations of their games in Russia, CIS and Baltics.

In February Akella ships the 3D RTS Age of Sails II developed for Take2/TalonSoft. The game?s setting is based on historical events of the epoch of sails. The strategy was kindly accepted by gamers and press all over the world and is highly rated in local and foreign media.

In September Akella receives yet another request from Cryo Interactive to develop the graphics for its adventure game Curse of Atlantis: Thorgal¡¯s Quest.

:: 2002 ::

Akella develops and releases another sails RTS ¨C Privateer¡¯s Bounty. Succeeding the best features of Age of Sails II it manages to attain striking originality and convey some fresh gameplay aspects. It wins many admirers in Russia and abroad, and their number is constantly increasing.

At E3 this year Akella shows off Sea Dogs 2 - the sequel to Sea Dogs being developed for PC and Xbox. GameSpy names Sea Dogs 2 among the runner-ups for its "The best RPG at E3¡¯2003" award. The gaming portal UGO.com Games grants the sequel of Sea Dogs with the title of "The Most Awaited RPG at E3".

Akella constantly intensifies its publishing activities. The agreements are arranged on publishing a number of major titles like Gothic 2, Another War, Rabid Dogs 2, Hotel Giant, Worms Blast, World War II: Panzer Claws, Knight Shift, Postal 2, The I of the Dragon and others.

:: 2003 ::

In February Akella finishes the localization of The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind expansion, Tribunal. The original game was localized by Akella and published by 1C earlier.

Akella starts the development of Axle Rage, its first PlayStation 2 project. Axle Rage is a futuristic action featuring breathtaking bike fights and brutal martial encounters. The game is shown off on the first Russian conference of game developers KRI, where Akella takes part as an exhibitioner and the golden sponsor. This year Akella gets 4 KRI awards: ¡°The Best Localizer¡±, ¡°The Best Game Graphics¡±, ¡°The Best Console Game¡± and ¡°The Best Game¡±.

The company continues releasing its immense business potential. This year Akella starts developing games under license. The first one was the marvelous Pirates of the Caribbean developed under license of Disney Pictures and published by Bethesda Softworks and 1C. The game¡¯s storyline prequelled the one of the movie. ¡°Pirates of the Caribbean¡± used the next generation sea engine ¡°Storm 2¡± which provided the astounding appearance and even more spectacular physics. The success of the game is comparable to the huge popularity of the collateral movie. More than 350 thousand copies of the game were sold in USA and adding the Russian sales we get a really huge total.

Under agreement with its standing partner Ubisoft, Akella publishes the outstanding FPS XIII based on the original cell-shading graphics technology. And later this year the Russian release of Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, the game concerned the best Action of the year by the gaming press worldwide, breaks sales records on Russian market.

The good tradition of releasing sails strategies continues this year thanks to the marvelous Tortuga developed by Ascaron Entertainment and localized and published by Akella.

Two games shipped by Enlight Software this year are brought to Russia by Akella. It¡¯s Joan of Arc, a junction of a slasher, RPG and RTS, and the cunning economic strategy Restaurant Empire. Both games were highly admired by Russian gamers.

And one of the most prominent releases of the year was the localized version of Postal 2 developed by Running With Scissors. The sales of Postal 2 are still restricted in many regions of the world because of extremely severe software ratings. . But Akella decided not to deprive Russian gamers of the true fun brought by that game. We¡¯re sure that this is only a piece of entertainment, and it¡¯s about fun ¨C nothing more.

The end of the year was marked by the great news: having shipped Pirates of the Caribbean, Akella in now back to work on the long-awaited Sea Dogs 2.

:: 2004 ::

The guests of KRI¡¯2004 were the first to meet the brand new titles by Akella - Captain Blood, a pirate slasher developed for both PC and Xbox, and BT Boats: Knights of the Seas, the first modern navy sim developed by our company.

The year brought an impressive number of internal and joint projects. Among the others are Swashbucklers: Legacy of Drake for PS2 and a cyber-punk FPS/RPG Sabotage: Break the Rules and a post-apocalyptic Fallout-inspired RPG Metalheart: Replicants Rampage. More games under different licenses are announced this year. There are several ¡°book titles¡± such as Hard to be a God and Hotel ?At a Lost Climber? by Strugatsky brothers and several titles by the other well-known Russian authors. Together with Central Partnership Akella starts the development of an action game Shadow Fight based on the narrative of collateral movie directed by Alexey Sidoroff and produced by Central Partnership. The game is built on RenderWare? engine and features the main movie characters and the most stunning scenes from the movie as the game levels. The another game being developed under Central Partnership license is Volkodaw. The movie and the game are both scheduled to be released in Winter 2005.

The list of titles localized and published by Akella constantly grows larger. Akella releases one of the best role-playing games of the year ¨C Sacred by Ascaron Entertainment. The winter of 2004 becomes warmer with the hot release of long-awaited Gothic 2 published by Akella in cooperation with 1C.

Some action games localizations are also added to our company¡¯s service record. One of the best first-person shooters of 2004, Painkiller from DreamCatcher Interactive, is released on the Russian market by Akella. The expansion of Painkiller, Battle out of Hell is also released later this year.

The next hot release of Akella is Prince of Persia: Warrior Within by UbiSoft, the sequel to the best action game of 2003.

The sincere friendship and mutually beneficial collaboration with Running With Scissors also goes on and brings its results. Akella publishes two Postal 2 add-ons ¨C the multiplayer add-on Share the Pain and the expansion Apocalypse Weekend. Vince Desi himself visits Russia to present the first upcoming Russian add-on to Postal 2 currently being developed by Akella.

The next title originally published by Enlight Software was brought to Moscow by American McGee, the famous game designer who worked with id Software on DooM, Quake and created his own Alice, a gloomy PC interpretation of Lewis Carroll¡¯s story. American McGee presented Scrapland, a colorful action fantasy developed by his along with MercurySteam Entertainment. The game was gladly accepted by Russian media, Scrapland¡¯s localization was complete in 2005.

The RTS genre also brings some hot titles like Port Royale 2, Codename: Panzers and Warlords: Battlecry III, all of them localized and published by Akella during 2004. The other strategy titles released in Russia this year are Restaurant Empire and Zoo Empire from Enlight Software.

The end of the year has become a remarkable event for all Russian PC games market as Akella became the official distributor of two MMORPGs counting hundreds of thousand subscribers all over the world ¨C the most awaited glorious-looking EverQuest II and Final Fantasy XI, a desing-and-graphics masterpiece of Japanese developers from Square Enix. The rights to distribute both games were kindly provided by UbiSoft.