Reto-Moto

Reto-Moto ApS was a Danish video game developer based in Copenhagen. Founded in 1997, its staff formed IO Interactive as a joint venture in September 1998. Following a decade of inactivity, some founders reformed Reto-Moto in April 2008, and the company developed Heroes & Generals, which was released in September 2016.

History

Prior to founding Reto-Moto, all founding members had been part of various demo groups. After a time in the US, they decided to move back to Copenhagen in 1997, where they founded Reto-Moto later that year.[1] In September 1998, Reto-Moto, at the time consisting of Jesper Vorsholt Jørgensen, Rasmus Guldberg-Kjær, Martin Munk Pollas, Karsten Lemann Hvidberg, Jacob Andersen, Janos Flösser and David Guldbrandsen, and Danish film studio Nordisk Film launched IO Interactive, another developer, as a joint venture.[2] Nordisk Film held a 40.3% stake in the venture.[2] Due to IO Interactive's rapid success through Hitman: Codename 47 in 2000, Reto-Moto's operations were put on ice.[3] Eventually, all stakes in IO Interactive were sold to Eidos Interactive in March 2004.[4]

On 11 April 2008, four of IO Interactive's founders—Vorsholt Jørgensen, Pollas, Andersen, and Guldbrandsen—announced that they had, together with former Eidos Interactive executive producer Neil Donnell, reformed Reto-Moto as an active developer.[5] Guldbrandsen and Donnell became the chief technology officer and chief executive officer, respectively.[6] Six further IO Interactive employees left the company to join Reto-Moto in December that year.[7] By April 2012, Reto-Moto had 25 employees, most of them transplants from IO Interactive.[8]

Reto-Moto's first game, Heroes & Generals, was announced on 7 October 2011.[9] A temporary publishing agreement for the game was reached with Square Enix in November 2012.[10] Heroes & Generals was officially released on 23 September 2016 and has since reached 10 million registered users as of January 2017.[11] On 16 August 2017, Reto-Moto hired Jean-Marc Broyer as new chief executive officer.[12] Nordisk Film announced on 6 December 2017 that they had acquired a minority stake in Reto-Moto in exchange for a US$5 million investment.[13]

On 4 February 2022, TLM Partners announced that it had acquired Heroes & Generals and related businesses from Reto-Moto.[14] A bankruptcy notice for the company was published on 7 March 2022.[15]

Games developed

External links