Bohemia Interactive

Early history

Bohemia Interactive founder Marek Španěl aspired to become a game developer in the 1980s, after his brother was convinced to buy a TI-99/4A computer. Španěl first worked as a salesman for a game distribution company and made a 3D hovercraft simulator Gravon: Real Virtuality for Atari Falcon in 1995, which sold 400 copies only. He, along with his brother, Ondřej Španěl, and business partner Slavomír Pavlíček, decided to develop a game in 1997, using the money given by his former employers. They formally founded Bohemia Interactive in May 1999.

The team initially wanted to develop a shooter named Rio Grande, which was described by Španěl as "a 3D clone of River Raid". However, the team did not see the potential of the project and shifted its focus to make an open world game. It then became Poseidon, which was a first-person shooter with a heavy focus on realism. At that time, the team expanded significantly, from having only one full-time programmer, to having 12 full-time employees by the end of the game's development. According to Španěl, the entire development team was very enthusiastic about the game and was focused on creating a game that they "wanted to play", thus opting not to study the works of another development team. Poseidon suffered from an extended development cycle of over three years, causing some of its technologies to become outdated. Original publisher Interactive Magic was sold in 1999 and another publisher which signed the project later wanted to abandon it. The frequent changes of publishers caused uncertainties regarding the game's funding. Despite these development issues, Poseidon was successfully released in June 2001 under the official title Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis by Codemasters to critical acclaim. It was shipped without any game-breaking bugs, and it became an international success, selling more than 500,000 copies in its first three months of release, as well as reaching a top position in retail sales chart across the world including US, UK, Germany and Australia. The team was satisfied with the game's release, with Španěl describing it as a dream coming true. Bohemia Interactive won Best Debut at the Game Developers Choice Awards, defeating strong opponents including Remedy Entertainment (Max Payne).

Following the release of Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis, the team intended to continue updating the game with post-release content, develop a port for the Xbox console, and create a sequel. Projected to take only nine months to develop, the Xbox version (known as Operation Flashpoint: Elite) was released in 2005, four years after the game's initial release. The reason for the long development cycle stemmed from the team's unfamiliarity with the console's structure. With the release of a new generation of hardware including a new Xbox console, Elite's release did not gain its audience's attention. Sales were lackluster and the development suffered a huge financial loss. In 2005, the company also founded the Independent Developers Association (IDEA Games) with Black Element Software and Altar Games. The organization aimed at supporting other independent game development studios with services including marketing support and negotiation with publishers. Bohemia went on to acquire Black Element Software, Altar Games, and Centauri Production (a fourth IDEA Games member) in September 2010. Bohemia acquired the 25 staff members, technology, and facilities of the Slovak studio Cauldron in March 2014, integrating it with Bohemia Interactive Slovakia, which had been established in 2013.

In 2020 THQ Nordic acquired the entire team of Bohemia Interactive Bratislava which ceased to exist and all people joined newly created Nine Rocks Games. Additionally, in late 2020 30 people from Bohemia Interactive Brno were acquired by THQ Nordic and they joined newly created Ashborne Games studio.

The team started developing a sequel to Operation Flashpoint, codenamed Game 2, after it cancelled its open world Western-themed project, which was described as "Flashpoint in Western" by Španěl. The team had lots of ambition for Game 2 and hoped that it would become a perfect game, thus the team began spending an excessive amount of time on small details, from doing 3D scanning of real-life weapons to modelling the player character's eyeball. However, in doing so some basics were neglected by the team, and many goals remained unattained due to the team's skill and technology status. As a result, the team constantly missed the deadlines set by publisher Codemasters. Codemasters was dissatisfied with the team's work and began looking for outside help. Bohemia disagreed with the search for outside assistance, and the two studios decided to part way with each other. With Codemasters no longer supporting the studio financially, Bohemia entered a series of financial troubles. In addition, Codemasters retained the rights to Operation Flashpoint preventing Bohemia from using the title in the future.

Arma series

In the early 2000s, the US Army began using a mod of the game Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis, named DARWARS Ambush!, to train soldiers. In financial distress, Bohemia capitalized on its use and made a small sum of money, saving the company from falling into immediate bankruptcy. Bohemia also set up a new division called Bohemia Interactive Simulations, specializing in creating military simulation games with its Virtual Battle Space titles for armies around the world to use. Meanwhile, the main studio, realizing that they should release a game as soon as possible, decided to rework on Elite' engine and make a spiritual successor to Cold War Crisis called Armored Assault, later renamed Arma: Armed Assault. According to Španěl, the team hated the title. Bohemia decided to self-publish the game, and launched in an early access form. The game received high critical praise and great sales, sufficient to save the company.

The development of a sequel to Arma commenced afterward. The team decided to reuse some of its assets of Game 2 for Arma 2, and did not hold unrealistic ambitions for the game. An Xbox 360 version was planned but was later scrapped after the team thought that its power was inferior to that of personal computers. During this period, Codemasters announced Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising, a game falling into competition with Bohemia's own Arma titles, as it was marketed as the true successor to Cold War Crisis. Španěl was not happy with how Dragon Rising was being marketed as a return to the Operation Flashpoint series despite being created without the involvement of Bohemia. The team became anxious, but found relief after viewing gameplay footage Dragon Rising', which it considered to be subpar and "[did] not come even close to what they promised". Arma 2 was released in mid-2009 to high critical praise and high sales. The development team soon began work on an expansion titled Operation Arrowhead, though Codemasters took legal actions to force Bohemia to change its name due to its similarity with Operation Flashpoint. In early 2010s, the company continued to develop expansions for Arma 2, and released smaller titles such as Take On Helicopters.

Following the release of Operation Arrowhead, the company started development of a new Arma game, this time set in the future. The game was titled Arma Futura, in which players fight aliens, and its direction once shifting to role-playing. All of these futuristic elements were later scrapped, and were remade into a more realistic setting. The title eventually became Arma 3. The Greek media reported in 2012 that two Czechs were arrested on the Greek island Lemnos, the setting for Arma 3 after being charged with espionage. This was later confirmed to be Martin Pezlar and Ivan Buchta, both of them employees at Bohemia Interactive. The main reason for their charge is that they took photos of military installations, which under Greek law threatened their national security. Charges were refuted, and both of them insisted that they were traveling the island for entertainment only. If convicted, the duo faced a 20-year sentence. This soon became a diplomatic concern, with Czech President Václav Klaus urging the Greek President to solve this issue with "special attention". Bohemia also made efforts by motivating its Arma communities to petition to pressure Greece for the pair's release. During this period of time, team morale dropped. Carrier Command: Gaea Mission was released by the studio, but according to Španěl, "nobody at the studio really cared" because their friends were stranded in a foreign jail. Regardless, Pezlar and Buchta were held in prison for 129 days until the Greek government allowed them to be released on bail. After this incident, the team decided to rename Arma 3's setting from Lemnos to a fictional island called "Altis". Arma 3 was eventually released in September 2013 to positive critical reviews. Two mobile Arma games, Arma Tactics and Arma Mobile Ops, were released in 2013 and 2016 respectively. In January 2013 the investment company Riverside Co. bought Bohemia Interactive Simulations. While both companies share the engine technology due to the shared past they are now completely separate entities.

Bohemia Interactive specializes in making simulation games with a focus on realism. They created the military simulation game Operation Flashpoint: Cold War Crisis in 2001, and followed it with an expansion called Operation Flashpoint: Resistance. While Codemasters developed two Operation Flashpoint sequels, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising and Operation Flashpoint: Red River, the series was put on hiatus when Codemasters announced its plans to refocus on racing games. Meanwhile, Bohemia followed up its first game, Cold War Crisis with a spiritual successor called Arma: Armed Assault, which was followed up by two sequels, Arma 2 and Arma 3, both of which have been critically acclaimed. The developer also had another simulation franchise called Take On, which includes Take On Helicopters, which allows players to play as a helicopter pilot, and Take On Mars, in which players explore Mars. However, both titles are smaller in scope when compared with the Arma franchise.