Software:Codename: Panzers – Phase One

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Short description: 2004 video game
Codename: Panzers – Phase One
German cover
Developer(s)StormRegion
Publisher(s)cdv Software Entertainment
Platform(s)Microsoft Windows
Release
  • GER: June 16, 2004
  • NA: October 1, 2004[1]
Genre(s)Real-time tactics
Mode(s)Single-player, multiplayer

Codename: Panzers – Phase One is a 2004 real-time tactics video game developed by the Hungarian studio StormRegion and published by cdv Software Entertainment. It is set during World War II.

Codename: Panzers was a commercial success and received generally positive reviews. It was followed by Software:Codename: Panzers – Phase Two (2005) and Software:Codename: Panzers – Cold War. The current publishing rights of the franchise belong to THQ Nordic after they acquired the intellectual property rights from the defunct publisher, cdv Software Entertainment.

Gameplay

Like Software:Soldiers: Heroes of World War II and, to a lesser extent, Blitzkrieg, Codename: Panzers focuses on managing groups of troops, tanks, armored vehicles, and artillery and destroying the enemy or capturing objectives. The game abstracts concepts such as supply, repair, and air support without doing away with them entirely, and belongs to the real-time tactics genre more than the traditional wargame/simulation genre.

Units gain experience throughout the single-player campaigns and can be bought/upgraded between missions and added to the player's personal 'army' that travels with them from scenario to scenario. Completing mission requirements and optional objectives gives the player 'Prestige' points, which can be accumulated to upgrade existing units or used to add new units to the player's core force. Additionally, many missions provide the player with extra units to complement their core army. Also, the player is most often responsible for keeping alive a single 'hero' unit.

Units include a variety of infantry, armor, and artillery used by each nations' armed forces in World War II. While the main focus of the game is in controlling tanks, artillery units provide long range fire while infantry units can be used to engage other infantry and garrison buildings for added defense. Damage is modeled on a health bar system, although vehicles have additional armor plating to weaken before taking damage. Players are also required to maintain their vehicles using ammo and repair trucks. In addition to regular units the player can control, the game provides players with indirect fire support. In missions, players can direct a limited number of precision dive bomber strikes, paratrooper drops, carpet bombing runs, reconnaissance planes and off-map artillery.

Story

Codename: Panzers focuses on three campaigns: German (led by Hans Von Gröbel), Soviet (led by Aleksander Efremovich Vladimirov), and Western Allied (led by Jeffrey S. "The Buck" Wilson and James "The Gent" Barnes). The German campaign begins with the Blitzkrieg of Poland, France and then the invasion of the USSR, with the final campaign mission at Stalingrad. The Soviet campaign begins with the turn at Stalingrad and ends with the Battle of Berlin and the capture of the Reichstag. The Western Allied campaign begins with Operation Overlord and the Normandy landings, and includes battles such as Operation Market Garden and the Battle of the Bulge. The game features realistic representations of tanks, artillery units, air forces, and infantry from Germany, the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, France and Poland. It also features Yugoslav partisans fought in the German campaign when the player moves through a rebellious area of Nedić's Serbia.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores
AggregatorScore
GameRankings81.65%[2]
Metacritic81/100[3]
Review scores
PublicationScore
1Up.comB+[4]
CGMStarStarStarStarHalf star[5]
CGWStarStarStarHalf star[6]
Game Informer7.75/10[7]
GameSpot8.8/10[9]
GameSpyStarStarStarStar[10]
GameZone8.6/10[11]
IGN8.3/10[12]
PC Gamer (US)81%[13]
The Sydney Morning HeraldStarStarStarStar[14]

The game received "favorable" reviews according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.[3]

Sales

In the German market, CDV expected the game to succeed. The company planned an opening shipment of 90,000 units to retailers,[15] and ran an advertising campaign on television with the stated goal of reaching "beyond the usual hardcore-gamer confines".[16] The game debuted as the region's top-selling full-price computer game of June 2004, according to Media Control.[17] It sold 66,000 units in the German market in just under two weeks,[18] and 70,000 units after 15 days.[19] CDV reported that the "start of sales could not have gone better".[18] The game remained in first place on Media Control's charts for July,[20] and claimed second place for August.[21]

In September, the game received a "Gold" certification from the Verband der Unterhaltungssoftware Deutschland (VUD),[22] indicating sales of at least 100,000 units across Germany, Austria and Switzerland.[23] Ultimately, it was the German market's tenth-best-selling full-price computer game of 2004.[24][25] By mid-2005, sales of the game in the region had topped 150,000 units.[26]

CDV had begun to release the game across Europe by September 2004, following the game's early success in the German market. Initial sales in Poland and France were strong; it topped the charts in both countries. This led MCV GamesMarkt to declare the game an "international hit".[27]

Controversy

Codename: Panzers was the center of a controversy in Poland after its release, as marketing materials were misunderstood as supporting the Gleiwitz incident false-flag version of events, which was shortly cleared up by the developers.[28]

References

  1. ↑ Adams, David (October 1, 2004). "Codename: Panzers Ships". Ziff Davis. https://www.ign.com/articles/2004/10/01/codename-panzers-ships. Retrieved January 7, 2023. 
  2. ↑ "Codename: Panzers, Phase One Review Score". https://www.gamerankings.com/pc/562461-codename-panzers-phase-one/index.html. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 "Codename: Panzers, Phase One for PC Reviews". Fandom. https://www.metacritic.com/game/codename-panzers-phase-one/critic-reviews/?platform=pc. Retrieved April 15, 2011. 
  4. ↑ Lee, Garnett (October 13, 2004). "Codename: Panzers [Phase One"]. Ziff Davis. Archived from the original on July 8, 2016. https://web.archive.org/web/20160708205837/http://www.1up.com/reviews/codename-panzers. Retrieved January 8, 2023. 
  5. ↑ "Review: Codename: Panzers - Phase One". Computer Games Magazine (theGlobe.com) (168): 81. November 2004. 
  6. ↑ Gehringer, Stephen F. (November 2004). "Codename: Panzers [Phase One"]. Computer Gaming World (Ziff Davis) (244): 86. https://www.cgwmuseum.org/galleries/issues/cgw_244.pdf. Retrieved January 8, 2023. 
  7. ↑ "Codename: Panzers - Phase One". Game Informer (GameStop) (140): 188. December 2004. 
  8. ↑ Heuts, Paul (2004). "Review: Codename: Panzers [Phase One"]. Gigex, Inc.. Archived from the original on March 18, 2005. https://web.archive.org/web/20050318153511/http://www.gamedaily.com/pc/panzers/article.asp?section=review&article_id=466. Retrieved January 8, 2023. 
  9. ↑ Beers, Craig (October 1, 2004). "Codename: Panzers, Phase One Review". Fandom. Archived from the original on January 16, 2005. https://web.archive.org/web/20050116022720/http://www.gamespot.com/pc/strategy/codenamepanzers/review.html. Retrieved January 7, 2023. 
  10. ↑ Suciu, Peter (October 3, 2004). "GameSpy: Codename Panzers: Phase One". IGN Entertainment. http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/codename-panzers/552969p1.html. Retrieved January 8, 2023. 
  11. ↑ Aceinet (October 3, 2004). "Codename: PANZERS Phase One [sic - PC - Review"]. Archived from the original on October 4, 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20081004072722/http://pc.gamezone.com/gzreviews/r21216.htm. Retrieved January 8, 2023. 
  12. ↑ Butts, Steve (September 16, 2004). "Codename Panzers: Phase One". Ziff Davis. https://www.ign.com/articles/2004/09/16/codename-panzers-phase-one. Retrieved January 7, 2023. 
  13. ↑ "Codename: Panzers - Phase One". PC Gamer (Future US) 11 (11): 102. November 2004. 
  14. ↑ Ring, Bennett (August 28, 2004). "Tanks[, comrade"]. The Sydney Morning Herald (Fairfax Media). Archived from the original on March 6, 2008. https://web.archive.org/web/20080306033722/https://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/08/27/1093518082782.html. Retrieved January 7, 2023. 
  15. ↑ Pototzki, Tim (April 27, 2004). "CDV stellt 90.000 "Panzers" in den Handel" (in de). Mediabiz. Archived from the original on May 27, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220527215837/https://beta.gamesmarkt.de/details/153331. 
  16. ↑ Pototzki, Tim (June 14, 2004). "CDV startet "Panzers"-TV-Kampagne" (in de). Mediabiz. Archived from the original on May 27, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220527224756/https://beta.gamesmarkt.de/details/156236. 
  17. ↑ "Zeitraum: Juni 2004" (in de). Archived from the original on August 6, 2004. https://web.archive.org/web/20040806021913/http://www.vud.de/infoservice/pcueber28.php. 
  18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 brundel74 (July 2, 2004). "Panzers übertrifft die Erwartungen" (in de). Computec. Archived from the original on May 27, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220527215542/https://www.gamezone.de/Codename-Panzers-Phase-One-Spiel-20175/News/Panzers-uebertrifft-die-Erwartungen-913340/. 
  19. ↑ "Codename: Panzers, le site officiel!!!" (in fr). July 8, 2004. Archived from the original on August 3, 2004. https://web.archive.org/web/20040803205036/http://www.focus-home.com/news.php?article=183. 
  20. ↑ "Zeitraum: Juli 2004" (in de). Archived from the original on September 4, 2004. https://web.archive.org/web/20040904031143/http://www.vud.de/infoservice/pcueber28.php. 
  21. ↑ "Zeitraum: August 2004" (in de). Archived from the original on November 26, 2004. https://web.archive.org/web/20041126015411/http://www.vud.de/infoservice/pcueber28.php. 
  22. ↑ GameStar staff (September 27, 2004) (in de). Codename: Panzers - Gold-Award eingesackt. Webedia. Archived from the original on June 23, 2021. https://web.archive.org/web/20210623190552/https://www.gamestar.de/artikel/codename-panzers-gold-award-eingesackt,1348845.html. 
  23. ↑ Horn, André (January 12, 2004). "VUD-Gold-Awards 2003" (in de). GamePro.de (Webedia). Archived on July 18, 2018. Error: If you specify |archivedate=, you must also specify |archiveurl=. https://www.gamepro.de/artikel/vud-gold-awards-2003,1290773.html. 
  24. ↑ Pototzki, Tim (January 11, 2005). ""Sacred": Vertriebspartner feiern Chartserfolg" (in de). Mediabiz. Archived from the original on May 25, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220525080716/https://beta.gamesmarkt.de/details/170053. 
  25. ↑ Stolzenberg, Justin (January 10, 2005). "VUD-Jahrescharts: Sims 2 an der Spitze" (in de). PC Games (Computec). Archived from the original on May 27, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220527223629/https://www.pcgames.de/VUD-Verband-der-Unterhaltungssoftware-Deutschland-Firma-19024/News/VUD-Jahrescharts-Sims-2-an-der-Spitze-340121/. 
  26. ↑ Gentleman.No.1 (June 27, 2005). "Panzers - Phase Two: Auch in einer Sammler Edition" (in de). Computec. Archived from the original on May 27, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220527223933/https://www.gamezone.de/Codename-Panzers-Phase-Two-Spiel-20176/News/Panzers-Phase-Two-Auch-in-einer-Sammler-Edition-919339/. 
  27. ↑ Pototzki, Tim (September 13, 2004). ""Codename: Panzers" überrollt internationale Charts" (in de). Mediabiz. Archived from the original on May 27, 2022. https://web.archive.org/web/20220527225259/https://beta.gamesmarkt.de/details/162232. 
  28. ↑ "Skrytykowali grę, choć jej nie widzieli" (in pl). 23 August 2004. https://wiadomosci.gazeta.pl/wiadomosci/7,114873,2243402.html. 
  • Codename: Panzers Phase Three Community Official mod of Codename: Panzers Fans
  • [1] subsilvers private codename panzers forum
  • MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

See also

  • IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/. 
  2. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/. 
  3. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1. 
  4. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  6. ↑ "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521. 
  8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media. 
  9. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned. 
  10. ↑ Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner. 
  11. ↑ "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames. 
  12. ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games. 
  13. ↑ "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/. 
  14. ↑ "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/. 
  15. ↑ Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/. 
  16. ↑ Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/. 
  17. ↑ "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames. 
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