Koch Media has rebranded to Plaion partially due to the company’s original name being difficult to pronounce.
Koch Media, a 28-year-old company, was acquired by the massive gaming conglomerate Embracer Group in 2018. After almost three decades as Koch (pronounced kotsch), the company is rebranding.
Managing director Klemens Kundratitz elaborated on the rationale of the rebrand, “It's more impactful, it's got an external statement but it's also an internal statement to our people. We're opening this new chapter, they're part of this, we're a modern, growing, ambitious, global company, and it's energising people internally” (via GamesIndustry.biz).
Kundratitz also admitted that ‘Koch’ is “sometimes difficult for some people to pronounce.” The rebrand will not be accompanying a change in strategy for Plaion, rather, it's a new look that the company is excited to face the future with.
As for Plaion’s future plans, they’re looking to continue the rapid growth they’ve experienced under Embracer’s umbrella, “We're growing in all areas. It's certainly not a departure from physical distribution. Our mantra is we want to offer games wherever and however people want to play them: physical, digital, collector's editions. Whatever way people want to consume our content, we're there. We're long-term committed in the physical space, but equally, we need to reinvent ourselves all the time.”
Plaion has undergone massive growth since its acquisition, tripling the number of employees within the company and initiating several of its own acquisitions, including Flying Wild Hog, the studio behind the Shadow Warrior series.
It’s a fortuitous time for Plaion to remarket itself ahead of the Gamescom convention where the company is planning to have a big presence on its home turf. Kundratitz went on to liken his company to Facebook, which recently rebranded to Meta. “I mean, Facebook is also continuing to be Facebook, so it's not that different” he shared.
Plaion’s consumer-facing brands like Ravenscourt, Prime Matter and Deep Silver will not be changing following the rebrand.
In other industry news, Tencent is reportedly looking to become the largest shareholder of Ubisoft by purchasing more stakes from the Guillemot family.