CipSoft GmbH

Cipsoft Infinite — Official logo, as of 2013

CipSoft GmbH is the company that developed and produced the game Tibia.

Based in Regensburg, Germany, they began in 1995 as a group of university students who had the notion to write an online role playing game. The company was formally founded in June 2001 by Stephan Börzsönyi, Guido Lübke, Ulrich Schlott, and Stephan Vogler, when the students decided to run Tibia full-time after graduating from the university.

The founders act as executive officers of the company. They still maintain Tibia today (with the assistance of paid and volunteer staff), and regularly release content updates, game patches, and feature modifications.

CipSoft is also known for creating TibiaME, the oldest MMORPG for mobile devices that is still being successfully developed.^[1]

Origin of the name[]

Old company logo

Initially, the creators of Tibia named their team "CIP Productions." When the company was founded, the name was changed to CipSoft.

According to Markus Hof (a.k.a. Judigator), in an interview to TibiaNews in 2005, the word CIP comes from the German acronym of "Computer Investitions Projekt". The acronym had been used at the University of Regensburg with computer rooms for their students called CIP-Pools so the four initial members decided to name their project CIP-Soft, a software from the CIP-Pools, and the Tibia project was also born in one of these rooms.

As of 2013 CipSoft released a new website and a new logo.

The CipSoft team[]

As at November 2022, the team consisted of 92 full-time employees who work in 6 different departments:

Programmers: development of the client, the server software, the website, and tools for the development and management of the games
Content team: creation of game content (e.g. graphics, quests, game mechanics, story, NPCs' text, design of areas, etc.)
System administrators: looking after the game servers in the computer centres and responsibility for the maintenance of the office's infrastructure
Customer support: supporting the players via email, website boards and also in-game
Marketing: identifying the wishes of the players for game features, managing the public relations of the company, advertising and distribution
Organization: doing all the administrative tasks, and checking if everything is going fine

You can find more information about the staff members in various Interviews with them.

CipSoft members use an in-house tool called Creator to build the world of Tibia.

Creators[]

The Creators of Tibia also used to call themselves Gods. In a patch (8.61), this rank was removed. All 'Gods' are now classed as 'CipSoft Members'. The Gods of Tibia reign outside the perception of its inhabitants, but sometimes they will come down to our lands to intervene. The creators of Tibia are:

Guido Lübke[]

Guido was born on October 22nd, 1973. He is the product manager of Tibia. He is responsible for the running and the continual development of the game. He has a degree in physics from Regensburg university. His studies were focused on computer technology and on simulation methods.

In his spare time, he exercises on a regular basis and he is an avid dancer.

Stephan Börzsönyi[]

Stephan was born on October 12nd, 1976. He takes care of the company's finances and organization, and sometimes Stephan also programs the Tibia and TibiaME servers. In 2001, he earned a degree in computer science from Passau University.

Apart from working on CipSoft, he pursued a degree as Master of Business Administration. In his spare time, he plays soccer, hikes/mountain climbs and goes bike-riding.

Stephan Vogler[]

Also known as Steve, he was born in January 28th, 1976. He is in charge of the development of a prototype for a new game (apart from Tibia and TibiaME). He also takes care of the management of CipSoft's business contacts and the company's public relations.

In his spare time, he is a skier and loves travelling to far-away countries.

Ulrich Schlott[]

Also known as Durin, he was born in June 25th, 1975. The focus of his work is the product management of TibiaME. He is responsible for running this game and its development. He has a degree in commercial information technology from Regensburg University.

He took interest in computers and computer games since when he was very young. In his spare time, Ulrich is also a snowboarder.

Products[]

CipSoft's official site says that its "vision is to develop and to publish innovative products that are based on new technologies", and that they "do not necessarily confine ourselves to computer games, but the focus of our expertise is clearly on the fields of IT, software development, Internet, entertainment, computer games and community management" [1].

Its first product was the game Tibia, which was one of the first graphical online role-playing games; it was initially developed as a hobby, and later it became a commercial game. The second product was Tibia Micro Edition (TibiaME), the very first MMORPG for mobile phones.

CipSoft was working on the development of a third game (that has nothing to do with Tibia), for which they hired a 3D artist. The game was named "Fiction Fighters" before CipSoft closed development due to lack of interest. The game was described at the official website as:

Fiction Fighters® is an interactive comic
in which players enter a parallel comic universe.
The players act and interact exclusively in 3D comic strips.
Fiction Fighters is a browser-based multiplayer game.
In various game modes, characters can solve exciting quests,
fight against each other, explore the background story,
meet with other players or even develop their own stories and comic strips.
Comic strips are the central element in Fiction Fighters.
Players act and interact exclusively in comic strips.
Fiction Fighters is a browser-based multiplayer game
where all comic panels will be rendered server-side in 3D.

Company's Data[]

The following table shows the evolution of the turnover and number of employees of CipSoft, since it was founded in 2001.^[2]

Year	Turnover (Euro)	Number of Employees (end of year)
2001	27,595	4
2002	151,049	4
2003	815,908	7
2004	2,763,784	16
2005	4,047,663	22
2006	4,778,761	27
2007	6,266,947	36
2008	7,135,528	44
2009	7,322,665	56
2010	7,873,114	64
2011	7,741,728	66
2012	8,879,000	70
2013	8,617,000	72
2014	9,331,000	80
2015	9,441,000	84
2016	9,721,000	85
2017	11,600,000	86
2018	13,932,000	89
2019	15,122,000	94
2020	25,600,000	93
2021	24,780,000	92
2022	22,060,000	92
2023	24,550,000	95

External Links[]

CipSoft GmbH official website