Mythic Entertainment, Inc. (formerly Interworld Productions) is a computer game game developer in Fairfax, Virginia that is most widely recognized for developing the 2001 massively multiplayer online role-playing game Dark Age of Camelot . Mythic has been a prolific creator of multiplayer online games since its formation in the mid 1990s.

= History =

Mythic evolved from an earlier game developer called Adventures Unlimited Software Inc. (AUSI) that was founded in was the president of AUSI and other developers there would later work for Mythic.

Interworld Productions was formed in 1995 by Mark Jacobs and Rob Denton. It was soon discovered that another Interworld was founded that same year and in November 1997 Interworld Productions changed its name to Mythic Entertainment. The company transferred Dragon s Gate from GEnie to America Online in 1996. Mythic made numerous online games in the late 1990s, ranging from online action first-person shooters to online RPGs. Some titles include Splatterball , Magestorm , and Spellbinder .

Mythic took a chance that paid off in developing Dark Age of Camelot . They spent $2.5 million developing the game, a significant budgetary leap for the company considering this amount was more than double the sum used for all its previous games. DAOC was also the company s first massively multiplayer online role-playing game. Scott Jennings, a popular MMORPG commentator known as Lum the Mad , joined Mythic as a game designer and helped work on their MMORPG. DAOC was published by Vivendi Universal and launched smoothly in October 2001, earning respect and commercial success in the market. The game continues its success and has spawned several expansions.

Mythic sued Microsoft in December 2003 for trademark infringement and unfair competition regarding the name of Microsoft s Mythica MMORPG, which was in development at that time. On May 25, 2004, three months after the game was cancelled, Mythic announced that the case was settled and that Microsoft agreed to not use the Mythica name on new online computer games and to not register it as a trademark. Also as part of the deal, Microsoft gave Mythica-related trademarks and domain names to Mythic. [http://www.mythicentertainment.com/press/pr_mythica.html]

= Present =

Mythic Entertainment is one of the fastest growing private technology companies. It has been listed on the magazine s 500 fastest growing private companies in America in 2003. Mythic also received the largest investment given to an independent game developer when TA Associates invested $32 million in March 2003. Mythic is also notable for sharing earnings with its employees, which they credit as contributing to strong employee retention.

As of 2004, Mark Jacobs is continues as president and CEO of Mythic Entertainment, which now has more than a dozen online games to its credit. Mythic was formerly working on Imperator Online , a science fiction MMORPG based on an alternate history where the Roman Empire never fell. Imperator was originally expected to be launched in winter 2005, but on July 17 2005 Mythic announced that it was being postponed indefinitely, with no new release date announced.

On May 18 2005, announced during the E3 conference of that year, the Warhammer Online license was acquired by Mythic. The reborn effort to create a Warhammer MMOG is planned for completion in 2007

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