Koch Media Officially Rebrands as Plaion

Koch Media has officially rebranded under their new moniker; Plaion.

Managing managing director Klemens Kundratitz spoke at length about the changes, while emphasizing that the games publisher will remain “first and foremost a games company” while adding that the rebrand will “acknowledge who we truly are”.

“But the more we thought about it, the more we wanted to go all the way,” Kundratitz said, during an interview with GamesIndustry.Biz. “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.

“Obviously, we want to avoid people seeing this as window dressing. The signal we’re sending is that we’re on a journey and it’s good to give this journey a new name, new visual appearance. New is always exciting.”

“We have made such an enormous transformation since we joined the Embracer Group,” he continued. “Our name for so many years was associated with physical distribution, perhaps with us being more of a central European company – although including the UK because that was among the first three countries where we launched. But we’re perhaps not seen as a global company. And it’s sometimes difficult for some people to pronounce.”

“We’re not mutating into a different company, we’re just following a path that we’ve already been on since becoming part of Embracer Group. 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.”

“We’re a very transformed company and we have an ambition on a global scale to continue to grow, both on the content creation side and the sales side, as well as diversifying into different forms of entertainment. We’re ready to give ourselves a new look, a new style, and open a new chapter.”

The re-branding also applies to Koch Film, which will now be known as Plaion Pictures, which is a fresh approach for the world of film content creators, such as horror content creators and others within the film industry.

“Koch has always been a B2B brand and it will continue to be,” Kundratitz said. “All our consumer-facing publishing labels – Deep Silver, Prime Matter, Ravenscourt, Milestone and Vertigo Games – will stay the same. I think it’s easier to transition from Koch to Plaion in a B2B environment.”