[1] In 1988, Thomas Hertzler and Lothar Schmitt left Rainbow Arts, a German video game developer, and founded their own, Blue Byte, in October that year.

[2] Blue Byte's first published game was the tennis simulation Great Courts, released in 1989 by Ubi Soft (later renamed Ubisoft).

[citation needed] Blue Byte's first big success in Germany and Europe was the turn-based strategy game Battle Isle, completed in 1991.

[citation needed] The company's next big success followed in 1993 with the release of the managerial game Die Siedler, marketed internationally as The Settlers.

[citation needed] Over the years, Blue Byte developed and/or published numerous innovative titles including Chewy: Escape from F5 and Albion, but most of them were not successful internationally.

Efforts to break into the American market, usually aided with publishing by Accolade, failed and success was limited to Germany and parts of Europe.

[citation needed] In 1995 a Chicago-based entrepreneur named Julian Pretto travelled to Germany and convinced the founders to open a North American office.

[citation needed] The popular turn-based strategy Battle Isle series from the early 1990s achieved cult status similar to Settlers.

[20] The move primarily aimed at attracting further employees as Ubisoft Blue Byte expected to expand from 520 staff members at the time to 1,000 by 2023.