Developer Gardens raises $31 million in funding from major investors
Developer Gardens has announced it has raised $31.3million from its Series A funding, featuring support from some major players in the industry.
The round of funding was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Krafton, while Dreamhaven (co-founded by the long-time CEO of Blizzard), TIRTAA, Nate Mitchell (co-founder of Oculus), Seth Sivak (VP of Development on World of Warcraft), Julien Merceron (CTO of Bandai Namco), and Craig Kallman (CEO of Atlantic Records) were all among the other members included in the list of industry names.
This funding isn’t all, though, as the company also includes Jack Tretton (formerly of Sony) and John W. Thompson (former Microsoft Chairman), and Ben Feder (former Tencent and Take-Two CEO), along with Yamauchi No 10 (Nintendo Family) to its advisory team.
Gardens co-founder and CTO Lexie Dostal was heartened by the positive reception, saying: “It’s both inspiring and validating to see so much excitement around our vision for this game and studio, especially from these incredibly accomplished investors and partners. Folks with deep ties to Blizzard, Nintendo, Microsoft, Sony, PUBG, Riot Games, Tencent, and more are all coming together around Gardens; we couldn’t be more excited for the party we’ve assembled and the next chapter of our adventure together”.
Gardens co-founder and game director Chris Bell also spoke on the investment, confirming the studio will be making an “ever-evolving” online PvPvE fantasy adventure sandbox ARPG, saying: “It’s a game inspired by our favourite memories playing online RPGs, MMOs, and fantasy action-adventure games over the years, memories of crossing paths with strangers”.
Bell added, “The game builds upon multiplayer ideas and lessons from previous titles I helped design like Journey, Sky, and even my student game Way, while bringing players into a higher stakes, shapeshifting fantasy wilderness where cooperation is key, yet betrayal is still possible. We’re including novel cooperative gameplay that rewards players who help each other, which can encourage friendship and dialogue with PvP and conflict in interesting and subversive ways. We’re growing the world we want to play in every day, a world designed to offer new experiences every time you play, growing and evolving for years to come. Thanks to our amazing new partners and this latest round of funding, we can continue crafting the best game possible while growing and supporting our incredible team”.
The team includes industry veterans from such acclaimed games as Sky: Children of the Light, Journey, What Remains of Edith Finch, Blaseball, Ultima Online, Outer Wilds, Tunic, Dustforce, and Ashen, and films such as The Hobbit and The Adventures of Tintin.
