A game studio founded by a veteran developer received a huge investment.
According to English-language game industry media Game Developer, Playable Worlds recently completed a $25 million Series B funding round led by South Korean game publisher Kakao Games and followed by venture capital firms Bitkraft Ventures, Galaxy Interactive, Lilith Games and Gaingels. Since its inception in 2018, the online game developer has raised more than $35 million in cumulative funding.
Based in San Marcos, California, Playable Worlds is a co-founder of both serial entrepreneurs with extensive experience in online game development. Among them, the company's CEO Raph Koster is one of the main creators of the classic MMO "Online Genesis" and "Star Wars: Galaxy", while president Eric Goldbeg served as the designer of the first online game "MadMaze" with more than 1 million players in history.
According to Playable Worlds, they are developing a cloud-native sandbox online game and plan to use this "strategic investment" to recruit more developers and expand the size of the team. Playable Worlds didn't reveal any details about the company's debut, though Coster said the development team's goal is to provide players with a "more meaningful experience made up of rich simulations, a fully durable online world, and deeper social mechanics."
Ralph Coster, co-founder and CEO of Playable Worlds
Goldberg added: "Cloud-native online games will give birth to 'multiverses' made up of online worlds, and when they are connected to the real world, a metacosm will be formed." ”
"By investing in Playable Worlds, we want to drive innovation in the online gaming category and make fresh concepts a reality." Kyehyun Cho, CEO of Kakao Games, said in a statement, "We were impressed with the technology stack that Playable Worlds has implemented and proven, prompting us to make the investment decision. It's clear that these technologies will play an important role in the development of the metaverse, and we're confident in the team's ability to execute." ”
Interestingly, according to Goldberg, Asian games have more similarities to the debut game that Playable Worlds is developing than many European and American games. "Most of the player's activity takes place at the chat level... The game is combined with a lot of other things, such as dating, banking, and ride-hailing services. ”
Currently, Playable Worlds employs 48 people, does not have a fixed office, and fully supports employees to work remotely.