Telltale, the San Rafael, Calif. company that makes interactive games, including Sam & Max, has raised $6 million in a second round of financing.
The three year old company is already profitable, having pursued a strategy of making games much more rapidly and cheaply than the large game producers such as Electronic Arts. Rather than trying to produce blockbusters games costing in the millions of dollars, Telltale seeks to make games in episodes (the popular Sam & Max just concluded its first season of six monthly episodes, for example), which keeps the games fresh, creating buzz on chat boards. It also forces a snappy release schedule.
Granite Ventures led the round, with IDG Ventures in San Francisco participating. Telltale raised some $800,000 in an angel round in February last year.
With Sam & Max, Telltale has already made money, chief executive Dan Connors tells VentureBeat, by selling the game through multiple channels. One is through Turner's Gametap (see here), which is a subscription broadband service for games, costing $9.95 a month. A second is by direct downloads from Telltale's site. Other ways, still in the works, are syndication with other Web portals (still be announced), possibly along with advertising, and as retail game in stores, aimed at consoles.
Some other companies are pushing episode strategies. Kuma War Hothead games for examples.