Join Transform 2021 for the most important themes in enterprise AI & Data. Learn more.
My.Games has invested $1.5 million in San Francisco-based mobile game studio Pizza Club Games.
It’s the second time in a week that a foreign company has put money into a San Francisco game studio, and it’s a sign of just how international the game business has become. Brazil’s Wildlife Studios also said it was starting a new studio, Never Forget Games, in San Francisco.
My.Games Venture Capital (MGVC) made the investment. It’s a division of the My.Games, a big Russian game company, and it has signed a deal with Pizza Club Games, developers of Raid Boss.
As part of the deal, MGVC is providing both money and support for scaling the business, including marketing, game design, employee recruitment, and product analytics. Raid Boss is currently in early access on Android.
Four cofounders — Daniel Hunnicutt, Lisa Hicks, Todd Gunther, and Benjamin Gross — started Pizza Club Games in San Francisco in early 2020. They all have strong pedigrees in games and hail from companies such as Sega, Electronic Arts, NCSoft, Glu, and Playdom.
Above: My.Games has invested $1.5 million in Pizza Club Games.
Raid Boss is a free-to-play mobile character collector that offers players the opportunity to take charge of their own guild. Along with an original setting, the developers created a project in the genre of hero collection role-playing game (RPG), combining character management with tactical real-time battles.
This combination of game mechanics is unique for the genre, the company said. In the future, the company plans to expand the game by adding new content, as well as multiplayer and player-versus-player (PvP) components. With the investment from MGVC, the studio is able to hire more people. It will also receive marketing support from hypercasual mobile game publishers.
In the near future, the studio plans to release an iOS version of the game and add new game mechanics.
MGVC launched in 2017. Over the past three years, the MGVC team has processed more than 1,000 applications and offers for cooperation, closing more than 30 deals. It has previously invested in Bit.Games, Swag Masha, Panzerdog, BeIngame, and Deus Craft. My.Games has more than 1,800 people in 11 offices across Russia, Europe, and the U.S. The company operates more than 80 games.
GamesBeat
GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it. How will you do that? Membership includes access to:- Newsletters, such as DeanBeat
- The wonderful, educational, and fun speakers at our events
- Networking opportunities
- Special members-only interviews, chats, and "open office" events with GamesBeat staff
- Chatting with community members, GamesBeat staff, and other guests in our Discord
- And maybe even a fun prize or two
- Introductions to like-minded parties
