The parade of new studios formed from major gaming industry players and backed by serious venture capital investor cash continues today with the formal reveal of a “new AAA studio” dubbed The Believer Company aka Believer Entertainment aka Believer. Yes, it even has a Latin motto, credo in ludos.
The studio is led by former Riot Games luminaries including former Riot VP Michael Chow as CEO and former Riot founding member Steven Snow as CPO. Investors – counting among them Lightspeed Venture Partners, Michael Eisner, and Riot Games itself – have ponied up a cool $55M in money for the project, an unnamed “next-generation open-world game and original IP” where “player choices that truly matter and gameplay systems that easily, seamlessly bring people together.” Nobody uses the word MMO, but it pretty much sounds like some sort of multiplayer title.
“The Believer Company, founded by industry veterans obsessed with players and creating worlds worthy of them, has secured $55 million in Series A financing. The funding, led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, will initially be put to work building a world-class team to deliver a next-generation open-world game, anchored by an original IP, stories where player choices matter, and gameplay systems that bring players together rather than pushing them apart.”
Sounds like this company is preparing for some transmedia synergy too. “Truly great content franchises are not built with a single media type – they need to resonate with their audience across games, film, television, collectibles, and real-world interactive experiences,” Eisner says in the PR. “The Believer Company gets that, and we at Tornante are excited to advise them as they bring their vision to life across every platform.”
Worth a note here is that this is most definitely not a crypto sham. “[W]e are excited to say ‘no fucking thanks’ to the technologies that won’t make the game more fun,” a cheeky Snow adds.
Bin it under one to watch.
