Riot vets aiming to shake up multiplayer with new studio The Believer Company
The Believer Company, a new studio founded by Riot Games veterans, has emerged from stealth today and announced it raised $55 million in Series A financing.
The $55 million round was led by Andreesen Horowitz, with additional seed funding from Riot Games, Bitkraft Ventures, 1up Ventures, Dan Thompson's Cleveland Avenue, Michael D. Eisner's Tornante Company and other unnamed venture partners.
The studio was first formed in April 2022 and is led by CEO Michael Chow, who previously served as vice president at League of Legends creator Riot Games and co-founded Words With Friends developer Newtoy in 2008.
At Believer, he and his team are now working on a "next-generation open-world game" built around an original IP. The studio has said the emphasis will be on "stories where player choices matter" as well as gameplay systems that “bring players together rather than pushing them apart."
"We know this is a huge [funding] round and we know it's going to raise some eyebrows," Chow tells GamesIndustry.biz. "It was incredibly important to us to provide a long-lasting, rock-steady foundation for the world's best creators to do the best work of their lives.
"We are excited to build systems that don't expect 100% engagement from everyone"
"We want to take the time to get it right, because world-class R&D takes time. It requires a lot of risk-taking, it requires both creation and discovery, which are subtly but importantly different."
Most of the core team is composed of former Rioters — the exception being chief creative officer Jeremy Vanhoozer, who was previously head of art at Bungie and worked at EA and Magic Leap. But many of the ex-Riot staff also bring other experiences to the table; COO Tim Hsu, for example, directed
Read more on gamesindustry.biz
