JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot Games raises $40M for games we play and watch

Bad Robot Games, the game division of JJ Abrams’ Bad Robot entertainment firm, has raised more than $40 million to develop games that are “as compelling to watch as they are to play.”

Galaxy Interactive led the round, with participation from current investors Horizons Ventures, Iconiq Capital, and Tencent. The financing follows the formation of its internal development group, Bad Robot Games Studio, and the hiring of CEO Anna Sweet in early 2020.

Sweet stated in a statement that it is very good to have the help from the VCs as the firm appears to modify the way individuals interact with and view video games. She stated the funding will assist the firm develop out each the studio and co-development sides of its operation. It will also help them making games that cross platforms and mediums and are based on intellectual home originating from each games and linear content.

Bad Robot Games’ initial internally created title will be an original triple-A game, the firm stated. As with the company’s other projects, the studio will create this game in collaboration with Bad Robot’s film, Television, and animation departments, as properly as tap into its network of artists and creatives. More information will come later.

Sam Englebardt and Richard Kim, Galaxy Interactive’s managing partners, zero in on the intersection of content and finance, with a specific focus on video games and game studios, social platforms and marketplaces, and blockchain and other Web3 and infrastructure technologies powering the interactive sector.

Sweet has recruited Michael Booth as common manager of the games studio Joe Rumsey as technical director and Oneil Howell as senior level designer. Rumsey is a 25-year veteran who spent 4 years as a software program engineer at Facebook. Howell has worked at Oculus in its study and development division, and he worked on Just Cause 3 and Just Cause 4 at Avalanche Studios.

Bad Robot has raised more than $50 million to date and it has 20 personnel. The firm is hiring. Bad Robot was formed by filmmaker J.J. Abrams in 2001. The firm has created tv series such as Alias, Lost, Fringe, Person of Interest, Castle Rock, Westworld, Lovecraft Country, and Little Voice. It has also helped make feature films such as Super 8, Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Star Wars: Rise of Skywalker, the Star Trek, Mission: Impossible and Cloverfield franchises and interactive content such as the mobile app Action Movie FX.

Bad Robot Games is based in Santa Monica, California, but Sweet stated in an e-mail to GamesBeat that the firm is remote-friendly. The studio is working on a triple-A game for the Computer and console platforms. As for picking these investors, the firm stated it is leaning into relationships that previously existed and obtaining forward-searching investors who are pretty knowledgeable about the games business.

Originally appeared on: TheSpuzz