A group of former executives from video game company Riot Games has formed a new game studio and secured $55 million in Series A funding.
The Los Angeles-based startup, The Believer Co., said it plans to use the financing to build 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.”
Believer is headed by Chief Executive Michael Chow, previously vice president at Riot Games and executive producer on Riot’s “League of Legends: Wild Rift." Chow also was co-founder of “Words with Friends” developer Newtoy.
Chow is joined by Chief Product Officer Steven Snow, a founding member of Riot Games and an executive producer of “League of Legends.”
The company said its Series A round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, with key support of Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), plus additional seed funding from Bitkraft Ventures, Riot Games, 1Up Ventures, Don Thompson’s Cleveland Avenue, Michael Eisner’s Tornante Co. and other venture partners.
Moritz Baier-Lentz, partner at Lightspeed Venture Partners, will join Believer’s board.
“The last few years have brought forward some very exciting technologies. In our world, where the player is the focus, our goal is to bring select technologies into the development and gameplay spaces explicitly for the betterment of our players and the games they love,” Snow said in a statement. “Bringing free-to-play to North America and Europe with 'League of Legends' really changed the landscape of how games as a service could work. It is our privilege to have the opportunity to help shape the future responsibly. And we are excited to say ‘no ... thanks’ to the technologies that won’t make the game more fun.”
Other Believer executives include Chief Technology Officer Landon McDowell, Chief Commercial Officer Jeremy Vanhoozer, Chief Operations Officer Tim Hsu, Chief Marketing Officer Shankar Gupta-Harrison, Director of Operations Grace Park and Vice President of Design Jeff Jew.
