

Ask HN: Has YC or other VCs invested in gaming startups? - mondoshawan


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bigdubs
My sense is production companies / studios are a risky investment, but
infrastructure (twitch.tv being the prime example) are more of a lucrative
target for VCs.

The studio risk is that the creative output of the individuals is the value
you're investing in. Very few studios produce quality content in a machine
like fashion, though there are exceptions (EA maybe? Lucas Arts in it's
prime?).

Zynga might be another example of a VC funded "gaming" company.

~~~
eloisant
Indeed:
[http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/NicholasLovell/20100324/86975...](http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/NicholasLovell/20100324/86975/Four_Reasons_Why_VCs_Wont_Fund_Game_Companies.php)

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abannin
Yes, YC has invested in multiple gaming companies the most successful of which
is Machine Zone. As for other VCs, the most active in the sector are Bing
Gordon, Rick Thompson, and IDG Ventures USA. Lots of others throw money
around, but it's common for investors to specialize in the sector.

~~~
jlees
Signia has also made some gaming investments and had a gaming focused EIR for
a while.

~~~
abannin
Signia = Rick Thompson

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dannysu
Some examples from YC

OMGPOP: [http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/21/omgpop-iminlikewithyou-
ycom...](http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/21/omgpop-iminlikewithyou-ycombinator/)

Game of War, Machine Zone: [http://blog.ycombinator.com/machine-zone-
yc-w08-debuts-game-...](http://blog.ycombinator.com/machine-zone-
yc-w08-debuts-game-of-war-ios-mmo-game-supports-hundreds-of-thousands-of-
players-simultaneously)

A Thinking Ape

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raviparikh
Machine Zone is the maker of "Game of War" and they were YC W08:
[https://mobile.twitter.com/ycombinator/status/36050111121759...](https://mobile.twitter.com/ycombinator/status/360501111217590273)

------
julee04
Dots raised 10mil in their series A: [https://www.crunchbase.com/funding-
round/6f028590c883b23dfbe...](https://www.crunchbase.com/funding-
round/6f028590c883b23dfbeb3513b8e6fa5e#)

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patio11
Yes. Minomonsters is one example of several.

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joshu
Several people in this thread are pointing out Machine Zone. However, when YC
invested, it was "Addmired" \- [http://techcrunch.com/2008/02/13/myspacers-
will-love-this-ad...](http://techcrunch.com/2008/02/13/myspacers-will-love-
this-addher-widget-thingy/)

~~~
mcintyre1994
They did move to freemium mobile games a while before the Machine Zone/Game of
War stuff with some success [0] though.

[0] [http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/27/freemium-game-dev-
addmired-...](http://techcrunch.com/2012/03/27/freemium-game-dev-addmired-
rebrands-as-machine-zone-lands-8m-from-menlo-ventures/)

~~~
joshu
Yes, but they weren't a gaming company when YC invested.

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cblock811
Code Combat is a game for learning programming. They used to be a marketplace
and hold competitions. These days I think they are experimenting with
microtransactions.

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arkem
Riot Games was largely funded by venture capital.

In 2008 they raised 7 million in VC funding from Benchmark Capital and
FirstMark Capital.

Here's the press release:
[http://www.riotgames.com/sites/default/files/uploads/080710_...](http://www.riotgames.com/sites/default/files/uploads/080710_NEWS_lol_riotbenchmark.pdf)

------
fsk
You can get a gaming unicorn (Minecraft). However, Mojang didn't start getting
interest from investors until they had enough cashflow to sustain their own
growth.

There have been some recent IPO successes (Zygna, King). (And king.com is
starting to look like a one hit wonder with Candy Crush Saga.)

~~~
antaviana
AFAIK, Mojang didn't take any investor's money. It was just 3 partners and no
outside money.

~~~
fsk
Once they were a success, investors did come soliciting. They didn't need it,
as they had sufficient cashflow.

If Notch had solicited VC before he was a hit, the VCs probably would have
just laughed him out of their office.

------
toddkazakov
Chobolabs raised $7.3MM Series A round for the development of multiplayer
mobile games.
[https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/chobolabs](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/chobolabs)

------
r0naa
I remember attending a talk by Eric Diep from "A thinking Ape" (gaming studio)
at Hack the North.

If I am not mistaken, he mentioned that they were backed by YC and a couple
other high-profile investor in the valley.

------
Plough_Jogger
ZowPow was a YC gaming company:
[https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/zowpow](https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/zowpow)

------
jokull
I worked for Plain Vanilla when they received a big round of financing lead by
Sequoia. If you want to ask me questions: jokull@solberg.is

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bramgg
FYI [http://yclist.com](http://yclist.com) and CTRL+F are very helpful :)

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boulos
Sure. Some examples include: TinyCo (a16z), ngmoco (acquired by DeNA), Gree,
Kixeye. Maybe you mean "in the last year"?

~~~
mondoshawan
Ironically, I /work/ at TinyCo now -- wasn't sure how they did their funding,
though -- haven't broached the subject with our CEO yet. =op

[edit] Yeah, I meant in the last year.

~~~
interesting_att
Ha, I am a TinyCo alum who started his own gaming company. Let me know if you
want to get coffee one of these days.

Would highly recommend you have a finished game + some revenue before you hit
up institutional investors. In the mean time, find angels who respect you.
Believe you are an engineer, so people won't often doubt your ability to
produce.

------
codeisvek
[http://instantesports.com](http://instantesports.com)

~~~
mondoshawan
I guess I should have been more specific: I meant gaming as in video games.

~~~
arkem
Instant eSports is about video games even if they don't themselves make video
games.

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bartwe
Thoughts on investing in a project vs investing in a company?

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wowaccount
Wow, you are expecting HN to do research for you? The data should be easily
available via crunchbase but it seems like you don't want to put the work in
for basic research

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onewaystreet
The better question is will YC or VCs ever invest in gaming startups again and
the answer (at least for YC) is most likely no. There are a few VCs that do
specialize in gaming though.

~~~
DanBC
Do you speak for YC? Where do you get that information?

~~~
onewaystreet
Just my opinion. Look at the last three batches or so of YC startups. The type
of companies YC invests in today are the furthest things away from gaming.

