- Next-generation game technology studio Mythical Games announced it has closed $19 million in funding
Mythical Games — a next-generation game technology studio specializing in digital ecosystems around player-owned economies — announced it has closed $19 million a new round of funding led by Javelin Venture Partners.
The new investors in this round include Avon Ventures, Alumni Ventures, and Hashed as well as participation from current investors Galaxy Digital through its Galaxy EOS VC Fund and Struck Capital. Including this round, Mythical Games has raised $35 million in total.
“We are very excited with the support from our new and existing investors, team and board members. We are well-capitalized to lead this evolution in gaming economics for PC, console, and mobile games bringing participation from players, brands, eSports teams, and influencers directly into the game economics,” said Mythical Gaming CEO John Linden. “We believe this new trend will come to dominate games and can’t wait to bring Blankos Block Party to market to show this new economy in action and share our platform with other incredible game studios around the world.”
Mythical Gaming offers a platform for game developers to create player-owned economies and producing new tools to provide ownership of in-game assets for content creators and brands to build and customize.
“Since investing in Mythical’s Series A round last year, we have been incredibly impressed by the team’s execution on the build-out of Blankos Block Party and the Mythical Platform. The Blankos gameplay is fun, rich, and engaging, added Alex Gurevich of Javelin Venture Partners. “It demonstrates the enrichment player-owned economies can have on a game and we cannot wait for gamers to try it. It has been wonderful to see various large industry partners in the broader gaming and blockchain ecosystem embrace our approach. We are thrilled to lead this round of financing for Mythical Games to support their public launch.”
Mythical Gaming also announced it made some key hires for the management team, including Jeff Poffenbarger, Pete Hawley, Nicole Yang, and Greg Deutsch. And Jeff Poffenbarger joined the company as Chief Operating Officer and oversees the running of the company’s day-to-day operations.
Poffenbarger was most recently the Studio Head at Oculus VR and he was a Senior Executive Producer at Activision and Activision Blizzard leading multiple game launches for the Skylanders, Tony Hawk, and Marvel franchises.
Hawley is now the Chief Product Officer of the company in which he will helm the studio’s slate of game and product development and the adoption of the Mythical platform to other game studios and publishers. His previous roles include roles as SVP of Games at Zynga, Co-Founder/CPO of Red Robot Labs, VP of Product Development at Electronic Arts, and Executive Producer at Lionhead Studios and Criterion heading Burnout Paradise.
Yang is joining the company as Vice President of Marketing. And she will spearhead go-to-market strategy and audience development. Most recently, she was the VP of Marketing at Telltale Games and Product Marketing at Zynga. And she was an early employee at multiple startups acquired by Activision, Perion Network, and Machine Zone. Plus she is an advisor at Humen AI.
Deutsch is joining Mythical Gaming as the General Counsel. Previously, he was General Counsel and was formerly General Counsel and SVP, Business & Legal Affairs at Activision for many years. After Activision, he served as General Counsel and advisor for early to growth-stage startups in emerging categories, including acquisitions by Apple, Facebook, FanDuel, Opera Software, Sony Interactive and Unity Technologies.
Mythical Gaming also strengthened its board of directors by adding Alex Gurevich (Javelin Venture Partners) and independent board member Ray Rehito Hatoyama (formerly Global COO of Sanrio, Hello Kitty) — who join existing board members Sam Englebardt of Galaxy Digital, John Linden, and Jamie Jackson.
Mythical Gaming now has more than 30 full-time employees and offices in Los Angeles and Seattle. The company was founded last year by CEO John Linden, CCO Jamie Jackson, and VP of Marketplace Services Rudy Koch.
At previous executive roles at Activision Blizzard, they led world-class development teams for gaming brands, including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Guitar Hero Live, and Skylanders.
