MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
The founder of OpenFeint has closed a round of Series A funding at over $8.2 million for his new MOBA game Fates Forever.
Since leaving the now-defunct social platform for mobile games, Jason Citron has formed his own Burlingame, CA studio Hammer & Chisel, which is currently working on a game billed as the the first-ever MOBA designed exclusively for tablets.
It’s an interesting idea; by combining the immense popularity of games like League of Legends with the massive demand for deeper games on the iPad, Hammer & Chisel could have a real winner on their hands – assuming they conquer the major design hurdle of translating mouse and keyboard controls to a touch-gesture interface.
Signs suggest they’re on the right track if the endorsement of LoL investor Mitch Lasky is of any weight, as he’s backed the project to the tune of $8.22 million with help from Studio 9+, Accel Partners, IDG Capital Partners, GC Capital Partners, Time Warner and a crew of angel investors.
"As I was building OpenFeint I would often look around and wonder why there weren’t any fantastic core games to play on my iPad like World of Warcraft or Magic the Gathering," said Citron, who launched Hammer & Chisel in July 2012.
"Millions of gamers are going to grow up in a world where their first Personal Computer is a tablet, not a desktop PC. It seems like a no-brainer that these gamers will want to sit down and play a 45-minute session of a game like League or Dota 2."
Fates Forever is set to launch in early 2014.
