MCV/DEVELOP News, events, research and jobs from the games industry
The Russian communication and enterainment company, Mail.Ru Group, has announced the creation of a games investment division. The new division, which signals the group’s interest in games has already allocated $10 million for game deals and a proposal for investment up to $100 million.
The division looks to finance games developers both in Russia and globally, with an aim at to help "accomplished game studios and publishers" with funding for scaling, as well young game devleopers.
The Mail.Ru group already has gaming in their portfolio, including internet company My.com, with over 50 games and is Russia’s largest developer for mobie and MMO games.
“Games remain one of Mail.Ru Group’s top priorities, said CEO of Mail.Ru Group russia, Boris Dobrodeev. "Starting games investment division is a logical next move to facilitate business development by significantly increasing the company’s potential in that segment."
"With this new division, we aim to discover and develop promising games on the global market," explains Ilya Karpinsky, director of the games investment division at Mail.Ru Group, "and drive international expansion of the local products. Not only will it offer financing to the teams, it will also help them develop their businesses, particularly by providing access to Mail.Ru Group’s internal resources and services. The companies will be able to get all-round support, leverage our software solutions, extensive analytics and unique marketing opportunities on a global scale.”
In addition to games, Mail.Ru Group also operates three of Russia’s biggest social networld and fully owns mobile games developer Pixonic.
