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Journey dev goes fully independent, self-publishing next game
Having completed its three-game contractual stint with Sony Computer Entertainment America, the team behind Flow, Flower, and Journey is breaking free with a $5.5 million infusion of capital from Benchmark Capital's Mitch Lasky. "Today I am pleased to announce thatgamecompany has raised funding to develop and release our games independently," company co-founder Jenova Chen wrote on the TGC blog."This enables us to bring our games to more platforms and provide our players the highest quality experience at every point of contact," Chen added. TGC's first three games are owned by Sony, so don't expect to see them going multiplatform anytime soon. The company's next project, however, could end up on any number of platforms. He stopped short of revealing what TGC's next big project is, but said the team is "very excited about our new adventure" and will offer more news about it "soon."thatgamecompany celebrated its sixth year in operation this past May with two new hires, and said goodbye to several employees earlier in the year. Chen said in May that TGC was courting publishers for its next game, but today pointed out that the company will be self-publishing instead.Update: thatgamecompany issued Joystiq the following statement: "We are extremely excited to be partnering with Benchmark Capital, as now we are going to be self-publishing our next games. We haven't announced if our next game will be multiplatform, but we are trying to reach a larger audience than that of the PS3."
Gaikai up to $15 million in capital with second round of funding
Tired of what we silly game journalists have to say about the upcoming Gaikai game streaming service and thirsting for comments from the venture's latest investment partners? We were too! Thankfully this morning's announcement that several investment groups will be adding another $10 million to the already $5 million-strong coffers at Gaikai brought with it a handful of quotes from just such folks. Rustic Canyon Partners' Nate Redmond sees "interesting new growth opportunities for the industry" in the streaming service, while Benchmark Capital's Mitch Lasky envisions the business as one "poised to take advantage of sweeping changes in how games are bought, sold, and ultimately even played brought about by the industry-wide shift to digital distribution." Unfortunately for us, however none of the investment partners seem to know when Gaikai will become usable by the general public, instead offering word of upcoming announcements about "other strategic industry investments and partnerships soon." We're thinking E3 might be a good time for that. And hey, that's pretty soon!
'EA is in the wrong business,' ex-exec Lasky blogs
Former Electronic Arts executive Mitch Lasky, who is now a member of venture firm Benchmark Capital, is not holding back his thoughts on the current financial turbulence at EA. Once EA's executive VP of mobile and online, Lasky now writes on his personal blog, "EA is in the wrong business, with the wrong cost structure and the wrong team, but somehow they seem to think that it is going to be a smooth, two-year transition from packaged goods to digital." Strictly from a business perspective, Lasky lays out what he sees has gone wrong at EA, noting that in February of 2007 he made the argument to the former EA CEO that the company needed to cut $200 million annually by "reducing headcount and cutting back on ridiculous expenditures on risky titles" like Spore, Godfather and The Simpsons. He also advocated for "hyper-aggressive [research and development] investment and acquisitions in a transition to digital distribution and games-as-service." EA is starting to make such a transition, as seen in the publisher's strong iPhone and mobile sales, along with its dabbling in Facebook games. On the other hand, EA's MMO track record has been a legacy of failure that includes Earth & Beyond, The Sims Online and (sorry) Warhammer Online -- but perhaps Star Wars: The Old Republic will change that. Given that EA's current value is so low (by billionaire's standards), Lasky finds it incredible that nobody has stepped in and scooped up the company for a bargain, noting that "Disney has been looking at them since I was at the house of the mouse back in the early 90's. And there are Chinese companies, like TenCent, that could easily swallow EA whole." [Via Big Download]
Benchmark Capital joins Vivox in 7.8 million USD deal
According to Wagner James Au at GigaOm, Benchmark Capital has joined the board of Vivox. We're not sure how much Benchmark Capital invested directly. The total was $7.8 million US dollars in Series B financing, some of which also came from Canaan Partners and GrandBanks Capital. The man behind the deal was Mitch Lasky, formerly with Eletronic Arts' mobile division, now general partner at Benchmark Capital.
