Youdao : Riot Games, Blizzard, Valve, and Bungie Veterans Raise $37.5 Million to Launch Theorycraft Games
March 05, 2021 at 07:06 am EST
Share
The new game studio will create infinitely deep, competitive PvP experiences that are built to last and best when played with friends.
Theorycraft Games announced today that it has secured $37.5 million in a Series A funding round led by NetEase, Inc., and including investments from NEA, BITKRAFT Ventures, Griffin Gaming Partners, SISU Game Ventures, and a small group of strategic angel investors. The capital will be used to recruit diverse and driven talent to the Theorycraft team to develop a community-driven, PvP game available across multiple platforms.
Founded by Riot Games, Bungie, Blizzard, and Valve Software veterans, the Theorycraft founding team has a strong track record leading some of gaming's most successful franchises, including League of Legends, Halo, Destiny, Overwatch, Valorant, and Team Fortress 2. Joe Tung, CEO and Founder of Theorycraft Games, stewarded multiple genre-defining, billion-dollar franchises as the former EVP of League of Legends franchise and EP of Destiny and Halo. Alongside Joe, Theorycraft Games has an incredibly talented founding team that includes former Tech Lead for Valorant, Overwatch and Halo, Michael Evans, as Chief Technology Officer; former Creative Director at Bungie, Mike Tipul, as Chief Creative Officer; former Art Director on Valorant, League of Legends, Dota 2, and Team Fortress 2, Moby Francke, as Art Director, and former Global Revenue and Finance Lead for League of Legends franchise, Areeb Pirani, as Chief Operating Officer.
'The Theorycraft team has a strong track record leading some of gaming's most successful franchises. With the resources and independence they now have, we look forward to what they will come up with next,' said Simon Zhu, Head of Investment & Partnership at NetEase Games.
'We feel pretty damn fortunate-not only to have gotten off to such a great start to the studio-but to have found a group of such like-minded partners who believe like we do that games serve fundamental human needs; who support our goal of getting the game in players' hands quickly and developing the game with them; and most importantly, who understand that we are in this for the long-term. NetEase and our co-investors are the ideal group of partners to help us bring the company's vision to life,' said Joe Tung, CEO and Founder of Theorycraft Games.
Based out of Seattle and Los Angeles, Theorycraft Games is on a mission to create deep games that give everyone the chance to connect, to compete, and to be infinitely delighted by stories that place players directly in the center. Theorycraft plans to meet players right where they are, regardless of what platform they play on, where they live, or how much money they can spend.
The game studio is building a high-performance, talent-dense team of the world's best game developers who share Theorycraft's obsession of putting players at the center of everything they do. For more information about Theorycraft Games and how you can be involved in its growth, please view available positions on its website at http://www.theorycraftgames.com/careers.
About Theorycraft Games
Theorycraft Games is a new game studio based out of Seattle and Los Angeles. We're out to make deep, 10,000-hour games that are even better when played with friends. We believe games serve fundamental human needs: the need to belong; the need to express one's creativity; the need to master something. We're hellbent on serving those needs better than anyone else, by making unapologetically deep games that give all players the chance to connect, to compete, and to take center stage in incredible stories. For more information, please visit: http://theorycraftgames.com
About NetEase, Inc.
As a leading internet technology company based in China, NetEase, Inc. (NASDAQ: NTES and HKEX: 9999, 'NetEase') is dedicated to providing premium online services centered around innovative and diverse content, community, communication and commerce. NetEase develops and operates some of China's most popular mobile and PC games. In more recent years, NetEase has expanded into international markets including Japan and North America. In addition to its self-developed game content, NetEase partners with other leading game developers, such as Blizzard Entertainment and Mojang AB (a Microsoft subsidiary), to operate globally renowned games in China. NetEase's other innovative service offerings include the intelligent learning services of its majority-controlled subsidiary, Youdao (NYSE: DAO); music streaming through its leading NetEase Cloud Music business; and its private label e-commerce platform, Yanxuan. For more information, please visit: http://ir.netease.com/.
Youdao, Inc. is an intelligent learning company that develops and uses technologies to provide learning content, applications and solutions for users of all ages. The Company operates two business segments. The Learning Services and Products segment offers online courses, including the Youdao Premium Courses, NetEase Cloud Classroom and China University MOOC, as well as learning products such as the Youdao Dictionary and Youdao Cloudnote, sales Youdao Dictionary Pen and Youdao Pocket Translator, and provides learning services to customers. The Online Marketing Services segment is engaged in providing different forms of advertising for marketing.
YOUDAO, INC. 
