Lead designer of World of Warcraft Rob Pardo has set up a new games studio called Bonfire Studios.

The developer has received $25 million in investment from Silicon Valley VC Andreessen Horowitz and Riot Games, the Tencent-owned developer of League of Legends.

Bonfire Studios also completed an earlier investment round for an undisclosed amount. This included investment from Unity CEO John Riccitiello.

Could go either way

The studio does not currently have a game in development, though. Pardo told the New York Times that Bonfire will most likely work on online multiplayer games either for mobile, PC, or both.

"We don’t want to be constrained by genre," said Pardo. "We really want to create games that help us make those deeper connections with each other."

The team at Bonfire also includes a few other industry heavyweights, such as former Nexon America CEO Min Kim, ex-Blizzard VP of Art and Cinematic Development Nick Carpenter, ex-Blizzard Game Director Josh Mosqueira and another former Blizzard alumni who worked on Battle.net, Matthew Versluys.

While not looking for any specific talents at present, Bonfire is looking for more talent to help it prototype new game ideas.

You can find out more on the studio's website.