Stratosphere Games, one of the largest game development studios in Berlin, has announced an investment round by Riot Games, 1Up Ventures, and Skycatcher.
In addition to these investments, the firm, formed by gaming veterans from Splash Damage, Wargaming, Huuuge Games, Nexon, Smilegate and Ubisoft, also announced it received a new grant from the German Games Fund.
Stratosphere Games intends to use the total funds of $3 million received for their next project, Desolation. The game is set to be a cooperative-looter-shooter based in a post-apocalyptic sci-fi world and is designed to be a multi-platform title.
“As we operate and expand our existing products, our focus is slowly shifting to developing our own cross-platform brands," said Stratosphere Games CEO Kristian Metzger.
With ambitions to be a major developer and publisher of live games and living worlds, Stratosphere Games' first step was to increase the size of its team to 67 employees of over 22 different nationalities. The firm is still looking to add to those numbers, expecting the team to grow to 100 by the end of 2023.
Stratosphere Games is developing its new title, Desolation, as an entire cross-platform IP, with the aim that this will finalise the company's transformation into a major developer in the industry.
This autumn, the company will release Homeworld Mobile and early access to Dawn of Ages as part of this transformation. Stratosphere Games will support Gearbox Publishing to publish Homeworld Mobile. However, Dawn of Ages will be entirely self-published by Stratosphere Games.
Investments and fundings season
Last year the firm raised similar figures of $2.5 million to work on Project MiniCiv and further the company's mobile publishing business.
These kinds of investments are not new to 1Up Ventures. We reported the firm previously took a stake in a funding round on UK-based studio Talewind, where Talewind raised $3.4 million in total.
Riot Games Investment's Jake Perlman-Garr also shared a statement. He said, “We share Stratosphere’s approach of developing games with and for the players. Riot Games believes in the power of communities, and Stratosphere does the same.”
Having Riot Games, the mobile game developers of League of Legends: Wild Rift, as an investor could also prove to be beneficial given the company's success with League of Legends: Wild Rift. Riot Games made our top 50 mobile game makers of 2022.
