New online-focused studio features EA, Naughty Dog and Gas Powered veterans

Riot Games raises $7 million investment

Recently established studio Riot Games has secured $7 million of investment for online multiplayer titles.

The team is lead by CEO Brandon Beck, formerly consultant at global business and strategy firm Bain & Company, and president / chief marketing officer Marc Merill, previously manager of corporate marketing at Advanstar Communications.

The plan for the company is to target the online market, but aim at session-based games rather than massively-multiplayer experiences. The games will be built using Riot’s in-house technology platform, complete with community features such as matchmaking, ladders and stat-tracking.

“Tremendous opportunities continue to emerge in the online games industry as distribution and business models evolve,” said Brandon Beck, CEO, Riot Games.

“As independent, direct-to-consumer developers with the vision of treating games as services, we are focused on delivering first-rate game experiences to highly targeted online audiences.”

Marc Merrill, president and CMO, added: “Online gamers are not shy about asking for what they want, Riot is responding with a commitment to creating premium titles that focus on gameplay and replayability in order to build deep, ongoing relationships with gamer communities.”

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