League of Legends backers fund Hawken

Meteor Entertainment has raised $10 million in funding for free-to-play online mech-’em-up Hawken.

Meteor’s subsidiary studio, Adhesive Games, is currently developing Hawken for release on 12 December, 2012.

Backers include Benchmark Capital and Firstmark Capital, both early funders of the free-to-play blockbuster League of Legends.

“We are seeing the rise of the direct-to-consumer model, where all is downloadable and free-to-play,” Rick Heitzmann, founder and managing director of FirstMark Capital, told VentureBeat.

“You can disrupt the business with a free-to-play title. Gamers are willing to pay via virtual goods to do that. League of Legends is a fantastic title, but it is just one game and one genre that has blown up. We think it’s possible to produce very high quality games that have huge audiences that are willing to pay.”

Hawken is a Mech Warrior style online multiplayer game, and is currently in closed beta.