1047 Games Raises $ 100 Million with a Valuation of $ 1.5 Million After 13 Million Splitgate Downloads

1047 Games announced today grossed $ 100 million at a valuation of $ 1.5 billion after getting 13 million downloads for the Splitgate portal.

This is an amazing turn of events for Nevada-based gaming studio Zephyr Cove, which released a beta version of the free game to play in 2019.

Splitgate allows players to run in a sci-fi environment and place portals, which they can use to instantly move to another portal in the same environment. This mechanic offers players many tactical maneuvers to trick opponents into a multiplayer game, which is why it stands out in the free-throw market.

Splitgate is in beta on consoles. And 1047 Games uses the pre-release period to solve some of the problems of the online shooting game. Right now, that mainly means making sure the game’s servers can handle the size of the audience.

Funding comes after 1047 Games raised $ 20 million (led by Human Capital) in July and $ 6.5 million in May. During the last round of funding, CEO Ian Proulx had to evacuate his home due to the Caldor fire in the Lake Tahoe region. This made it more stressful to increase the funding round.

This summer, the game did an open beta test on PC, PlayStation and Xbox consoles, and reached 13 million downloads in two months. But the company postponed the formal launch until it was able to manage more player capacity with its servers.

“When things started to take off, we had the round of human capital. People [were] seeing the headlines and we started to get the attention of the CVs of the later phase ”, said Proulx. “At first, we said we would talk to them later. But then I saw that there was a unique opportunity. Because things were exploding, everyone wanted to connect. ”

A tribute to the Portal

The game is a tribute to the Valve portal, which came out in 2007, and portal 2, which debuted in 2011. Since then, Valve has left the franchise in a state of disrepair, giving 1047 games the chance to present a free play. multiplayer spiritual successor. In a way, it’s surprising that Portal can lead to a whole genre of games like Splitgate, but congratulations to 1047 Games for recognizing the opportunity.

Proulx, who has been playing games since he was 7, began working in the game in 2017 as a free online arena shooter while attending Stanford University as a computer specialist. The game was his main project and got a loyal fan base after several major updates.

“It started as an idea I had ten years ago after playing Valve’s Portal games,” Proulx said. “I just fell in love with the concept of these two portals that players go through the portal. I loved Portal and Portal 2. I thought at the time it would be very interesting in other types of games, specifically FPS games, which is what I grew up playing. “

Proulx asked his friends to play with his Stanford project to validate it. It was time for the finals and no one had time to waste. He asked them to play 45 minutes and they agreed, they only ended up playing for 5 hours.

Proulx decided to bet on the new round of funding. For the past two years, he had been in the fundraising mode and it had cost him a lot of time.

“We had people who wanted to chat now and we said we were going to do that,” Proulx said.

Last round of funding

Lightspeed Venture Partners led the round along with Insight Partners, Anthos Capital and previous investors in the initial round Galaxy Interactive, VGames, Human Capital, Lakestar, DraperDragon and Draper University.

“In gaming, Lightspeed is looking for founders who have a bold vision for innovation and determination to build the next-generation platform,” Lightspeed Venture Partners partner Amy Wu said in an email to GamesBeat. “It simply came to our notice then. They have done so many things with minimal funding and we are thrilled to see what they will do with more firepower. We are proud to support them as they take their business to the next level. ”

Expansion

Funding allows 1047 Games to develop its full vision of Splitgate as a top-tier competitive shooter, triple A, Proulx said. He said the company can now hire the best talent in the game without worrying so much about whether the budget will support additional people.

“It’s not about throwing money at Splitgate tomorrow,” he said. “It’s more about hiring the right people in the long run and building the business so we can take it to the next level.”

The team has tasks to do, such as hiring artists to produce skins, characters, and maps. You also need to create new modes to play.

Investors were partly attracted because the reviews were phenomenal and the monetization was also good. The game makes money by selling cosmetics and battle steps, just like other free games like Call of Duty: Warzone, PUBG and Fortnite.

“Here we are very focused on the big picture,” Proulx said.

As for her home, it was safe on the shores of Lake Tahoe, Nevada, but the entire region is at risk of fire. Proulx temporarily moved away from the area and the team operates remotely. In the long run, he believes the company will have offices in the San Francisco Bay Area and Toronto, Canada.

“We believe hybrid models are the best way,” he said.

Currently, the team increases to 40 employees and continues to hire.