Kowloon Nights

Last updated

Kowloon Nights is a video gaming investment fund established in 2017. It was founded by chief executive officer Alexis Garavaryan, who is also CEO of partner publisher Kepler Interactive, and Jay Chi.

Contents

History

Alexis Garavaryan, formerly of Ubisoft, ID@Xbox and Tencent, and Jay Chi, a consultant working for games publishers and Makers Fund founding partner, started Kowloon Nights as they felt value in their "knowledge of and access to Asian markets" in October 2017. [1] The fund's investors are said to be "based in Asia" and "from the game industry". The name references Kowloon City and is meant to reflect "Asian roots". [1]

On 17 March 2022, Kowloon announced a "revenue milestone" of US$150m and partnership with Kepler Interactive, a games publisher Garavaryan spearheaded. [2] [3]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Electronic Arts</span> American video game company

Electronic Arts Inc. (EA) is an American video game company headquartered in Redwood City, California. Founded in May 1982 by Apple employee Trip Hawkins, the company was a pioneer of the early home computer game industry and promoted the designers and programmers responsible for its games as "software artists". EA published numerous games and some productivity software for personal computers, all of which were developed by external individuals or groups until 1987's Skate or Die!. The company shifted toward internal game studios, often through acquisitions, such as Distinctive Software becoming EA Canada in 1991.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Take-Two Interactive</span> American video game holding company

Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. is an American video game holding company based in New York City founded by Ryan Brant in September 1993.

Eidos Interactive Limited was a British video game publisher based in Wimbledon, London. Its games series included Championship Manager (1992), Tomb Raider (1996) and Hitman (2000). Domark was founded by Mark Strachan and Dominic Wheatley in 1984. In 1995, it was acquired by software company Eidos. Ian Livingstone, who held a stake in Domark, became executive chairman of Eidos and held various roles including creative director. Eidos took over U.S. Gold in 1996, which included developer Core Design, and merged its operations including Domark, which created publishing subsidiary Eidos Interactive. The company acquired Crystal Dynamics in 1998, and owned numerous other assets. In 2005, parent Eidos was taken over by games publisher SCi. The combined company, SCi Entertainment Group, which was briefly renamed Eidos, was itself taken over by Square Enix in 2009.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">EA Mobile</span> American video game developer

EA Mobile Inc. is an American video game development studio of the publisher Electronic Arts (EA) for mobile platforms.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Behaviour Interactive</span> Canadian video game development studio

Behaviour Interactive Inc. is a Canadian video game developer based in Montreal. The studio is best known for the mutliplayer horror game Dead by Daylight.

Kongregate is an American web gaming portal and video game publisher. Its website features over 124,000 online games and 30+ mobile games available to the public. The company also publishes games for PC, mobile, and home consoles. It was purchased by GameStop Corporation in 2010 before being acquired by Modern Times Group MT AB in 2017.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Milestone (Italian company)</span> Italian video game developer

Milestone S.r.l. is an Italian video game developer based in Milan. Founded in 1994 by Antonio Farina, the studio specialises in racing games, especially motorcycle racing games. The company began under the name Graffiti, developing the car racing game Screamer. After the studio rebranded as Milestone in 1996, it used Screamer's success for multi-game publishing deals with Virgin Interactive and Electronic Arts. The poor performance of Racing Evoluzione, published by Atari with little marketing, lead to key figures leaving Milestone. As part of Leader Group from 2002 on, the studio hired many younger developers and developed multiple games for multiple platforms, including several based on the Superbike World Championship. This shaped Milestone's identity as a developer of motorcycle racing games. After detaching from Leader Group in 2011, the studio obtained the license for MotoGP games in 2013. In 2019, Milestone was acquired by Koch Media.

Atari SA is a French video game holding company headquartered in Paris. Its subsidiaries include Atari Interactive and Atari, Inc. It is the current owner of the Atari brand through Atari Interactive.

Focus Entertainment is a French video game developer and publisher based in Paris, France. Founded in 1996, Focus has published and distributed original titles such as Sherlock Holmes, TrackMania, Runaway, and sports games like Cycling Manager and Virtual Skipper.

Virtuos is a global video game development company headquartered in Singapore with studios across Asia, Europe, and North America. Virtuos specializes in game development and art production for AAA consoles, PC, and mobile titles – working as an external developer for other companies.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Coffee Stain Studios</span> Swedish video game developer

Coffee Stain Studios AB is a Swedish video game developer based in Skövde. Founded in 2010 by nine University of Skövde students, the company is best known for Goat Simulator, which was released in April 2014, and Satisfactory, released as an early access game in 2019. Their parent holding company also operates Coffee Stain Publishing, a publisher, and majority-owns developers Coffee Stain North and Lavapotion. In November 2018, the Coffee Stain group was acquired by THQ Nordic AB.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maximum Games</span> Video game publisher and distributor

Maximum Games, Inc. is an American video game publisher based in Walnut Creek, California. Originally founded in 2009 as a publisher of family-oriented titles for the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii, the company shifted to publishing games of all genres for all ages across all platforms shortly after inception.

Scopely, Inc is an American interactive entertainment company and mobile-first video game developer and publisher. The company is headquartered in Culver City, California, with offices across the US, EMEA and Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Xsolla</span> Payment service provider

Xsolla is a global video game commerce company headquartered in Sherman Oaks, Los Angeles, California. It was founded in 2005 by Aleksandr Agapitov in Perm (Russia), and is incorporated with subsidiaries globally.

FunPlus is a video game developer and publisher headquartered in Switzerland, with operations in China, Singapore and Spain. The company has developed the following mobile games: State of Survival, King of Avalon, Guns of Glory, and Call of Antia.

Alexis Kennedy is a British video game writer, designer and entrepreneur. His video game work includes Fallen London, Sunless Sea and Cultist Simulator. He co-founded Weather Factory, an independent game studio in London in 2017. Kennedy founded Failbetter Games in 2009, where he worked as its chief narrative officer and creative lead until 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raw Fury</span> Swedish video game publisher

Raw Fury AB is a Swedish video game publisher, specialising in the publication of indie games, based in Stockholm. The company was founded in 2015 by Jonas Antonsson and Gordon Van Dyke.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Private Division</span> American video game publisher

Private Division is an American video game publisher based in New York City. The company was founded by Take-Two Interactive and announced in December 2017. Private Division funds and publishes indie games developed by small to mid-sized studios. This includes taking over Kerbal Space Program publishing and releasing titles from Obsidian Entertainment, Panache Digital Games, and V1 Interactive.

Thunderful Group AB is a Swedish video game holding company based in Gothenburg. It was founded in December 2019 through a merger between Thunderful AB and Bergsala Holding's distribution business, consisting of Bergsala, Amo Toys, and Nordic Game Supply. The former Thunderful had been founded in December 2017 between Bergsala Holding, Brjánn Sigurgeirsson, and Klaus Lyngeled, incorporating Sigurgeirsson and Lyngeled's indie game studios—Image & Form and Zoink—and acquiring the publisher Rising Star Games from Bergsala Holding in July 2018. Thunderful Group has since acquired further developers, the publisher Headup Games, and the consultancy firm Robot Teddy.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kepler Interactive</span>

Kepler Interactive is a video game publisher founded in September 2021. Based in London and Singapore, it is a co-owned by a group of independent game developers. Its published games include Tchia, Scorn, and Sifu.

References

  1. 1 2 Leone, Matt (13 September 2018). "Meet Kowloon Nights, the group funding Fumito Ueda's next game". Polygon.
  2. Shoemaker, Richie (1 April 2022). "Kowloon Nights celebrate revenue milestone by announcing new partnerships". MCV.
  3. Partis, Danielle (14 October 2021). "Introducing Kepler Interactive, a publisher run by independent developers". GamesIndustry.biz.

Further reading