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London-based Landmark, a mobile games studio built on the foundation and importance of sharing, announced on Monday that it has raised $4.6M (approximately €4.47M) in a seed round of funding.
The company is on a mission to plug a growing demand from players who crave adventures to share and enjoy with their friends. In a landscape oversaturated with games that pit players against each other, this emerging genre seeks to do the opposite.
Landmark says it will use the funds to further develop its first title, Sea of Souls, an epic adventure for friends to experience together.
The company will also use the capital to expand its studio to 20 people to develop hit free-to-play titles in this emerging co-op genre. The founding team will create a studio from the ground up to pioneer cooperative gaming, bringing friends closer together to win the game rather than competing against one another.
With games like Diablo Immortal, Supercell’s forthcoming Clash Heroes, and Genshin Impact demonstrating the growing need for high-quality cooperative experiences, the studio has been keeping watch on growing interest in the cooperative genre.
The investment was co-led by Project A Ventures and InReach Ventures with participation from existing investors Moonfire Ventures, Concept Ventures and UK game angels Nick-Button Brown and Aream co-founder Kartik Prabhakara.
Founded in 2021 by Dave Burpitt, Jonathan Chisholm, and James Older, Landmark is a mobile games studio built on the foundation and importance of sharing. “Sharing runs deep in our game design, features and proprietary technology to ensure a seamless, relevant and rewarding social experience,” says the company.
Dave Burpitt explains, “We want to fundamentally change the experience by dismantling the negative expectations of being out-skilled or pummelled by your friends in exchange for joining what should be a fun gaming session.”
“There are billions of potential players who love the idea of fast-paced action in a highly social experience that are put off by the ultra-competitive and often anti-social environment. It takes a different approach to build a studio dedicated to this huge audience and we are ahead of the curve here at Landmark,” adds Brupitt.
Sea of Souls, the studio’s debut release, fulfils Landmark’s commitment to providing the best games for multiplayer play, with a focus on gameplay that requires genuine teamwork to overcome the AI enemies and challenges posed by the game.
Creative Director, James Older, says, “We are designing our games from the ground up to be the best place to play with your friends. Players seek quality experiences for regular social gaming sessions, such as strategising for raids in Destiny, or sailing together in Sea of Thieves. But the experiences currently on offer have high entry barriers, whether limited to specific platforms or complex first-person controls. We promise hand-crafted, highly accessible adventures for everyone to enjoy.”
The founding team has previous expertise from co-founding and holding executive positions at Big Pixel, which WarnerMedia bought in 2018 following the success of Rick and Morty: Pocket Mortys, which rose to the top of the US AppStore solely via organic growth. Ubisoft’s Hungry Shark World and Jagex’s RuneScape are two other organic successes from the Landmark crew.
