Blue Scarab, a new studio based in Stockholm, Sweden, has announced a $7 million seed funding round to develop its first game, an MMORPG blending “cozy escapism and true crime”.
Funding came from a number of sources, but was led by NetEase and Behold Ventures. The team is made up of veterans who, according to the studio, have led development on Battlefield, World of Warcraft, Age of Conan, IMVU, Star Stable Online, and Helldivers 2.
Craig Morrison is the Studio Director. Morrison has deep experience, with work as the Studio Creative Director at DICE and work on Battlefield, as a principal designer at Blizzard and work on World of Warcraft, and more leadership at Funcom and work on Age of Conan and Anarchy Online.
Guillaume Lhoyer, the project’s principal designer, was a systems designer on Helldivers 2 and Vermintide 2: Chaos Wastes. Ashley Nicollette also worked on Helldivers 2 and joins as the Community and Marketing Director.
Blue Scarab is intentionally aiming to create experiences for a wider audience, through work from a team with deep experience.
As for the MMORPG the studio is working on, they describe it as:
“A story-driven MMORPG built using Unreal Engine 5, with a unique blend of cozy escapism, true-crime, and horseback riding. Cozy exploration meets true-crime in our story-driven MMORPG that puts players in the saddle as they discover a beautiful open world on horseback and uncover a dark mystery together”.
This is in line with what Morrison says in the announcement, “As the games industry has expanded, we have welcomed many new audiences. We believe there is space for fusing and evolving previous gaming and media experiences into something new and fresh for this expanded community”.
As for the studio itself, it will be headquartered in Sweden with a mix of on-site and remote development work.
