Gardens, the studio formed by developers from Skyrim, Journey, and more, announced this morning that it has raised $31.3 million USD in Series A funding thanks to a demo prototype presentation at GDC. To celebrate the news, the studio has confirmed that its innagural online game will be a fantasy adventure PvPvE online sandbox ARPG.
If you recall, last year we reported on the Gardens as a new studio focused on "collective growth." The studio already had some stellar talent, having been founded by developers who worked on games such as The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim, What Remains of Edith Fitch, Marvel's Spider-man and Journey, just to name a few. The fully remote studio was working on its first title, which they confirmed at the time to be an online game.
Fast forward to a year later, and thanks to a stellar prototype debut at this year's GDC, the studio has raised $31.3 million USD in funding with some pretty big names in the MMO world contributing, such as Dreamhaven's (and formerly Blizzard) Mike Morhaime, Annie and Jeff Stain, co-founders of Prytania media, as well as co-creator of Guild Wars, Seth Sivak, the current VP of Development on World of Warcraft and more. The funding round was led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Krafton, and Gardens also added new members to its advisory board, including Former Sony Computer Entertainment America President and CEO Jack Tretton, Former Tencent President Ben Feder, and Yamauch No. 10 (the Nintendo Family).
As part of the press release this morning, the company officially released new information about its online game in the works. Billing it as an "ever-evolving PvPvE fantasy adventure sandbox ARPG," Gardens Co-founder and game director Chris Bell states it's inspired by the team's "favorite memories playing online RPGs, MMOs, and fantasy action-adventure games."
“It’s a game inspired by our favorite memories playing online RPGs, MMOs, and fantasy action-adventure games over the years, memories of crossing paths with strangers," said Bell. “The game builds upon multiplayer ideas and lessons from previous titles I helped design like Journey, Sky, and even my student game Way, while bringing players into a higher stakes, shapeshifting fantasy wilderness where cooperation is key, yet betrayal is still possible. We’re including novel cooperative gameplay that rewards players who help each other, which can encourage friendship and dialogue with PvP and conflict in interesting and subversive ways. We’re growing the world we want to play in every day, a world designed to offer new experiences every time you play, growing and evolving for years to come. Thanks to our amazing new partners and this latest round of funding, we can continue crafting the best game possible while growing and supporting our incredible team.”
The Gardens team released some new teaser concept art images, which you can check out in the carousel below. No time table was given on a release from the studio, but the studio is hiring to help bring their vision to fruition. You can check out open positions on the website.
