J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot Games Ramps Up Development With New Funding

Bad Robot is one of the biggest names around when it comes to television and film, and now J.J. Abrams and Katie McGrath's expanding company is branching further into the realm of video games with Bad Robot Games. In that pursuit of growth, Bad Robot Games has raised over $40 million dollars in financing, led by Galaxy Interactive with participation from Horizons Ventures, ICONIQ Capital, and Tencent, who are all existing investors. This comes after Bad Robot hired Anna Sweet to be CEO of Bad Robot Games Studio in early 2020, and the financing is aimed to help the studio "create games that are as compelling to watch as they are to play" according to the press release.

"Galaxy, Horizons and ICONIQ Capital comprise a veritable VC Dream Team, and we are grateful to have their continued support as we look to change the way people interact with and view video games," Sweet said. "With this funding, we are able to build out both the studio and co-development sides of our operation, and create games that cross platforms, cross mediums and are based on IP originating from both games and linear content. We are very much looking forward to announcing our first titles."

The first title in development at the studio is an original AAA game, though we don't have any details on that yet. We do know however that it will be developed in collaboration with Bad Robot's Film, TV, and Animation departments.

Galaxy Interactive General Partners Sam Englebardt and Richard Kim led financing for the company, aligning with Galaxy Interactive's focus on video games and game studios.

"Bad Robot is one of the most forward-looking and creative companies in the industry. I've known Brian (Weinstein, President and COO of Bad Robot) and Anna for many years and the opportunity to join forces with them as they grow their videogame division was something we couldn't miss. Consistent with Bad Robot's long history of creative innovation, I'm certain they're going to develop and bring to market revolutionary titles that will change and advance the way that we visualize, interact with and, more broadly, define games."

Brian Weinstein, President and COO of Bad Robot said: "In closing this round of financing, we are incredibly grateful for the confidence and faith our financial and strategic partners have showed in all of us and particularly in the leadership team at Bad Robot Games. Under Anna's guidance and with a growing, creative and experienced leadership team, we can't wait to build and release our games."

Sweet was part of the original business team behind Valve's Steam platform and also led the content and developer strategy team for Oculus and Facebook VR products. Bad Robot Games has also brought on Left 4 Dead creator and lead designer Michael Booth as general manager, as well as Joe Rumsey as technical director and Oneil Howell as senior level designer. Rumsey previously worked on the World of Warcraft team and spent four years as a software engineer at Facebook, while Howell is an accomplished level and world designer who worked at Oculus (R&D Division) and on Just Cause 3 and Just Cause 4.

What do you want to see first from Bad Robot Games? Let us know in the comments!