Finland — February 14, 2022 — Return Entertainment, a Finland-based studio incubated by Sisu Game Ventures that aims to breakdown the boundaries of gaming with its cloud-native games and technology, announced €5.3M in funding led by BITKRAFT Ventures with Sisu Game Ventures, Vgames, 1Up Ventures, and SMOK Ventures participating. The funding will enable Return Entertainment to develop console-quality games that are playable across devices and easier to join than a video call.
Return Entertainment is working on two initial games that are designed from the ground up to take advantage of cloud, which means gameplay will be fully cross-playable between browsers on mobile, tablet or PC. The company’s mission is to remove the barrier to entry that comes with needing expensive gear by offering cloud-native games. Their upcoming games enable one-click access along with impressive visuals and simulations powered by cloud computing to enable seamless switching from playing and watching
“Cloud-native gaming is basically gaming on steroids; you have the same devices that gamers already play on, but suddenly the experiences are more accessible, shareable and rich in visuals and simulations. With the right combination of technology and game design we can come up with incredible new types of games that were not previously possible, including games with more detailed worlds and physics, meaningful games that can be joined in an instant, and games that offer real-time interaction between players, streamers and viewers.” shared Antti Sartanen, CEO of Return Entertainment.
Return Entertainment was founded in 2019 by seven industry veterans including CEO Antti Sartanen, CTO Tuomas Paavola Co-Founder of Immersal (acquired by Hexagon) and Lead Designer Toni Hollming, Co-Founder of Helsinki GameWorks (acquired by Next Games).
“Cloud-native gaming enables developers to offer deeply immersive 3D experiences at the convenience of a single click, making AAA more accessible to everyone and enabling new business models. From allowing viewers to more actively engage with their streamers through directly interacting with the gameplay to offering new monetization methods, Return Entertainment's innovation has the potential to establish a new gaming category,” commented Malte Barth, Founding General Partner, BITKRAFT Ventures.
For more information about Return Entertainment, please visit https://returnentertainment.com/
About Return Entertainment
Founded in 2019 by seven industry veterans including CEO Antti Sartanen, CTO Tuomas Paavola and Lead Designer Toni Hollming Return Entertainment is a developer of cloud-native games focused on appealing to casual and mid-core gamers. The company designs games, mechanics, and tools to be cloud-native from scratch, by leveraging new types of gameplay and technology, leading the gaming industry towards the cloud.
About BITKRAFT Ventures
BITKRAFT Ventures is a leading investment platform for gaming and Web3 globally, and has been the most active gaming venture capital firm and lead investor in 2020 and 2021, according to research from Invest Game and Drake Star Partners. Founded by industry pioneer Jens Hilgers, BITKRAFT serves a worldwide network that spans many of the industry’s forward-thinking startups and founders—including former executives from the likes of Activision Blizzard, Riot Games, Epic Games, Google, and Apple who are working to build and operate the virtual worlds and economies of the future. BITKRAFT operates five venture funds with a total of over $570M in assets under management and has over 70 companies in its global portfolio as of January 2022.
BITKRAFT’s experienced international team works closely with exceptional entrepreneurs to create significant value through early candid partnerships, unique domain experience, entrepreneurial history, and a global ecosystem of strategic partners.
Find out more about how BITKRAFT and its portfolio companies are pushing the boundaries of Synthetic Reality® by visiting https://www.bitkraft.vc/vision.
About Sisu Game Ventures
Sisu Game Ventures is an early-stage venture capital fund focused 100% on the game industry. Founded in 2014 with more than 60 investments to date, Sisu helped pioneer venture capital in games and is the most active fund in the vertical.
Sisu has deep roots in the Nordic region, but its network of founders is fully global. Over the past three decades, the Sisu team members have founded 16 game companies. With the Built with Sisu program, Sisu also helps founders create new game companies from scratch.
Sisu’s own investors come mostly from the game industry including game industry veterans, publishers and other ecosystem players.
Read more at https://sisu.vc/