Kek Leisure secures $8M to drive cross-platform gaming

Kek Leisure has raised $8 million in funding to foster cross-platform gaming experiences throughout cell gadgets, consoles and PCs.

This monetary infusion will gas the event of their flagship title, an unannounced car shooter recreation merging cell and PC/Console players onto a unified platform.

The startup is headed by a crew from Pixonics who helped create the Warfare Robots mech combating recreation on cell gadgets. Now they’re making one thing model new within the mecha area.

Korea Funding Companions, a South Korean gaming enterprise capital fund, led the spherical. Different buyers included Woori Know-how Funding Co., Kona Enterprise Companions, and KEK’s pre-seed buyers — The Video games Fund and Play Ventures.

Michael Ok. Lee, director at Korea Funding Companions, in an announcement {that a} truthful variety of gamers need extra immersive gameplay and wish to play with their mates who’re on different platforms.

“KEK Leisure’s imaginative and prescient aligns completely with the altering panorama of gaming preferences. Our perception within the potential for a well-designed cross-platform recreation to resonate with numerous gaming communities is unwavering. We’re thrilled to assist KEK on this path,” mentioned Lee.

Origins

Georgy Egorov and Oleg Poroshin, veterans from Pixonics, began the brand new firm a few years in the past. Warfare Robots has generated $750 million in revenues and has been downloaded greater than 250 million instances because it got here out in 2014. The commonest request was to get the sport on a number of platforms so mates might play collectively.

“Our thought is to make the final word mecha shooter expertise,” Egorov mentioned. “If we will keep away from all of the errors earlier than and make it informal sufficient for cell gamers and hardcore alike, we will preserve the PC gamers entertained and produce within the cell gamers.”

This time, they envision one thing like a mix of Warfare Robots and World of Tanks, the place the motion is slow-paced and gamers can provide you with methods reasonably than belief their hand-eye coordination to win video games.

“Now we have expertise within the style and we like mechas,” mentioned Egorov, in an interview with GamesBeat. “We put effort into what we like, into the place our experience is. We wish to carry this expertise for our core viewers and broaden the attraction.”

The founders have a ardour for the style and wished to create one thing new, mentioned Egorov. Now they’re set to leverage their experience in multiplayer PvP motion to transcend the confines of cell gaming and create a platform-agnostic mental property.

“I’m extraordinarily pleased that regardless of the clearly difficult funding local weather, we put collectively the right setup for our journey! Now, we’ve got companions in all main areas for our enterprise: the USA, Asia, and Europe. Nonetheless, crucial factor is that we’ve got confidence in every of them, and from day one, we really feel that we share the imaginative and prescient and vibe. In any case, enterprise is about individuals. I imagine that this partnership can be an awesome foundation for constructing not solely a profitable recreation however a brand new well-known media franchise,” Egorov mentioned.

The core philosophy of Kek Leisure facilities on bridging the hole between numerous gaming gadgets to craft a extra linked and inclusive gaming area. Poroshin emphasised the importance of slow-paced shooters in enabling a constant and truthful gaming expertise throughout totally different platforms, stressing their strategic strategy and interesting gameplay.

“Why slow-paced shooters? They’re simple to get into, with controls and tempo that really feel good whether or not you’re enjoying on a high-end PC or tapping in your cellphone – the expertise stays constant and truthful,” mentioned Poroshin, chief product officer. “Sluggish-paced shooters demand a strategic strategy that trumps the short reflexes usually required by their faster-paced counterparts. These video games are deep and interesting, and so they match into your life, not the opposite approach round.”

Kek mentioned it had a optimistic reception from its early adopter neighborhood for the artwork fashion and early take a look at the sport. Now it’s engaged on launching a smooth beta launch for gamers on cell gadgets and on Steam. In among the gameplay, gamers should kill a non-player boss whereas combating an opposing crew. There’ll possible be three totally different factions. The sooner take a look at labored surprisingly properly on a monitor pad.

Beforehand, the corporate acquired a $3 million pre-seed funding from The Video games Fund and Play Ventures. It has 35 individuals now throughout a number of nations. The headquarters is in Limassol, Cyprus and the event crew is in Armenia and elsewhere.

As for beginning a brand new firm, Egorov mentioned it’s typically onerous to implement new concepts in a legacy product. And the artwork fashion, Egorov mentioned, “Our viewers thinks lifelike photographs are best option for them. They’re critical of us who need actual navy expertise, with sci fi on the identical time. We don’t wish to be bounded by trendy warfare.”