Games are one of the most powerful ways to bring people together.
But today, many of the biggest games, from Call of Duty to League of Legends to Fortnite, are competitive, player vs player (PvP) experiences. League of Legends resembles football where two teams strive to reach the opposite end of a field. Fortnite is a ‘battle royale’ where 100 players are dropped onto an island and battle to be last player standing in a stylized reenactment of the Hunger Games.
While these games satisfy the itch to compete with one another and gain mastery, not everyone wants to engage in endless deathmatches for fun. As gaming demographics continue to broaden and grow, demand for games that are more cooperative is rising. Relative to this demand, there’s a noticeable shortage of new co-op player vs environment (PvE) games where players can team up to take on AI-generated challenges.
Elodie is a game studio specifically founded with the mission of building endlessly-playable PvE co-op games. And through a focus on cross-platform development across PC, console, and mobile platforms, Elodie is breaking down barriers to playing with friends and family, regardless of their skill level or device.
We first invested in Elodie over a year ago after discovering our shared vision for deeply social gameplay. Since then, the team has realized their product vision in a stunning pre-alpha build and grown from 2 to over 26 talented developers. Today, I’m thrilled to announce that we’re co-leading Elodie’s Series A alongside Galaxy Interactive, and that I’m joining their board.
I’ve known the founders David Banks and Christina Norman for almost a decade. David was executive producer of League of Legends when I was a product lead at Riot Games, and was a pivotal force as one of Riot’s first 30 employees. Christina was one of Riot’s most experienced game designers and overall is one of the most talented designers I know. She overhauled Leagues’ core monetization systems and later led design on Wild Rift, the mobile version of League. Together, they’ve built a world-class team at Elodie, including many of the early developers that made League of Legends a success, with a shared ethos around creating exceptional social, co-op gameplay.
This is great news for the huge and underserved population of players who love teaming up with friends against the AI. Beating up on the AI even has its own name in gaming vernacular: the “comp stomp.” We see the enduring appeal of comp stomps as latent demand for new types of co-op gameplay that can reach a more diverse, modern audience of players.
We couldn’t be more excited to partner with David, Christina, and the entire Elodie team as they embark on a journey to build one of the defining game studios of the next generation.
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