Andreessen Horowitz is officially launching a new $600 million fund, aimed exclusively at the video games industry. The fund’s goal is to help build the future of the games industry, per the company’s official press release.
Named GAMES FUND ONE, the fund aims to play a pivotal role in shaping how players socialize and play video games in the future. The company says they’ve been following the recent developments in the industry and how games have undergone a radical transformation “from simply being packaged entertainment to becoming online services that closely resemble social networks, and scale like consumer tech companies.”
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With this new fund, Andreessen Horowitz plans to invest in building digital communities, managing ecosystems, and virtual economies, IP licensing, and helping studios build their development teams.
The $600 million fund will be led by Andrew Chen, Jon Lai, and James Gwertzman. The press release also says that “GAMES FOUND ONE has been nearly a decade in the making” with the team being involved in the early works of Zynga, Oculus, Riot Games, CCP, and Epic Games.
The fund’s backers include industry veterans and key players such as David Baszucki, founder of Roblox; Jason Citron, founder of Discord; Marc Merrill, co-founder of Riot Games; Mike Morhaime, co-founder of Blizzard; Aleks Larsen and Jeffrey Zirlin, cofounders of Sky Mavis; Kevin Lin, co-founder of Twitch, Mark Pincus, founder of Zynga; and Riccardo Zacconi, founder of King.
GAMES FUND ONE is making a major commitment to the industry and they’re looking to team up with people who’re building, supporting, or partnering with the next generation of video games.
