ng:moco Gaming Stealth Company gets Money from the iFund
By Azam on July 31, 2008
ng:moco announced funding from KCPB for stealth gaming start up focused on games designed for the iPhone. ng:moco is headed and founded by CEO Neil Young. Previously, Neil Young managed the development of numerous hit titles at EA such as Lord of the Rings, The Sims 2, and much anticipated Spore. Neil Young left EA to create gaming company to develop, finance, and produce title for other game developers. The company is applying the similar media studio model that EA has developed but focusing on mobile games for the iPhone and new mobile devices for new category of games with higher end features and capabilities
The iPhone and App Store is offering ample opportunity for applications such as gaming on the new iPhone 3G and App Store. VentureBeat reported games are the most download applications on the iPhone. According to VentureBeat about 53 of the top 100 download are games.
ng:moco Young believes that current generation of iPhone games reflect early thinking anmd that he believes there is plenty of room for new innovation, he believes that there is a gap in the market between cheap mobile games and the Nitendo DS games that sell for $30. Currently, the average price paid for iPhone application is $4.96.
KCPB investment represents the venture capital firm efforts in gaming industry with joining of Bing Gordon as partner to the firm from Electronic Arts. KCPB also invested in gaming company Zynga which Bing Gordon is on the board of the company. KCPB made the investment in ng:moco through the iFund . The iFund is a $100M Fund designed to invest in startups targeting the iPhone as a platform. The iFund announced previous investments in mobile social networking service Pleago (Whrrl) and IControl (home security ).
Also, Maples Investments participated in the investment into NGMococ. Maples Investment is an early stage fund headed by Mike Maples and invest in web2.0 companies in social networking , media content related, mobile, and now gaming. ng:moco will use the investment to create, acquire and publish games built specifically for the iPhone.
The Competition
Mobile gaming is becoming increasingly attractive industry. Larger well established players are likely focus attention to the iPhone as platform for distribution of content and titles held. The competition in mobile gaming industry Electronic Arts’ EA Mobile division, Gameloft, Glu Mobile, Sega,thumbplay, and a variety of other companies. Some companies mentioned already have started making games for the iPhone. Also, Nokia and Sony are focused on gaming industry as well on their service offering and mobile devices.
Categories : WirelessTags : apple, Bing Gordon, EA, gaming, iFund, iPhone, KPCB, Neil Young, NGMoco, nokia, Sony, thumbplay