Venture capital is throwing some more cash at the fabled “midcore” audience.
Developer nWay revealed today that it raised $5 million in its Series A funding round. TransLink Capital led the investment, which includes participation from Baseline Ventures’ Steven Anderson, Cowboy Ventures’ Aileen Lee, Harrison Metal’s Michael Dearing, and Lightspeed Venture Partners’ Jeremy Liew.
The studio, which produces the combo-based brawler ChronoBlade, will use the influx of cash to fund the development of the title’s multiplayer mode for the web and mobile. ChronoBlade is currently in beta on Facebook and the Android-based microconsole Ouya. Developer nWay intends to also bring the game to other platforms.
“It’s been a long time coming, but we’re very close to delivering an online multiplayer experience that has never been perfected on any platform,” nWay chief executive Taehoon Kim said. “Gamers will be able to duel each other in a fast-paced action game running at 60 frames per second with low enough latency to do blocks, counters, and hundreds of perfectly timed combos that were previously only possible with two controllers hooked up to a gaming console. We want this experience to be hyper accessible on web, mobile/tablet, and smart TVs, and this round of funding will fuel the resources necessary to make this a reality.”
In addition to the funding, TransLink managing director Jay Eum and Baseline Ventures’ Steven Anderson will join nWay’s board.
“nWay’s work to build a game that has enough depth to be an e-sports game while being hyper-accessible for the casual crowd certainly caught our eye, and we confirmed strong interest from several leading gaming publishers in Asia where this type of game is more advanced,” said Eum.
The studio is targeting a midcore audience for the game, which refers to a player that sits in between the “casual” and “hardcore” ends of the gaming spectrum.