SAN MATEO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Manticore Games™, the developer and operator behind Core™, an endless arcade of high-quality, user-built games, announced it has raised $100 million in Series C financing. The funding was led by XN, with participation from other leading strategic and institutional investors such as SoftBank Vision Fund 2 and LVP, as well as returning investors Benchmark, Bitkraft’s new Opportunity Fund, Correlation Ventures and Epic Games. The company will use the investment to accelerate Core’s growth by bolstering its industry-leading Creator programs, and further developing the most advanced game creation and publishing tools of any major user-generated content (UGC) platform.
The investment comes as the company approaches a major milestone — Core, its Multiverse of free games to play and worlds to explore, will be available for Early Access exclusively on the Epic Games Store on April 15, 2021. After just a few months in Alpha, Core already offers more than 20,000 free games in every genre imaginable, has had roughly half a million projects started on the platform, and has amassed over one million player and Creator accounts globally.
“Core has been growing rapidly and is establishing itself as the best platform for Creators as it offers not just the best game creation and publishing tools but also the best economic opportunities with 50% revenue share,” said Frederic Descamps, CEO and co-founder, Manticore Games. “This financing underscores confidence in Manticore’s vision of a Creator-built Multiverse. Core puts the power in Creators’ hands to build an endless arcade of free games for players and they’ve delivered. We are thrilled to have more resources to invest in our Creators, who we see as the engine of our growth, to ultimately build the games Multiverse and the best playground for players. Our Early Access launch on Epic Games Store next month is just the beginning.”
“Manticore is building the most compelling, creator-led gaming platform that is setting the global standard for user-generated content. By empowering creators with the best technology, tools and most developer-friendly economic terms in the marketplace, Core offers players a near endless variety of high-quality, immersive multiplayer games and experiences,” said Gaurav Kapadia, Founder of XN. “We are pleased to support founders Frederic Descamps and Jordan Maynard and their best-in-class team at this inflection point in the growth of Manticore’s organization and developer and player communities,” added Ravi Paidipaty, Partner at XN.
Manticore believes that the future of games is in open user-generated platforms. Core is bringing a level of disruption to game creation and play that’s similar to how YouTube revolutionized video. Over the past year, Manticore built the infrastructure of the Multiverse from the ground up, launched the most Creator-friendly economy of any UGC-platform, and introduced the most sophisticated and accessible tools for game creation and publishing, with an interface that requires little to no coding experience to develop and publish a game in as little as an hour.
“We’re thrilled that Manticore has chosen the Epic Games Store as the exclusive launchpad for Core,” said Steven Allison, GM Epic Games Store. “Epic and Manticore have a shared belief that the future of games and the metaverse will be built by a global community of creators. Core, which is powered by Epic’s Unreal Engine, provides creators with an incredibly powerful yet accessible set of tools that will help accelerate this shared vision."
Led by industry veterans Frederic Descamps and Jordan Maynard, whose past experience includes making games and running services at companies like EA, Zynga, Xfire, Trion Worlds, and A Bit Lucky, Manticore was founded with the mission to help define the next era in games. Manticore’s vision is to open a door to innovation and emergent game design by bringing Creators and players of all skill levels together in a collaborative social ecosystem that supports a wide variety of shared online experiences.
To learn more about the company and to register for updates visit https://www.manticoregames.com. Core’s Open Alpha is available to download now at https://www.coregames.com/ and can be Wishlisted on the Epic Games Store for when Early Access launches exclusively on April 15.
ABOUT MANTICORE GAMES
Manticore Games® is the developer and operator of Core™. Core is an endless universe of games to play and worlds to explore designed by a global community of creators. It’s a radically accessible game construction kit and social game-playing platform, all-in-one. Whether you’re interested in playing unexpected takes on shooters, RPGs, and party games, exploring massive and spectacular worlds with friends, or unleashing your own insane game designs on the world, Core is your portal to the Multiverse. Manticore Games has received backing from Benchmark Capital, XN, Epic Games, SoftBank Vision Fund 2, Correlation Ventures, BITKRAFT Esports Ventures & BITKRAFT Opportunity Fund, LVP, M Ventures, Tuesday Capital, SV Angel, Arrive (a Roc Nation company), Sapphire Sport.
