Hardball Games is the new studio led by Jason Avent, founder of CSR Racing creator Boss Alien.
The Brighton-based studio is made up of former Boss Alien staffers who most recently released LEGO Star Wars Battles through Apple Arcade. The core team has been working together for over fifteen years, the studio says. Its first game will be a “massively multiplayer free-to-play fighting game”.
Hardball Games has secured £4.3m in seed funding from Griffin Gaming Partners and Playdemic founders Paul Gouge and Alex Rigby, the folks behind Golf Clash.
“We’re thrilled to have secured funding from Griffin, Paul and Alex,” said Hardball founder Jason Avent. “As a new studio with proven experience and a clear strategy it was important for us to find the right partners.”
“With Paul and Alex we get to work with industry entrepreneurs who have built a billion-dollar, free to play games business, in partnership with Griffin who have recognised the importance of our proven credentials and the opportunity to capture a huge cross-platform audience with brand new ways to play together.”
Griffin Gaming Partners managing director and co-founder Phil Sanderson added: “Jason and his team have a wealth of experience creating hit free-to-play game franchises like CSR Racing and in running live services.”
“This, combined with their previous tenure in console and PC game development positions them perfectly to unlock the power of multiplatform, cross-play game services. We are very excited to be part of their next adventure.”
Boss Alien was originally formed in the early days of mobile after the closure of Disney studio Black Rock, which itself was acquired as Climax Brighton, a specialised racing game studio.
After Boss Alien released breakout hit CSR Racing, it was acquired by NaturalMotion, which was then acquired by Zynga in 2014.
