Seattle-area video game company ProbablyMonsters raises $200M to build studios

Probably Monster CEO Harold Ryan. (ProbablyMonsters Photo)

LikelyMonsters, a video game company headquartered in Bellevue, Washington, announced Tuesday that it had raised $ 200 million in a Series A funding round.

Founded in 2016 by former Bungie CEO Harold Ryan, ProbablyMonsters is a collective that describes itself as “building a family of sustainable game studios through a people-centered culture.” Rather than being a traditional game publisher, it takes a more active role in running the company, in an agreement designed to give its studio staff more time to be creative.

According to Forbes, the $ 200 million is the largest amount any video game company has ever raised through Serie A. GeekWire previously reported that ProbablyMonsters had been actively raising funds.

The money should enable MaybeMonsters to further expand its business while at the same time offering “long-lasting stability for people-first gaming careers,” according to a company press release.

In other words, the MaybeMonsters leadership intends to hire and retain employees over the long term rather than rummaging through the hire-and-fire cycles typical of high-end video game development. The money will also be used to expand live operations and community engagement.

“As part of our growth, we are now safe beyond any AAA gaming project and providing predictably stable, creatively rewarding, and long-lasting gaming careers for our teams,” Ryan said in a press release. “Our goal is to make ProbablyMonsters a home where visionary developers can build meaningful careers, thrive in a positive culture, and deliver amazing experiences to generations of gamers around the world.”

Ryan’s goal with “ProbablyMonsters” is to go beyond the mere creation of high-priced, original intellectual property relationships, to create a “culture of respect” throughout the company. The idea is to build studios around developers, provide logistical support for the development of new games, and maintain a stable, reliable corporate environment for employees.

(That may sound obvious, but in the modern mainstream American video game industry, a large company actively trying to avoid high developer burnout / turnover is reluctantly revolutionary.)

After the biggest Serie A salary raise in gaming history, new career opportunities are yours with ProbablyMonsters!

Learn how we enable stable careers in game development while creating extraordinary entertainment experiences. https://t.co/cBNOI1v8qo

– LikelyMonsters (@prblyMONSTERS) September 1, 2021

ProbablyMonsters currently has three in-house development studios. Firewalk is currently developing a multiplayer game to be published worldwide by Sony Interactive Entertainment, while Cauldron’s first project is a “single player adventure game that develops with and around the player.”

The third, as yet unnamed, team is reportedly working on a “next-gen open-world co-op experience that will bring players together.”

All three teams are considered “AAA”. In the game industry parlance, this is a large team on a large budget, although it has no formal definition; Ryan himself has an “AAA” development team for over 75 people. Monsters probably currently has more than 230 employees and plans to hire more.

The funding round was led by LKCM Headwater Investments, a division of Luther King Capital Management in Fort Worth, Texas. Much of the money was raised by investors who contributed to MaybeMonsters’ earlier funding rounds, although certain names were not disclosed.