Look North World, a user-generated content game studio and publisher led by Bungie cofounder Alexander Seropian, has raised $2.5 million.
It will use the money to make more games for Fortnite with the Unreal Editor for Fortnite, a self-service platform that lets anyone publish their own Fortnite game islands. One of those islands coming is a shooter game based on Bandai Namco’s Gundam:
To date, Look North World has raised total seed funding, said Seropian, in an interview with GamesBeat. One of Look North World’s games was announced today. Bandai Namco Entertainment America and Look North World are creating a UEFN Island within Fortnite to celebrate the upcoming Netflix anime series Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance.
The Gundam game will be a free activation within Fortnite, where players participate in a Team Deathmatch-style game in the Fortnite universe. The Gundam anime series will be making a splash this week at San Diego Comic-Con in San Diego, California.
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The UGC market
“There is a tectonic shift occurring in the games industry, reinventing how games are made and brought to market,” said Seropian. “At Look North World, we have embraced this evolution by choosing to build within platforms that allow experimentation, quick iteration, and access to a massive audience. Our Creator Label, which mirrors our approach to embracing UGC as the future of gaming, enables us to support creators and take risks on games that would otherwise never get greenlit.”
As for the UGC market, Seropian said it’s a creative risk to take and it is a challenge to compete with the top games that have brand awareness. The triple-A games have budgets of $100 million or more.
“That’s a big basket of eggs and all your eggs are in that one basket,” he said. “We’re all the way on the other end of the spectrum. We’re on a hot platform with a ton of players and our games are smaller investments. So far, it’s a learning exercise.”
Seropian said the smaller games are more scientific. You create them, test them in the market and move on if they don’t catch on. Look North World has already launched seven games at a pace of one every three months or so.
“You fail fast,” he said. “This isn’t the kind of thing you go around bragging about. But we’re profitable already. That’s the fastest we’ve ever gotten to having traction.”
This excitement around UGC has helped the company get funding from prominent game investors. London Venture Partners led the round, with participation from strategic partners Bandai Namco Entertainment 021 Fund, Overwolf, Crush Ventures, the venture arm of Crush Music, Hasbro, Pix Capital, and returning investors Hibbard Road Partners.
Working with brands
Seropian has a good reputation from working at Bungie, Disney, Industrial Toys and Electronic Arts. And that’s how he has been able to work with big brands so early in the company’s history, like the deal with Bandai Namco for the Gundam property.
“It’s a Gundam island in Fortnite,” said Seropian. “Ever since Disney invested in Epic Games and Fortnite, there has been a lot of interest in the platform. We’ve done quite a bit of business in the first half of the year.”
Seropian said that the company raised the round as part of its effort to get its Creator Label off the ground.
“We’re hoping to grow and expand through this creator label, which is our way of finding the talent of the future, as well as being a big part of the community by republishing games from individual creators,” Seropian said.
The first game under the Creator Label hit a month ago: Dream Job Tycoon. And the second one is coming out the end of August.
“We’re using some of that the money that we’re raising to launch that label, as well as continue expanding our original IP,” Seropian said.
“Look North World is a great partner for the Bandai Namco Entertainment 021 Fund, as a company with a foundation of game making know-how and founders who have created blockbusters in traditional games now looking to apply their pedigree and vision to what the new generation of gamers want to play,” said Yoyo Yang and Natsuhiro Maruyama, investors at Bandai Namco Entertainment 021 Fund, in a statement.
Creator Label
Additionally, Look North World announced the launch of its Creator Label, a curated program designed to support and elevate individual makers building on creator platforms. With 15 games in development featuring major IP deals, Look North World will use the investment to accelerate the creation of original games while reinventing how games are built using UGC.
The company has three strategies. It is working with brands like Hasbro. The second is the creator label, based on games by popular creators. And the third is original content.
The latter is “to experiment with gameplay and we’re gonna continue to do that,” Seropian said. “We have an RPG coming in. Some of them are kind of experimental. This is something new so we’re trying to learn from those who come before us.”
Of those titles, Seropian said roughly five are based on brands, five are from creators and five are original titles.
“It’s just new ideas, new game ideas, new kinds of play,” he said.
For creators, Look North World will advance money so they can develop the game.
In Seropian’s view, Fortnite is a platform.
“UEFN represents games as a platform. I think it’s going to continue to evolve in the same board games become platforms. It’s got tools, audience, monetization, discovery, and a lot of those things are way more efficient than having the open market,” Seropian said. “Knock on wood. This has a bright future.”
Besides UEFN, Look North World has teamed with Overwolf on mods for games. But it hasn’t yet moved over to Roblox or Minecraft.
Look North World leverages new and emerging creator platforms to build games for millions of existing players. As trailblazers in the games industry, Look North World has established itself as an entertainment company focused on creating unique experiences, developing new intellectual properties, and embracing the fast pace of UGC platforms—contrasting with the years-long development cycles typical of traditional studios.
The company has developed and published five games on Unreal Engine for Fortnite (UEFN) and two Premium Mods for Ark: Survival Ascended and has already launched its first creator label game: Dream Job Tycoon. Its Ark x Power Rangers Premium Mod, a collaboration with Overwolf, Hasbro, and Studio Wildcard, has already surpassed 800,000 units. So far, the Power Rangers title has been the most popular.
“Investing in Look North World cements our belief in user-generated content (UGC) being a core pillar of the future of gaming,” said Matt Bilbey, venture partner at London Venture Partners, in a statement. “As UGC platforms expand and gain market share, talented teams are leveraging them to push boundaries and create diverse, immersive experiences at an unprecedented pace. We invest in people, and Alex and his veteran team are pioneers, notably during previous growth waves of console and mobile. With Look North World they continue to reshape how games are built and published.”
Look North World has also launched its Creator Label, a unique initiative providing end-to-end support to elevate creators in the UGC gaming space. Signed creators receive benefits including a guaranteed advance, long-term ownership of intellectual property, a marketing budget to support distribution, and a team of industry experts offering artistic and technical support.
“We’re not just funding a game,” he said. “We’re treating it like an indie record label. So we have our dev team that has been around for a long time, and we’re there to support the creator. If they need help with sound, if they need help with code or best practices, we help. We do the publishing and marketing, but we lend our R&D help along the way.”
Unlike typical fund models that often lack mentorship, the LNW Creator Label ensures hands-on collaboration with a senior development team to empower creators to reach their fullest potential. The first signed creators include TomJank and SightedSloth.
The company has 12 employees and about 50 including contractors.