Loot Drop deal
John Romero title to be funded and published by RockYou.
Redwood City, Calif. - January 20, 2011
RockYou, a leading social entertainment company, has signed a development agreement with Loot Drop to fund and publish the new studio’s first title. Led by John Romero, co-founder of id Software and designer of the Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein 3D series, Loot Drop develops innovative games with true gameplay that push the boundaries of social game design.
The deal between RockYou and Loot Drop builds on RockYou’s commitment to create and publish the very best social games, and to invest in world-class creative talent. RockYou enables independent developers to reach a broad audience with its publishing and distribution expertise, and with strategic investments such as the agreement with Loot Drop.
“Our partnership with Loot Drop allows RockYou to work with some of the industry’s most creative minds,” said Jonathan Knight, RockYou's SVP of Games. “We’re thrilled to be collaborating with John Romero, a game design visionary, as we aim to inspire innovation in the social gaming space and expand our games portfolio throughout the year.”
“The social space is where the excitement and the players are at, hundreds of millions of them, and I’m excited to make another game on the platform,” said John Romero. “RockYou’s support will drive Loot Drop’s first project forward. I believe social games have an incredible future, and we’ve barely explored their potential.”
After John Romero’s early success pioneering the first-person shooter genre, he became a recognizable figure in the industry, establishing independent studios and designing games for over thirty years. Most recently Romero shifted his attention to the social gaming space to design and develop the popular family-friendly game, Ravenwood Fair for Facebook. Launched in October 2010, Ravenwood Fair is notable for bringing role-playing game (RPG) elements to the social gaming space, and boasts a 4.2/5 user review score, five million monthly active users (MAUs) and over 700K daily active users (DAUs).
Tom Hall joins Loot Drop as Studio Head and Game Designer at the company's Austin studio. Hall is a 30-year veteran of the game industry, and a frequent business partner of Romero's. Together, the two have founded three companies, including id Software. Robert Sirotek serves as the company's CEO. Like Romero and Hall, Sirotek is a veteran entrepreneur, VP and CEO with over 30 years’ experience in the game industry. Sirotek co-founded Sir-tech Software in 1980, and during his 26-year tenure at the company, the firm released over 150 games, including the award-winning Wizardr y and Jagged Alliance series.
Details for Loot Drop’s first game are not announced yet, and the terms of the investment were not disclosed.
For more information about RockYou, visit www.rockyou.com.
About RockYou
RockYou is a leading social entertainment company with over 200MM monthly unique visitors and 15BB monthly global impressions. The company developed the social game classic Zoo World, with 50MM installs to date, and is committed to the development of high quality titles for the social space. RockYou's ad network empowers brands and game developers to reach and monetize audiences through innovative social advertising solutions, including Deal of the Day, video products and in-game brand integrations. Founded in 2005 and headquartered in Redwood City, California, RockYou is funded by Sequoia Capital, Partech International, Lightspeed Venture Partners, DCM, SK Telecom Ventures and Softbank.
About Loot Drop
Loot Drop is a collective of exceptionally experienced game veterans who are also experienced in social game design. Each member of Loot Drop’s senior team has over 25-years’ experience programming, designing, producing or monetizing award-winning video games. Above all else, they believe in fun and the power of great gameplay.
Eddiemae Jukes / Molly Gerth, TriplePoint
650-996-0086
rockyou@triplepointpr.com