– FunPlus chief strategy officer Dan Fiden
Mobile developer and publisher FunPlus today announced a new $50 million fund aimed at indie developers — primarily, but not exclusively, mobile-focused teams.
The first team selected for funding is Sirvo, a new indie studio co-founded by Threes developer Asher Vollmer, and which is working on its first project, Guildlings.
In a new interview with GamesIndustry.biz announcing the initiative, FunPlus chief strategy officer Dan Fiden said, "We feel like the real commercial successes are a result of game makers who are trying to truly innovate. So when we look at teams, for us it really is about finding teams that have proven, through previous projects they've worked on, that's where their focus is."
The company is also currently running its IndiePlus contest for independent developers; judges include Vollmer and PlayStation 4 chief architect Mark Cerny. The grand prize is $10,000.
There's no official site for this new iniative just yet; interested parties should probably keep their eyes on the publisher's official Twitter account and website.
If you're looking for other options, Kongregate also recently launched a fund for more experimental games, called Launchpad X.