“We’re bullish on virtual reality,” James Riney, principal at DeNA’s venture capital arm, tells Tech in Asia. Virtual reality (VR) has long been crowned the future of gaming so it’s a natural focus for the Japan-based gaming firm. According to Riney, his fund will be making several investments in 2015 as the parent company makes its first foray into the space.
The team is targeting three seed – and possibly one growth – stage investments in the VR space over the next eight months. Seed investments typically run US$100,000 – US$500,000 while a growth stage company could net up to US$10 million. In the past year, DeNA has invested in 30 companies and shown an eye for getting involved with some well-known Japanese startups like Minna no Wedding, Hachimen Roppi, Life is Tech, and LaughTech.
Riney’s search for new talent is not going to be limited to Japan, however. DeNA is no stranger to overseas investment, having chipped in US$2.5 million of Kamcord’s US$7.1 million series A earlier this year. The mobile game recording company has received funds from Silicon Valley notables like Andreesen/Horowitz and Google Ventures, and is valued at US$100 million after its latest funding round last December.
DeNA, a virtual reality company?
DeNA’s investment interest comes at a time when the gaming business is starting to explore VR. Though its most recent quarterly earnings showed some successful games – Final Fantasy Record Keeper was producing US$8.5 million a month – the company’s operating profit still slipped 47 percent year-over-year. As DeNA insists that it is a gaming company first, its first order of business needs to be righting its core business. “Over the past year, DeNA has been making big moves to dive deep into various facets of mobile gaming from an experience and content perspective. We connected with Oculus and Samsung in hopes to partner together to explore the technology and build something cool and significant for the Samsung Gear VR launch,” says a company spokesperson.
To test the effectiveness of this potential silver bullet, DeNA is outsourcing production and will be releasing its first VR game, Protocol Zero, later this year. Already available as a demo, the game is on the Oculus store and is exclusive to the Samsung Gear and Galaxy Note 4. A release date has not yet been finalized so would-be users will have to wait a while longer before they can go on 19 levels of military stealth missions.
If Protocol Zero is a hit, expect to see more moves in the VR space by both DeNA’s investment and gaming branches. Riney is positive that VR will be hugely influential in the future, even if it takes a little time to reach its full potential. “Distribution needs to get to a certain scale. Even if the consumer version of Oculus Rift gets released this year, I think it will take at least a year before the really interesting applications emerge,” he notes.
Riney is not worried about the wait, however. “VR is a long term investment, no doubt. But because we don’t invest out of a fund, we can make these kind of bold long-term bets. We have no idea how far VR could go, but we’d like to meet entrepreneurs with wild imaginations,” he says.
See: Look out Oculus Rift, China’s rival virtual reality headset goes on sale next month
This post Following its first 3D game demo, DeNA Venture Capital to start investing in VR startups appeared first on Tech in Asia.
Following its first 3D game demo, DeNA Venture Capital to start investing in VR startups
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