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“ProbablyMonsters is incredibly proud of the team and the game we incubated and built over the past few years,” said Ryan. “Firewalk Studios joining PlayStation Studios is a brilliant move for the team, game, and future players. Our goal at ProbablyMonsters is to find the best path to market for all of our games, and we couldn’t be happier for the Firewalk team.”

Shannon Armstrong, chief people officer at ProbablyMonsters spoke with VentureBeat about our hybrid and remote work model and benefits package driving 65% growth in 2022.

Our very own Travis Johnston recently sat down to chat with IGN about Unreal Engine 5’s dynamic global illumination and reflections system (Lumen) and what it means for future game development.

ProbablyMonsters announced that it has closed its latest round of fundraising, revealing the final amount of $250 million – the largest raise in video gaming history. ProbablyMonsters plans to put the money towards its various development teams, with the goal of building the whole company into a more stable home for developers.

The Tech Tribune staff has revealed its 2022 line up of Best Tech Startups in Bellevue, Washington. This annual series celebrates the hottest technology startups from all over the world, and reflects several factors including revenue potential, leadership team, brand, and competitive landscape. Companies must be independent, privately owned, at most 10 years old, and have received at least one round of funding in order to qualify.

When video game industry veteran Harold Ryan set out to launch a new kind of gaming company in 2016, people asked what it would do. “Our typical response was, ‘I don’t know what it will be, but it will probably have monsters in it,’” Ryan said. The name of Ryan’s company, ProbablyMonsters Studios, grew out of that.

Video game developer ProbablyMonsters has raised $200M in Series A funding, the company announced Wednesday. Funding will expand long-term features for its three studios and enhance employees’ benefits, while also opening the door for future teams and IP’s in new genres. “We have three big priorities that we’re moving forward with right now,” Ryan told The Hollywood Reporter, adding that the first is proving his teams with “meaningful gaming careers over the long term” and ensuring they will be able to eventually retire well from the company.

As an upstart AAA studio system led by long-time CEO and president of Bungie Harold Ryan, ProbablyMonsters was probably always going to garner interest from investors. But today's announcement that it has raised $200 million in Series A funding puts it in rare company.

ProbablyMonsters, an independent game company headed by ex-Bungie CEO Harold Ryan, offers a different approach to most: it recruits developers and builds triple-A game studios around their strengths, delivering new IPs. Today, ProbablyMonsters announced it has raised $200 million through a Series A preferred stock financing round–the largest amount of money ever raised in such a way by a video game developer.

ProbablyMonsters Inc., a game developer founded by former Bungie executive Harold Ryan, pulled off what it said is the largest first round of venture capital financing in the video-game industry. “It’s proof beyond our resume that what we are doing is real,” Ryan, who is chief executive officer, said in an interview. “I’ve always been the leader that put my people first, and seeking to build a place where people can thrive, and be and feel safe, is critical,” he said.

ProbablyMonsters was founded to change the way AAA development is viewed. The goal is to create a sustainable development model that avoids many of the pitfalls associated with the business. “This raise secures our future beyond any one game or partnership and allows us to go even further to provide our teams at ProbablyMonsters with stable, sustainable, and long-term game development careers – which has been a key goal from the start,” Harold Ryan told GameDaily.

In April, ProbablyMonsters Studios revealed more details about its team Firewalk. Its leader is Tony Hsu, and it is making an exclusive multiplayer game for Sony Interactive Entertainment. In an exclusive interview with GamesBeat, Ryan said that the deal with Sony shows that its innovative approach to managing multi-genre triple-A games is working. “It really proves beyond our resumes that the platform we’re building and the process we’re taking for bringing together talented teams is working, and it’s working to the delight of the biggest publishers in the industry, as we look at partnering our teams and their games to bring them to market,” Ryan said.

1001 ET - Sony's PlayStation Studios says it has signed an exclusive deal to publish a new multiplayer game already two years into development from the startup Firewalk Studios. Exclusive games can help console makers stand apart from one another and last fall both Sony and Microsoft launched next-generation consoles that are still in high demand due to supply shortages. Sony says the new game will be anchored by an original narrative and that Firewalk will have access to the same high-end resources as its own game studios. Firewalk employs industry veterans Tony Hsu, Ryan Ellis and Elena Siegman, who worked on the hit shooter franchise "Destiny." (sarah.needleman@wsj.com; @saraheneedleman)

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 22, 2021 10:01 ET (14:01 GMT)

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Sony has signed a publishing partnership deal with Firewalk (alongside parent company ProbablyMonsters), and together, they’re developing a brand new multiplayer property.

Firewalk is a subsidiary of ProbablyMonsters Studios. It is spearheaded by veteran developers, many of whom have worked on AAA titles in the past. “Ryan Ellis, our Game Director, was a Creative Director on Destiny. Elena Siegman, our Executive Producer, was a producer on Guitar Hero II, Bioshock Infinite, and multiple Destiny releases. Our deeply talented team has helped bring to life franchises like Mass Effect and Apex Legends,” writes studio head Tony Hsu on the PlayStation Blog.

Firewalk, a AAA development team founded by former Halo and Destiny veterans, has announced a deal with Sony for its first game, a multiplayer title set in a new universe.

Firewalk is a subsidiary of ProbablyMonsters Studios, a company founded by former Bungie CEO Harold Ryan. ProbablyMonsters formed Firewalk in 2018 and assembled its leadership which includes Tony Hsu (Activision’s former Destiny boss), Ryan Ellis (former Bungie creative director), and Elena Siegman (formerly of Bungie, Irrational Games, and Harmonix). Firewalk’s developers have worked on franchises like Destiny, Call of Duty, Apex Legends, Mass Effect, and Halo.

The debut game from AAA multiplayer developer Firewalk will be published by PlayStation.

Firewalk is a subsidiary of ProbablyMonsters Studios, a company founded by former Bungie CEO Harold Ryan. ProbablyMonsters formed Firewalk in 2018 and its leadership team includes studio head Tony Hsu (previously general manager and senior vice president of Destiny at Activision), game director Ryan Ellis (previously creative director at Bungie) and executive producer Elena Siegman (previously of Bungie, Irrational Games and Harmonix).

Sony Interactive Entertainment and ProbablyMonsters have announced a new partnership in which PlayStation will be the exclusive publishing partner for the first game from ProbablyMonsters' Firewalk Studios.

Firewalk's Tony Hsu, Ryan Ellis, and Elena Siegman, along with Head of PlayStation Studios Hermen Hulst, spoke with IGN about why both parties wanted to partner for this project, how the team made up of former Destiny, Halo, Apex Legends, Call of Duty, and other devs is approaching a new multiplayer game in this era, and what ProbablyMonsters' focus on building "sustainable" game studios actually means.

There’s a moment that happens almost every day in our multiplayer playtests – where someone jolts out of their seat, laughs, and says to no one in particular, “Did you just see that happen?” These amazing and unpredictable moments in gaming are the sparks that occur when playing with others.

We started Firewalk Studios in 2018 with this kind of spark at the heart of our games. As a next-generation AAA studio and part of the ProbablyMonsters family, we’ve carefully assembled an amazing and diverse team of best-in-class talent who are focused on creating these moments.

Harold Ryan, the former CEO of Bungie, plans to revolutionize the gaming industry with ProbablyMonsters

This month, ProbablyMonsters took another step towards shaping how games could be made, and it’s one you shouldn’t overlook.

Each studio built by ProbablyMonsters is formed around a game director, who has a particular focus for the experiences they want players to have in their games. Around this, the company assembles a team with a shared passion and vision for what they're building and set to work in creating a game based on this. Yet while every studio has a different specialism, they maintain the same access to assistance, expertise and mentorship from the wider company.

The bottom line is that each member of the team, at every level, must uphold values of respect, trust, approachability, and accountability. “These founding principles are literally written on the walls of our company,” Ryan says. “Providing an aspirational environment alongside a shared purpose, along with stability for developers, unlocks greater creativity for developers.

Sustainability is important to gamers because it gives them better games. It’s important to developers, giving them a healthy career and a team on which to thrive. For publishers it’s important too, because the investment involved in building trust and respect in a business relationship to build and bring a game to market is a lot of work. Sustainable, long-lasting game studios are good for everyone.”

US games company ProbablyMonsters has announced that it has secured a third development studio to be part of its growing family. The as yet unnamed studio will be working on a title described as a “a next-gen co-op RPG game.” ProbablyMonsters looks to be growing rapidly, and is led by former Bungie President and CEO, Harold Ryan. Whose aim is to create a new kind of developer-focused games company. It already includes two studios: Cauldron Studios and Firewalk Studios.

Video game developer ProbablyMonsters on Thursday unveiled its third studio, which will be dedicated to next-gen co-operative role-playing AAA games. The currently unnamed studio will join story-driven Cauldron Studios and multiplayer-focused Firewalk Studios in Bellevue, Washington. The core team is comprised of Patrick Blank, an original lead level designer on action-RPG series Borderlands, John Dunbar, Marsh Lefler and Allen Fong. All four were part of the team that worked on action-RPG dungeon crawler Torchlight at Runic Games.

A brand-new studio has been launched by a culture-first, AAA-building organization, and it’s already working on a next-gen co-op RPG game–one that will be led by the creative brains behind Borderlands and Torchlight. What’s more, the man who brought us Halo and Destiny has engineered its creation. The as-yet-unnamed outfit is the third of its kind to emerge from ProbablyMonsters, a “new category of game company” which is the brainchild of former Bungie president and CEO, Harold Ryan.

ProbablyMonsters has started a new co-op role-playing game studio with former Torchlight and Borderlands creative leaders at the helm. The new studio is the third triple-A game house from parent company ProbablyMonsters. The Bellevue, Washington-based company now has more than 150 employees in three studios, including its previously announced Cauldron and Firewalk dev houses.

ProbablyMonsters has opened an unnamed next-gen studio led by a group of former Borderlands and Torchlight developers. The studio, whose name is still being kept under wraps, is currently working on a next-gen co-op RPG.

ProbablyMonsters expands its family of studios with a third studio led by Torchlight and Borderlands creative leaders.

“People-first game developers with a passion for their craft, who foster trust, respect, and approachability, belong at ProbablyMonsters. John, Marsh, Patrick, and Allen are a perfect fit at ProbablyMonsters, and have joined us to lead the growth of a new co-op RPG studio, adding a new core genre to our family of studios.

"Not only do the four leaders have a passion for crafting original co-op RPG games, they’re people-first developers who have a decade of collaborating on successful original RPG franchises. With ProbablyMonsters resources and support behind them, I’m confident they can fulfill their vision of creating outstanding next-gen co-op RPG games."

Harold Ryan, CEO and Founder of ProbablyMonsters

CEO Harold Ryan talks to GameDaily about how the new studio fits into the ProbablyMonsters business philosophy, and the importance of "sustainable AAA development."

When former Bungie CEO and President Harold Ryan left the critically acclaimed Halo and Destiny developer to found ProbablyMonsters, he did so with a goal of changing how AAA development works. With a goal of inclusivity impacting every decision made at the new company and its two studios, Ryan has found the process incredibly rewarding and hopes he can leave a lasting impact on game development by showing that crunch and other elements associated with a toxic culture aren’t needed to make a game great.

Building a company from scratch during relatively normal times in history is tough. Building one during an unexpected global pandemic is another beast entirely.

Probably Monsters CEO Harold Ryan is doing just that, and he's doing it — like millions of people right now — from home. "It's hard to build and maintain a creative team through all the things that happen," Ryan said in a recent interview with Business Insider. "And the pandemic — certainly it wasn't what I was planning for."

It's April 2020 and COVID-19 has begun to reshape the video game industry. While game studios are not suffering the damage afflicting the travel, live sports, or concert businesses, convention cancellations and retail limitations have begun to rewrite how the industry does business.

But while the future lies uncertain, what’s become clear early in the crisis is that video game studios and publishers have been remarkably successful at moving their workforces to remote operations. This has occurred both in conjunction with government lockdowns of businesses and large gatherings and sometimes, in advance of them.

Former Bungie CEO Harold Ryan has been ramping up a very big game company since he unveiled Probably Monsters last year. The company raised $18.8 million to fuel staffing for the company’s two triple-A game studios. And now it has crossed more than 100 employees across the headquarters and two studio divisions.

But it’s getting harder to hire people during the pandemic, and it wasn’t easy making the transition so entire studios could work remotely. But in an interview with GamesBeat, Ryan said the company and its staff have adapted to the pandemic, as much as they can. And they continue to work on still-secret, ambitious games that will no doubt run on next-generation game platforms.

Last October, Bungie alum Harold Ryan revealed his new game development initiative, ProbablyMonsters.The Issaquah, WA-based company is not merely another game studio, but instead Ryan and his team have envisioned a new game development model that aims to build AAA studios from the ground up in a sustainable manner. Today, even as the world and the games industry grapples with an ongoing pandemic, ProbablyMonsters revealed that it’s passed the 100 employee mark, “the first of several planned growth milestones.”

ProbablyMonsters’ first two studios are making progress as well. Cauldron Studios, led by Dave Matthews (God of War, Myst) is working on a narrative-driven AAA game, while Firewalk Studios, led by Tony Hsu (Destiny, Call of Duty: Black Ops) is creating a multiplayer AAA game. Both teams are in “milestone development for their first projects, and both games have been separately signed with respective major publishers,” ProbablyMonsters announced.

With events cancelled, bars and schools closed, and offices citywide realizing how many of those meetings really could have been emails, Seattle is taking self-quarantine pretty seriously. If you’re able to stay home, showing signs or symptoms of what may be COVID-19, or have been in contact with anyone with the virus, it’s time to pitch in to help the community.

That’s right, Seattle, it’s time to be lazy for the greater good. But there’s no need to go stir-crazy. Here’s a list of some local entertainment you can get in the comfort (and sanitation) of your own home.

As a developer, AAA games have always been my passion. I know it is a space where I can put the focus on the team and in the end, maximize the impact of everyone's efforts. The highest level of quality can be achieved by an excellent team that’s given time to polish, with their work presented with greater exposure to a global audience.

At their best, AAA games can be a generation-defining experience with an oversized cultural impact. They have the power to inspire and influence gamers to become developers—achieving that level of impact is what keeps me engaged in building AAA games.

Former Bungie CEO Harold Ryan showed everybody how to go big or go home earlier this month. He announced that his ProbablyMonsters is announcing it has raised $18.8 million for the company’s two triple-A game studios.

Ryan is going to need a lot more money than that to pull off not one but two ambitious triple-A projects in an age when there are a lot of pressures on the creation of blockbuster video games.

Every year, video games get more immersive, with better graphics and more intricate gameplay thanks to technological advancements. But there’s another side that goes into the making of video games — the human side.

The video game industry is notorious for the pressure placed on its workers. Behind every highly anticipated video game release, there are thousands of hours of high-stress labor. Certain aspects of this, like “crunch” or the treatment of contract workers, have been highly publicized. Books like “Blood, Sweat, and Pixels” have been written about the topic. It’s gotten to the point where even people who don't play video games have heard the stories.

Culture is key.

That’s been one takeaway for Harold Ryan, who started working with Bungie as a tester on the original Halo, advanced to studio president by 2008, and spent the ensuing eight years atop the org chart until stepping down in 2016.

Ryan’s tenure at Bungie saw the studio resort to “brutal” crunch on 2004’s Halo 2, and then spend the next dozen years working to eliminate enforced crunch on its games. In announcing his new endeavor ProbablyMonsters, Ryan speaks to GamesIndustry.biz about the importance of company culture.

Harold Ryan, who has in the past played the role of President and CEO of Bungie, has launched ProbablyMonsters, a new company active in the development sector videogame.

In the course of an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Ryan has officially unveiled the Company, of which he is the founder and current CEO. Active in “stealth mode” since 2016, ProbablyMonsters today has a full-time staff of seventy people and sees operating two different development teams. Respectively named Cauldron Studios and Firewalk Studios, the latter are both located in the Seattle area and are currently engaged in the production of games AAA. The new production, whose identity has not yet been revealed, they seem to have already attracted the attention: Harold Ryan refers to the fact that the team have signed “agreements AAA with major publisher”.

Harold Ryan has had a long career in the video game industry. His first job was as a tester for the 1996 Windows game Hellbender. From there, he worked his way up to eventually become the CEO of Bungie, the development studio behind the hit Halo and Destiny franchises.

Ryan stepped down as Bungie’s CEO in early 2016, after a 16-year run that saw it develop from the weird little indie video game company that made the Marathon games for the Macintosh to a major global independent production studio.

Over the past couple of weeks, new game development studios have been popping up like mushrooms after a rainy day. Here’s another one from former Bungie CEO Harold Ryan. After being MIA for more than three years, Ryan re-emerges to announce a new multi-studio game company called ProbablyMonsters.

ProbablyMonsters employs a non-traditional business structure to develop AAA games. Basically, it’s not quite a studio and not quite a publisher either. According to Ryan, the company invests in new studios to become majority owners. The studios continue to operate as independent companies under their own management with Probably Monsters helping out with business planning, creative visions, and development support. “The goal is to build development teams that eventually don't need me,” said Ryan in an interview with Gamasutra.

Former Bungie chief Harold Ryan's ProbablyMonsters is announcing it has raised $18.8 million for the company's two triple-A game studios.

ProbablyMonsters, a developer of game studios and interactive entertainment, has announced its formation under the leadership of CEO and founder Harold Ryan, as well as its first two development studios, Cauldron Studios and Firewalk Studios. Each studio is working on its own “inaugural AAA game franchise” signed by “separate major publishers.”

ProbablyMonsters™ Inc., a developer of industry-defining video game studios and interactive entertainment, announced its formation under the leadership of CEO and founder, Harold Ryan, offering a new business model for games focused on creating world-class development studios and original entertainment. The privately held company, which has been operating in stealth mode since 2016, today revealed its first two ProbablyMonsters development studios, Cauldron Studios™ and Firewalk Studios™. Led by top industry talent hand-selected by Ryan, each studio is working on an original AAA game that has been signed by a leading publisher.

The person who for years led Halo and Destiny developer Bungie has re-emerged with a new multi-studio game company that plans to create triple-A games within a non-traditional business structure.

Harold Ryan, who was CEO and president of Bungie for over 15 years (and orchestrated the 2007 divestiture from Microsoft) has unveiled ProbablyMonsters, which he said is a new kind of game company that’s not quite a studio, and not a publisher.

ProbablyMonsters, a new type of game company described as neither a traditional developer or publisher, has officially announced its formation today and introduced its first two AAA game studios: Cauldron Studios, and Firewalk Studios.

Under the leadership of CEO and founder, Harold Ryan, the company has actually been operating in a ‘stealth’ capacity since 2016, offering a new business model that aims to “fundamentally change how AAA game development studios are built, how they operate and how their industry-defining video games are created.”

Game development, at times, can be an arduous task. Crafting the next big game is that much harder when you’re worried about whether you’ll have a job next month. Sustainability, particularly in AAA development, is a big buzzword and for good reason: we’ve seen far, far too many studio closures and layoffs over the last 12-18 months in this business. With ProbablyMonsters, which has been in stealth mode since 2016, former Bungie president and CEO Harold Ryan is setting out to prove that AAA games can be built sustainably.

Former Bungie president and CEO Harold Ryan has revealed what he's been up to since leaving the studio in 2016, today announcing his new business, ProbablyMonsters.

Harold Ryan, founder and CEO of ProbablyMonsters, has already launched two new development studios under the banner and is rapidly building a third: "The industry needs and deserves a place where it can reliably build a AAA game."

After three years of operating in "stealth mode," ProbablyMonsters Inc., a new video game studio-building enterprise formed by prior Bungie (Halo, Destiny franchises) CEO Harold Ryan, has officially pulled back its curtain.

Harold Ryan, after more than three years in stealth mode, is finally ready to talk about his next venture after leaving as head of Bungie, the game studio behind hits like “Halo” and “Destiny.”

Ryan said he’s set up ProbablyMonsters as a different kind of game developer: It functions as a holding company and incubator that will launch and support multiple subsidiary studios, each one built around a specific game title.

“The teams we’re building are set up as independent studios,” said Ryan, ProbablyMonsters’ CEO and founder. The overarching goal: “to build a culture of trust and accountability between the leadership and people on their team.”

Harold Ryan, former CEO of Halo and Destiny studio Bungie, has unveiled ProbablyMonsters, a “developer of developers” that will incubate and oversee multiple studios.

Ryan originally quietly founded the organization in 2016 after leaving Bungie. Last July, the company closed a Series A funding round that raised $18.8 million. The round was led by Dallas Cowboys owner Jerry Jones, and Crescent Real Estate and Goff Capital founder and chairman John Goff. Other investors included Luther King Capital Management affiliates, and former Activision (NASDAQ: ATVI) Executive Vice President David Oxford.

Harold Ryan knows something about developing games and the companies behind them. Ryan has been a part of the industry for over 20 years, starting at Microsoft working at studios with studios like FASA Studios and Ensemble Studios. In 2000, he began his time at Bungie, starting in QA and ultimately leading the studio as CEO, with credits including Halo, Halo 2, Halo 3, and Destiny. In 2016, Ryan stepped away from Bungie to try something different, a new studio called ProbablyMonsters. Today, after three years of operation, ProbablyMonsters is stepping into the sunlight.

Game development, at times, can be an arduous task. Crafting the next big game is that much harder when you’re worried about whether you’ll have a job next month. Sustainability, particularly in AAA development, is a big buzzword and for good reason: we’ve seen far, far too many studio closures and layoffs over the last 12-18 months in this business. With ProbablyMonsters, which has been in stealth mode since 2016, former Bungie president and CEO Harold Ryan is setting out to prove that AAA games can be built sustainably.

Today, Ryan and ProbablyMonsters revealed that the company has raised $18.8 million in a Series A round led by Jerry Jones, Owner and President of the Dallas Cowboys, and John Goff, Founder and Chairman of Crescent Real Estate and Goff Capita. Ryan serves as CEO at ProbablyMonsters, which labels itself as a new kind of game company. Rather than dedicating itself to development or publishing, ProbablyMonsters is seeking to develop whole studios and set them up to be sustainable from day one.

Harold Ryan, after more than three years in stealth mode, is finally ready to talk about his next venture after leaving as head of Bungie, the game studio behind hits like “Halo” and “Destiny.”

Ryan said he’s set up ProbablyMonsters as a different kind of game developer: It functions as a holding company and incubator that will launch and support multiple subsidiary studios, each one built around a specific game title.

“The teams we’re building are set up as independent studios,” said Ryan, ProbablyMonsters’ CEO and founder. The overarching goal: “to build a culture of trust and accountability between the leadership and people on their team.”

ProbablyMonsters made an announcement this morning that the company would be changing its business plans to adapt to a changing video game market. Lead by Harold Ryan, who has worked on Halo, Age of Empires, and MechWarrior, the company released a new plan of how they'll proceed in the future. Starting today, the company will operate as a new category of game company, touting that they are neither a traditional developer nor a publisher.

The man responsible for the insanely popular Halo franchise, which garnered $3 billion in the span of its first three releases, is ready to talk about his new project.

Harold Ryan, CEO de Bungie hasta 2016, ha anunciado la apertura de un nuevo estudio: ProbablyMonsters.

Según dice, será un cruce entre desarrolladora y editora, trabajando desde el inicio de los proyectos con compañías en las que tendrán accionariado mayoritario.

Su objetivo es financiar y dar soporte (tanto técnico como creativo) a las empresas para que puedan trabajar en los juegos sin tener que preocuparse de aspectos financieros o encontrar distribuidora por su cuenta y así "crear equipos de desarrollo que llegado el momento no nos necesiten," según ha comentado a Gamasutra.