Over the course of the past year and a half of pandemic living, gaming and streaming video have emerged as two of the most popular pastimes.
As it prepares to emerge from closed beta, a startup that has developed an app that combines these two forms of entertainment announces a significant seed round of funding.
As PortalOne prepares to exit closed beta with an app that allows people to play on-demand games and watch live shows in which users can compete against a special guest, the company has announced a $15 million seed round of funding.
Due to who is investing, this startup and its funding are notable in their own right.
One of the most prominent investors in video game developer Atari and camera manufacturer ARRI is Founders Fund, which also includes Scooter Braun’s TQ Ventures, Coatue Management, Rogue Capital Partners, and Signia Venture Partners.
The other investors include Seedcamp, Talis Capital, and SN Ventures from Europe.
Kevin Lin, the co-founder of Twitch, Mike Morhaime, the co-founder of Blizzard, Amy Morhaime, the co-founder of Dreamhaven, Marc Merrill, the co-founder of Riot Games, Xen Lategan,
the former CTO and executive advisor at various companies such as Hulu, and Eugene Wei, the former head of video at Oculus and head of Product at Hulu, were among the other investors in the company.
Part tech start-up, part media company, PortalOne has it all. It has spent the last three years building a full stack of hardware and software that can be used to create games, record live shows, and combine the two into an experience that combines on-demand and real-time gaming.
For one thing, the work we’re doing is extremely difficult from a technical standpoint, according to co-founder and CEO Brd Anders Kasin. “It’s all about how we do it.” “It’s what makes us unique,” he says.
The company is also using this technology to build a gaming and live events platform, allowing third parties to create games and larger live experiences around it. For years, others have been unable to accomplish what it has here.
Stig Olav Kasin, Brd’s brother and the other co-founder, said, “We come from the entertainment industry and have been in games for many years” (and chief content officer).
All the big companies have told us that hybrid gaming combining games and TV is difficult because of the silos in companies where different groups “own” TV and gaming. We’ve talked to all of them.
As of this writing, the Oslo-based company has only launched two games and two talk shows in the United States and Norway — one called Blockbuster, which involves you throwing a massive ball and knocking down blocks, and the other Centipede, which was reimagined and set in a green screen living room.
In gaming competitions, players compete for “prizes,” which are virtual reality headsets or mobile devices. PortalOne will also offer virtual goods for sale, similar to what companies like Fortnite currently offer.
PortalOne Arcade, a collection of retro arcade games reimagined as multiplayer, immersive experiences with interactive talk shows in the style of the 1980s, will be widely launched in the United States and Norway later this year before expanding to other markets.
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A year ago, brothers Brd Anders Kasin and Stig Olav Kasin, who had previously founded a virtual reality company and worked as a technical director at Warner Brothers on films like “The Matrix” trilogy, founded PortalOne.
Until PortalOne launches its closed beta in June 2020, the startup will be concentrating on developing its technology, content strategy, and initial partners.
From the sounds of it, it was no small task. Virtual reality, computer vision, gaming technology, and software and hardware for video capture and streaming are all part of its tech stack, which also includes other intellectual property.
Some of it PortalOne built itself; other areas it worked with Arri, a major player in motion picture camera equipment, which built a new kind of 3D camera for PortalOne.
The process of creating content for a hybrid platform like PortalOne’s has been a major challenge for the company.
Recording immersive experiences is typically difficult and expensive due to the volumetric equipment used, the studio set-up required to capture the experiences, and other factors, such as the size, staffing, and budget of a Hollywood movie studio.
Because “we have daily shows and we want to scale and mass produce more daily shows for each game,” said Brd, Portal
One’s breakthrough was to turn that process into something that can be produced much more easily and much less expensively.
Besides the host, Markus Bailey, and his guest, there are only two other people involved in the PortalOne setup: technicians-producers who trigger effects and control when the action shifts from talk to game and back again.
From needing large sets and many people, “now we can do all of this in a YouTube-sized studio,” says Brd.
PortalOne claims to be creating its own games while also drawing inspiration from classic games of yesteryear.
Additionally, Atari has signed a seven-year deal with PortalOne, which grants the latter exclusive global distribution rights to some of its most popular arcade game franchises,
which PortalOne is reimagining and building for its hybrid platform.
It’s not just music, sport, travel, and education that Brd wants to collaborate with. It’s possible Braun’s reach doesn’t extend to Taylor Swift, but Justin Bieber appears to have appeared in Braun’s promo video, so who knows?
Kirill Tasilov, a principal at Talis Capital, said in a statement that “massive opportunities continue to emerge in the interactive entertainment space as distribution and business models evolve.”
“PortalOne is redefining mobile by unlocking new hybrid experiences at the intersection of games and video, and we are thrilled to be a part of their journey.”
Blurring the lines
For decades, the boundaries between video games, interactive entertainment, and linear entertainment have been blurred.
A hybrid interactivity concept can be traced back to game shows, one of the earliest television formats, but Stig’s work on newer shows, such as the ones he helped develop, pushes the concept in new directions.
As a result of the coronavirus outbreak and the resulting cancellation of a large number of previously scheduled in-person live events, content creators were forced to rethink how “live” shows were created.
This year’s Fortnite “show” by Marshmello attracted more than 12 million players, while Roblox’s show with Lil Nas in December was hailed as a stepping stone for future events.
Dhillon, a partner at Signia Venture Partners, described PortalOne as a “evolution of interactive metaverse entertainment—true real-time, one-to-many interaction between gamers around the world, all in a mobile-native hybrid game format”
It’s also a good sign if established platforms like Facebook and Twitter follow suit. In addition, they could conceivably build their own live game shows and annihilate PortalOne at the same time.
This is also where its time spent building tech could prove either to be a boost or a bust. Gaming is a notoriously tough one to call when it comes to resonating and taking off with audiences, and so too will presumably the experiences that are built around those games.
It is likely that a new social platform will be a combination of media and gaming at its core, and PortalOne is one of the leading contenders for this role,” said Kevin Lin, CEO of PortalOne.
In fact, PortalOne will have the tools it needs to deliver more content efficiently and cheaply if it can find an audience for what it creates.
Nonetheless, if it doesn’t hit the right note, the question will be how and if that technology will be utilised.
Investors are more concerned with the possibility at the moment.
A single interactive experience and endless possibilities for content creation are created as PortalOne continues to grow, said Braun: “
PortalOne is seamlessly integrating the gaming and entertainment worlds.” In a way that no other company has done, PortalOne is providing new and innovative ways for artists and performers alike to bring their work to life.”
In order to realise the team’s vision, I’m eager to work with everyone on board. “This is the first time I’ve ever seen anything like it.”
In addition, Founders Fund principal Delian Asparouhov thinks that the startup will have a lot of runway because of the construction of infrastructure, technology, and the media aspect of the startup’s business model.
In a statement, he said, “We invest in companies that we believe have the potential to become global category leaders.”
New categories are created and platforms that are clearly set to dominate those new categories are created simultaneously by PortalOne.”
Opportunities are abundant, the market is ripe, and the potential for growth is limitless. With PortalOne, the industry will see “the before and after.”
