While the forced lockdowns of the pandemic led to isolation and loss of connection for many, gamers were already accustomed to building connections through screens. The pandemic also led to explosive growth in gaming for those who have never picked up a controller before. Singularity 6 is a game development studio that understands that the concept of socialization in games and its debut title, Palia, is a massively multiplayer online (MMO) game that focuses on building a community versus the typical attack, weapon-focused games. Founded by Riot Games veterans, Singularity 6 focuses on gameplay that emphasizes social connection and collaboration to progress.
LA TechWatch caught up with CEO and Cofounder Anthony Leung to learn more about the inspiration for the game studio, the launch of Palia, strategic plans, latest round of funding, which brings the total funding raised to $49M, and much, much more.
Who were your investors and how much did you raise?
Singularity 6 raised $30 million in a Series B financing round led by FunPlus Ventures. The funding also included previous investors Andreessen Horowitz and LVP, as well as Transcend, Anthos Capital, and game industry veteran Mitch Lasky.
Tell us about your product or service.
Singularity 6 is a game development studio based in Los Angeles, California. The developer is made up of a diverse group of game industry veterans from leading companies such as Blizzard, Epic, Riot, Zynga, and Sony.
What inspired the start of Singularity 6?
The studio’s mission is to forge alternate worlds that deepen players’ lives. Inspired by their personal stories of identity, friendship, and online social experiences, Singularity 6 is putting together an immersive online world where players can feel like they truly belong.
How is it different?
Singularity 6’s first product/game, Palia, is a community simulator set in a massive multiplayer world with an emphasis on social connectedness, which sets it apart from other game experiences available today.
What market you are targeting and how big is it?
Our core genre is community simulation so we’ll be looking to surprise and delight players that love this style of game all around the world. The game is being designed for a broad audience so we expect players of many types to find something to love about Palia.
What’s your business model?
We want to make sure we have the space to do that conversation justice, so we haven’t started talking about that yet. But we think players will be excited about it.
How has COVID-19 impacted the business??
Luckily our tech was already set up to be able to pretty smoothly make a transition to working from home, but we’re certainly looking forward to the opportunity to meet and collaborate with our co-workers in person for the first time later this year.
What was the funding process like?
It can certainly be a stressful process, but we feel very lucky to have had a number of investors that really understood what we were trying to accomplish and they want to see that vision become a reality.
What are the biggest challenges that you faced while raising capital?
The funding process can be very time-consuming, so it can be a challenge to balance that with the ongoing needs of development.
What are the milestones you plan to achieve in the next six months?
We’ll be starting the pre-alpha phase of testing for Palia very soon and expect that to be followed by additional testing phases in the coming months which will help us refine and test the game before launch.
What advice can you offer companies in Los Angeles that do not have a fresh injection of capital in the bank?
We certainly don’t consider ourselves experts on this process but found a rigorous feedback phase with people used to creating or seeing these kinds of pitches critical to honing our message.
Where do you see the company going now over the near term?
We’ll be completing larger and larger scale testing phases of the game while continuing to grow the team to meet the ongoing needs of developing Palia.
