[Russia] Russian online game developer Nival Network has closed a $5 million round from an undisclosed investor but will use the funds to develop Prime World, its online strategy game with social networking features aimed at the Russia and former Soviet countries.
Nival Network is currently majority owned by founder and CEO Sergey Orlovskiy. Software vendor 1C Group owns a 30% stake in Nival Network, reports Quintura.
Formed in September 2008, Nival’s game portfolio includes MMORPG titles like as Dragonica; Shaiya: Light and Darkness; Cabal Online; multiplayer racer Level-R; browser-based strategy game Khan Wars 2.0 and music game RockFree. It also runs the online gaming and social networking portal ZZima. The company has game development studios in Moscow and Minsk.
The Russian online game market is reportedly valued at $238 million this year 2009, and MMOGs account for around $210 million, while casual games make up $28 million of that.
On a similar tip, I’m really looking forward to the Facebook implementation of Sid Meier’s classic Civilisation. I do hope it’s not just a straight port, but takes a lot of inspiration from some of the new social gaming companies like Nival.
I often wonder how such companies will fare when “old school” strategy game developers truly get involved in the sector (more than they already are). A social version of Theme Park on iPhone would definitely be a winner, IMO
Jonathan, actually, Nival is a rather “old school” strategy game developer – they have quite a few old-style strategy games in their portfolio.
I wonder how they are going to stake against big players like EA on the local market. Apparently they are not planning to take Primal World on a global level, which makes the investment in the amount of $5 mUSD for a market of $200 mUSD kind of risky.
Aha, didn’t realise – good point about EA though. That’s kinda what I was trying to get at, albeit not very well..!
LOLWHAT??? Dragonica, Shaiya and Cabal, Level-R and RockFree aren’t Nival’s games! Nival just “distibutor / operator / translater” of these games in Russia (but even I’m Russian, I never hear about ZZima portal before). Astrum Nival (formely Nival Online) also distribute Perfect World, Granado Espada and King of Pirate on Russia territory. And ONLY game that they develop is Allods Online (really great F2P MMORPG by the way, one of the most popular in exUSSR now).
awesome!! that looks so amazing, something i would definitely want to give a run.
http://www.ivillage.com/jon-kate-plus-8-series-finale-why-well-miss-them/1-d-66956
I have known Nival people way before September 2008. The company is much older than that. Maybe Mike refers to the previous funding round with the time.
Absolutely crazy … Hope it will be ok.