Ex-Rovio Sweden Head Launches VR Gaming Studio

Swedish gaming industry heavyweight founders from Rovio, EA and DICE launched on Wednesday in Stockholm their own VR gaming studio Fast Travel Games and said they have raised the initial funding.

Rovio’s Oskar Burman, who founded and grew the Stockholm team who created Angry Birds 2, and two other Swedish gaming industry heavyweights from Frostbite Labs and EA/DICE dumped their day-jobs to create their own studio.

“We feel that VR offers limitless possibilities and that its inherent qualities make it perfectly suited for storytelling and socially rich experiences,” Burman said in a statement. “We’re looking to define a new genre of games for VR. Our games will focus strongly on narratively rich worlds full of possibilities for exploration and social gameplay, where players can cooperate, share worlds and experiences, and play together.”

fastTravel

The new firm’s CTO will be Kristoffer Benjaminsson, the senior development director at Frostbite Labs, which is the team inside EA exploring new opportunities to create breakthrough experiences like VR.; and Erik Odeldahl, the design director leading the charge behind Mirror’s Edge Catalyst for EA DICE.

Creative director is Erik Odeldahl, the third co-founder, who was the design director leading the charge behind Mirror’s Edge Catalyst for EA DICE.

The new company also announced that it has closed its initial seed funding round from leading Nordic investors including Sunstone Capital; Mattias Miksche, a private investor with portfolio companies like Tink, Natural Cycles, Teamtailor and Fishbrain; and Mathias Ackermand, a private investor with portfolio companies like Next Games, Fishbrain, Freespee and Poppermost.

“The team’s rich history of creating hit games across mobile, AAA, multiplayer and beyond, will allow them to bring a unique blend of skills that bode well for delivering quality IP for VR. They’ll also benefit from serving as magnets for the very best talent, creating what will no doubt be one of the top VR-focused games companies,” said Nikolaj Nyholm, a partner at Sunstone Capital.