BEAMABLE
Founders: Jon Radoff
Headquarters: Framingham, MA
Year Founded: 2010
Year Romulus Invested: 2012
Beamable creates games based on well-loved literary and television series, beaming players into the worlds they love. By linking game content to TV episodes and books, Beamable allows players to become living members of environments they already know and follow. Users access games through social networks such as Facebook and next-generation mobile devices.
Beamable’s original game, Game of Thrones Ascent, was followed by a Star Trek-based game called Star Trek Timelines. In 2017, it will release its brand-new game, The Walking Dead: March to War, based on the hit AMC TV show.
The Beamable-Romulus story:
We were introduced to Jon through another gaming industry founder from our portfolio. Krishna notes, “I remember sitting in Andela Cafe in Central Square, listening to this pioneer of social gaming tell me about his vision for narrative storytelling using licensed content. It just made sense as a way to de-risk the hits-driven downside that gaming companies often face.” We not only became Jon’s first institutional investor—we also brought him his first engineer. “My housemate, an engineer, had been telling me how amazing Game of Thrones was, and also how he wanted to leave his company for a new gig,” recalls Krishna. “I advised him to join Beamable immediately!”
Romulus value in action: Engineering. Beamable engineered a new niche in gaming from its earliest days, when it secured an exclusive license to develop the Game of Thrones game on Facebook. It continues to architect its trajectory with a conviction that is rare in today’s gaming industry.