WildTangent announces third round funding
$34m from Sony and Accenture Technology Ventures
Web-gaming enterprise WildTangent has announced its third term funding led by Sony Pictures Digital Entertainment and Accenture Technology Ventures with ATI, New York-based Millennium Technology Ventures, Washington Mutual and International Data Group (IDG) Ventures also becoming new investors. The funding totals some $34 million. Its first round of funding was a meagre $2m in February 1999, with its second round kicking in at $15m in March 2000. The widespread interest in WildTangent stems from its "Web driver", which allows websites to display the kind of graphics high-end video and computer games deliver on a daily basis. There are plenty of examples of this at the company's website, listed under "Mind Candy". Cute. Delivering the web driver via a certified installer, WildTangent-coded websites take web-based gaming to the next level. Or at least it will - at the moment the games are fairly simplistic, but a promising indication of things to come. With $34 million in investment, the company aims to accelerate the technology's growth, presumably with new additions to the development team. What's surprising about the investment is that it comes in a financial climate that threatens the very existence of online gaming. GSPs like Barry's World and Games Inferno have come very close to dissolution, and similar services have already practically fallen off the face of the earth, when only a few short months ago they were on every gamer's lips. To triumph over this adversity, WildTangent will not only have to perfect its technology but also turn a profit from it. A big'un.