Social Game Publisher Portalarium Scores $2.4 Million Second Round of Funding

Portalarium, the games publisher/developer and service provider of a 3D plugin for social games on Facebook, announced a $2.4 million round of funding today. This brings the company’s total funding up to $3.6 million.

The Austin-based company is the latest venture from game developer and entrepreneur Richard Garriott, known for his work on the Ultima PC game series and the massively multiplayer game, Ultima Online. He founded Portalarium with the intent to bring premium social games to the web. So far, the company has launched two games, Port Casino Poker and Port Casino Blackjack, to Facebook and hi5. Neither game appears to have found much traffic on those platforms, however, Port Casino Poker recently launched on iPad and has an iPhone/Android version planned for release later this year.

Meanwhile, Portalarium also licenses a 3D plugin to other social game developers, which we recently saw for the first time in A Mystical Land, developed by Mad Otter Games. Portalarium says it plan to announce its new game this summer.

This round of funding was led by m8 Capital with participation from Founders Fund. The former focuses exclusive on mobile technology investments, while Founders Fund contributed to Portalarium’s first round.

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Richard 'Lord British' Garriott scores $3.6M in Portalarium funding

by Joe Osborne, Posted Jun 1st 2011 10:55AM

The Ultima name rings strong in the ears of investors (we guess) as its creator Richard Garriott has raised $3.6 million in funding for his Austin, Texas-based start up, Portalarium. VentureBeat reports that much of funding came from m8 Capital in the U.K. and San Francisco's Founders Fund based on the aim that Garriott will exploit the business opportunities in the social games business.

There's an "E" word we don't like hearing too often, but judging from an interview regarding his company earlier this year, it appears that he intends to make Ultima-grade experiences on Facebook. Regardless, who isn't in this industry to make a few bucks--as long as he makes some fun, perhaps genuine, Facebook games, we're all peachy keen.

"We are delighted to join Richard Garriott and the Portalarium team in creating the next great gaming company," Joseph Kim, partner at m8 Capital, said. "Richard is one of the giants of the industry. He's a proven entrepreneur and has been a driving force at each of the industry's major turning points." Yeah, yeah, but will it top orbiting Earth in space? Didn't think so.

[Image Credit: Richard Garriott]

Do you think Garriott is onto something with Portalarium? Are you excited to see what he comes up with? Share with us in the comments. Add Comment.

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Richard Garriott’s 3D Portalarium Plugin Appears in A Mystical Land

A Mystical Land is a 3-D massively-multiplayer online role-playing game playable on Facebook as well as through the game’s website. It’s one of the first Facebook games to utilize the Portalarium Player, a web browser plug-in developed by video game entrepreneur and developer Richard Garriott at his new company of the same name. A Mystical Land is developed by Mad Otter Games and published worldwide by Neonga AG.

According to our traffic tracking service, AppData, A Mystical Land currently has 25,000 monthly active users and 1,000 daily active users.

The game is a full-fledged MMO that features combat, crafting professions and quests, feats, achievements, badges and collections. The gameplay is targeted toward a casual player, as if often the case with browser-based MMOs due to the limitations of the platform. A Mystical Land, however, is one of very few full 3D games on Facebook and it has more in common with classic MMOs than it does with the modern casual browser-based MMOs.

Players start the game by creating and customizing a character. The classes are traditional fantasy MMO fare: warrior, wizard, hunter and priest. The interface is very simple and players have a choice of using the keyboard, mouse or a combination there of to navigate the world. In this world, players can fight monsters to earn experience points. A Mystical Land also offers alternative gameplay activities like harvesting, fishing, mining, raising farm animals and something called insect lore, where your character crouches over what looks like a giant ant hill with a magnifying glass. Player are not required to participate in combat if they prefer the crafting and lore activities.

The feel of the game is reminiscent of an earlier time in MMOs, mainly due to the simple but pretty graphics, non-player character dialogue and combat. Like those older MMOs, players spend most of the game in a single area where monsters respawn so that players can kill them over and over again for XP. If a particular creature is required for a bounty or completion of a quest, players wait their turn to kill it, which is a contrast to modern MMOs that create instances for each player so there isn’t competition for the monster.

Other classic-style MMOs on Facebook have struggled in the past to connect with players on a massive scale. Most of these have been isometric top-down games similar to Garriott’s 1997 MMO, Ultima Online, where 2D avatars move about in a 3D landscape for what we think of as a “2.5D” experience. Sacred Seasons 2 and City of Eternals are examples of this kind of Facebook MMO. MilMo, on the other hand, is a cross between traditional social game and traditional MMO with full 3D artwork; however, it also suffers from limited appeal as its targeted at children.

A Mystical Land also uses Facebook Connect viral features from its browser version, allowing players to find their Facebook friends in the game, although a Facebook account is not required to play the browser version of the game. Recall that any player using Facebook Connect off the platform to access the game is counted toward that game’s MAU and DAU figures. The game is monetized by purchase of its premium currency, crowns, which is used to buy consumable items like potions and spells and for avatar customization items. Currently, crowns can only be purchased through Neonga, but the developer tells us it is working on implementing Facebook Credits.

Interested readers can follow the progress of this game in our traffic tracking service, AppData.

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