Today the developers of Moss, Polyarc, announced a $9 million Series B venture funding round led by Hiro Capital to expand into AR game development. Even still, the developer tells us they’re still committed to making a sequel to Moss.
Anyone that has spent any time inside a VR headset and browsed any of the major storefronts from Oculus Home and Steam to the PSN store have likely seen Quill, the main character from Polyarc’s Moss advertised somewhere. She’s cute, charming, and full of character despite never speaking a word and is the cornerstone of what made Moss such a great experience.
The Series B fund raise is led by Hiro Capital, followed by Vulcan Capital, an existing investor, and Galaxy Interactive via its Galaxy EOS VC Fund, a partnership with EOSIO blockchain software publisher Block.one.
Notably, this fund raise is specifically announced as being targeted at AR game development. This seems odd at first given their experience in VR development, but sounds like it’s all part of their vision for the industry.
“We see VR and AR as a continuum, and there are great games to be made all along that spectrum,” says Lincoln Davis, Publishing Director at Polyarc, in an email to UploadVR. “We’re excited for the opportunity to keep pushing the industry with new ways to experience physical interaction, emotional feedback, and object persistence.”
Since we’re still waiting on an official reveal for their next VR game, presumably Moss 2, it still came as a bit of a surprise. Will this impact Moss 2’s development at all? Is that an AR game now?
“As you covered in the past, the team is excited to continue Quill and the player’s story in the world of Moss,” says Davis. “And we can’t wait to share more.”
That’s reassuring then. There hasn’t really been a big, breakout success in the AR space for gaming yet. Pokemon GO isn’t really true AR and the small games developed for Hololens were mostly just tech demos. Magic Leap has a handful of games, but it was never really designed as a gaming platform.
I asked for more details on their AR plans regarding whether it would include a Moss AR game, new IP, which platforms, etc., but Davis simply said that “has yet to be determined” at this time.
Let us know what you think down in the comments below! For more on Moss, check out our full walkthrough video series.
