VC Funds mainly in the US on a spending frenzy in the Games Industry – itsReal

Will the F1 Race annouced  yesterday in Singapore bring these investors to Singapore shores where technology and animation is soon to be a thriving industry….for this region Thailand gets some funds…

Directly below is a list of VC deals in the games space + Mergers & Acquisitions activity in the games space:

Source: Stuck in Customs 

VC Deals (in no particular order):

Company: Red 5 Studios, Aliso Viejo, CA
Investment: $ 8.9 million
Investor: Benchmark Capital
Description: Red 5 Studios is an online game studio which develops original MMO games.

Company: Digital Chocolate, San Mateo, CA
Investment: $ 22.5 million
Investors: Bridgescale Partners; Chengwei Ventures; DN Capital; Glynn Capital Management; Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers; Montagu Newhall; Outlook Ventures; Sequoia Capital; Sutter Hill
Ventures; WHI Capital
Description: Digital Chocolate is a developer of games and applications for mobile phones.

Company: Electric Sheep, New York, NY
Investment: $ 7 million
Investors: CBS; Gladwyne Partners
Description: The Electric Sheep Company designs experiences and delivers add-on software for 3D virtual worlds. The Company delivers strategic, creative, and technical insight and services to organizations, works with multiple virtual world platforms, and has developed many projects on behalf of brands.

Company: Double Fusion, San Francisco, CA
Investment: $ 26 million
Investors: Accel Partners, Hearst Corporation, IDG; Ventures Pacific, Jerusalem; Venture Partners, Norwest; Venture Partners, Sedona; Capital, Time Warner
Description: Double Fusion is a provider of in-game advertising and marketing solutions. The company’s technology delivers a range of advertising possibilities inside and around video game and casual game titles.

Looking for a Career TIP – Look up the Digital Content Creation Industry – itsCreative

New report predicts huge growth for digital industries

A new report announces that the digital content creation market will rise to nearly $5billion in the next five years.

Jon Peddie Research‘s 2007 Digital Content Creation Report predicts that the 3D modeling and animation, 2D animation, digital video, graphics and imaging, and audio markets will reach a worth of $4.9 billion by 2012, reflecting a compound annual growth rate of 10%.

The report claims the fastest growing segments in the future will be interactive development and video, as the internet offers new distribution networks and new programming approaches to extend the power of individual web sites.

“We are seeing big shifts in the digital content creation market,“ says Kathleen Maher, author of the report. “There have been game-changing moves by Adobe with the acquisition of Macromedia and Serious Magic, Autodesk‘s acquisition of Alias and Colorfront and Google‘s acquisition of Sketchup and YouTube. The landscape is changing right in front of us all.”

Intense Animation Studio taps The Pacific West Communications to drive its Marketing Communications

Services to be delivered include comprehensive integrated marketing campaigns incorporating new media channels such as Second Life and development of strategic business relationships with organizations and groups in the computer graphics and animation sector in the Asia-Pacific Region.

Intense Animation Studio today announced that it will tap the expertise of The Pacific West Communications to drive its marketing communications initiatives across the Asia-Pacific region.

The Pacific West Communications will develop comprehensive, integrated marketing campaigns to drive awareness and lead-generation of Intense Animation Studio’s services.

“We are pleased to select The Pacific West Communications as our agency of record to assist us in developing our marketing initiatives for the region.” said Tony Sealy, Managing Director, Intense Animation Studio. “We look forward to a fruitful partnership that will see The Pacific West Communications employ various innovative new media marketing strategies.”

“We will leverage the power of new media channels including Second Life to assist Intense Animation Studio in developing important regional communities.” said Andrew Peters, Asia-Pacific Regional Director, The Pacific West Communications. “This will help raise awareness of the Intense Animation Studio brand of services.”