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MixRift, a mixed reality gaming startup, has raised $1.6 million to develop and published MR titles.
MixRift hopes to create the Angry Birds of mixed reality — something that’s sorely missing in the current XR landscape — ultimately giving users an enjoyable, intuitive and rich gaming experience.
The round took about seven weeks to complete and Outsized Ventures and Underline Ventures led the round, with participation from SOSV and angel investors.
“We got together, looked at the opportunity in mixed reality and we realized it’s one of the bigger opportunities in gaming,” said Bobby Voicu, CEO of MixRift, in an interview with GamesBeat. “I feel the opportunity is not in VR per se. It’s in mixed reality and augmented reality. In my opinion, the biggest gaming platforms are also computing platforms, like PC gaming is part of the PC computing platform. MR devices, once they get to the point of being glasses, that will be another point of having a new computing device.”
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Voicu said he doesn’t believe the platforms will replace each other. Rather, they will layer on top of each other. He thinks at some point that Apple will come out with glasses that will be tethered to an iPhone.
“Getting into into this space right now makes it easy for us in the future to catch the wave. I feel that the industry is before the wave, before the tsunami, before everybody sees the way. And by the time the wave comes, every company that’s successful enough in the space already will be able to be to grow faster,” Voicu said. “The other thing we also noticed that while people are saying they have the [VR devices], they aren’t using them.”
When MR devices can support a team of 20 people with revenues of $2 million or $3 million a year, startups will be able to survive in the market and find the “native mechanics,” or gameplay that will get consumers to buy the devices, Voicu said. There are some interesting titles like Lego Brick Tales and Dead Cabin.
The backing will support MixRift in accelerating its efforts to develop and publish casual mixed reality titles.
The launch of headsets such as the Meta Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro has helped increase adoption of mixed reality. Yet even though Meta has reportedly sold upwards of 20 million Quest headsets, mixed reality content continues to be thin on the ground. There is no game yet that is the equivalent of a title like Rocket League.
MixRift’s unique approach develops games that are easy to pick up yet deeply immersively. The company believes that, with wearables that are as much computing devices as they are gaming, mixed reality will appeal to a wider set of users.
Origins
Bobby Voicu, David Pripas and Andrei Vaduva are the founders behind MixRift.
Voicu is a serial entrepreneur, industry visionary and XR influencer who previously launched mobile gamesstudio Mavenhut. He serves as CEO. Pripas is a gaming influencer, official Meta AR Partner and MixRift’s CPO, while Vaduva is the company’s CTO.
In a statement, Voicu said, “We’re at the very beginning of what mixed reality could do for gamers. We know there is a huge untapped market, and our founding team knows what it takes to create the games that hook those players in. This puts us in a unique position to capitalise on the opportunity.”
MixRift will use the investment to continue its development and plans to release further titles later in 2024. The company believes focusing on game mechanics over specific titles will help quickly identify what resonates with audiences.
The company has six people. MixRift has already launched a couple of games on the Meta Quest Store. These were mixed reality experiments, but the company is simply testing new ideas so far.
“I think people truly want this type of experience,” Voicu said. “We are committed to rapidly prototyping games, getting them into the market, and gathering real user feedback as quickly as possible. We use those insights to improve titles that connect with audiences and replace those that don’t. This investment gives us the support we need to take that approach and demonstrates experienced, knowledgeable backers’ buy-in to our philosophy.”
Outsized Ventures and Underline Ventures co-led the round, supported by SOSV, which has invested in only a few gaming companies in over five years. Angel investors also joined the round.
Voicu believes the company had success raising money because the investors believed in the team and its passion for mixed reality. While more than 20,000 people have been laid off in games in the past couple of years, Voicu believes there are still hot spots like mixed reality that are poised for growth. And he thinks that startups will grab the market because the big companies are still hesitant to jump in.
Lomax Ward at Outsized Ventures, said in a statement, “Mixed reality has immense potential, demonstrated by the likes of Meta and Apple committing heavily to the sector. MixRift’s founding team has deep knowledge and experience, positioning the company to take advantage of both the demand from players and the growing interest in MR. We are pleased to be backing the team as MixRift grows.”
MixRift’s games Fractured and Hell Horde are available on the Meta Quest store, while Fractured is also available on the App Store for Apple Vision Pro.
“There are some [MR games out now] but they’re not a success yet compared to VR,” Voicu said. “It makes sense for us to start a company in this space. First of all, mixed reality is just growing. We can find the space out there a lot easier than in VR where it’s starting to become a little bit more crowded. On the other hand, I feel that the mixed reality technology is truly at the beginning.”
Voicu believes mixed reality games will make it out of the house and off of the tabletops. Many early MR games were simply digital versions of tabletop games, and Voicu doesn’t think it’s compelling unless you’re moving around more. Once MR is built into ordinary glasses, Voicu thinks it will take off.
Titles like Gorilla Tag from Another Axiom have proven that VR can generate hits that take advantage of its unique features. For now, the company is prototyping games to find the native experience for mixed reality, which Voicu acknowledges is a mystery at the moment. Gorilla Tag doesn’t really work on a flat screen as one of the things you’re always doing in the game is looking back at your pursuer.
“Gorilla Tag exploded because it brought a truly native experience to VR,” he said.
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