Exclusive – Seismic Games, a Los Angeles-based social games studio, is coming out of the woodwork today, announcing that it is set to debut its first game in the first quarter of 2012.
The startup has secured $2 million in Series A funding led by DFJ Frontier and former VC and entrepreneur turned writer Tom Matlack.
About a dozen other angel investors, with “deep ties” to the entertainment industry, also chipped in.
Seismic Games develops free-to-play games that can be played on social networks, including – of course – Facebook.
This is how they plan to set themselves apart from all the other social games makers:
“The games will be character-focused and highly customized, igniting a new wave of players looking for more sophisticated narrative and deeper engagement from their experiences online.
User-generated and real-time content will also play a central role in the gameplay, as will branded and professional entertainment partnerships which connect online and offline opportunities to audiences enjoying the game.”
Established in 2011, Seismic Games is co-founded and led by CEO Greg Borrud, a 17-year gaming industry veteran and co-founder of Pandemic Studios, which was sold to EA for $860 million in 2007.
Another co-founder, Eric Gewirtz, serves as the company’s CCO and was formerly director of ‘Star Wars: Battlefront’ 1 & 2, one of the best-selling Star Wars video games ever.
The third co-founder and president of the company, Chris Miller, is a former VP of Vivendi Universal.