Hammer & Chisel develops core mobile/tablet multiplayer games, led by founder Jason Citron. Its first title, the tablet-centric MOBA Fates Forever, won Apple’s Editor’s Choice and prominent store placement but has not ranked highly on top-grossing charts per App Annie. The studio describes Fates as an experiment to push the boundaries of multiplayer on mobile and has not announced whether it will continue with the title or pursue a new project. Citron, who previously founded and sold OpenFeint for $104 million, has set ambitious targets: aiming to reach 1 billion players and ultimately $1 billion in revenue. The company cites a global opportunity of roughly 850 million smartphone users and $20 billion in cumulative free-to-play gaming revenue. Prior to this round, Hammer & Chisel had raised $8.2 million from investors including Benchmark, Accel, and IDG. Fates Forever is a tablet-focused MOBA built for touchscreen devices. The game launched worldwide on July 4 and was featured as an Apple editor's choice. It emerged from a private alpha whose invites were announced at the prior year’s TechCrunch Disrupt Startup Battlefield. The company has raised $8.2 million from Benchmark Capital. Founder Jason Citron previously built OpenFeint, which supported 120 million players and was sold to GREE for $104 million. With the launch momentum and funding, Citron says the company is rapidly hiring. Hammer & Chisel is building Fates Forever, a reinterpretation of the MOBA genre for the iPad aimed at bringing core, team-based gaming to tablets. The game was previewed at TechCrunch Disrupt and is being developed by an eight-person team. Founder Jason Citron, who previously sold mobile-social gaming network OpenFeint to GREE for $104 million, believes the tablet gaming market is fast-growing but underserved by major publishers. The studio plans to launch the game later in the year “when it’s ready.” The company’s product strategy targets die-hard gamers with a three-versus-three medieval-themed multiplayer experience. Hammer & Chisel is positioning itself to capture a gap between casual tablet titles and traditional core-console/PC games.

Total raised

$11M

Funding rounds

3

Latest round

Equity

Latest activity

Jul 2014