New San Francisco-based Social Developer Powers Up With Seasoned Management and Production Team, Focus on Self Expression

 
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – November 4, 2010 – Rocket Ninja, a San Francisco-based games and apps company focused on creating and publishing high quality social entertainment, emerged from stealth mode today with $3.5 million in Series A funding, a pipeline of new games and a seasoned management team. The company has been operating under the radar for the last two years and has recently launched its first product on Facebook, Ocean Kingdom, beginning its path towards empowering a new era of creative self expression for players in the social apps and games space.  

With the launch of its first Facebook title, Ocean Kingdom, Rocket Ninja has created a robust, proven platform for publishing, social discovery and monetization that allows the company to quickly scale new games, whether they originate from Rocket Ninja’s internal team or from external publishing deals. Rocket Ninja currently has several titles in internal production for release in the next six months and is also negotiating deals marketing and publishing deals with several independent developers. In addition, the company is completing development on one of its “secret weapons,” a streaming 3D engine codenamed Shr3D™ that is expected to help to usher in the next wave of deeply engaging and highly personalized social games.

Rocket Ninja’s company DNA is a mixture of MMO, social and video game developers, including personnel from companies such as Zynga, Slide, SEGA and Rockstar Games. The development talent at Rocket Ninja understands both the demands of core game design as well as the technical, data-driven needs of social apps.

The management team at Rocket Ninja is led by Chief Executive Officer Oded Pelled, an experienced veteran in online media and private equity management. Pelled was the founder and guiding force behind two online ventures, GetFit.com and Best-TV.com and most recently was managing partner of the 22 Group, an investment group focused on early and mid stage investments.

“We expect to see social games experience an accelerated version of the evolutionary progress of console games as players demand engaging and more meaningful experiences,” said Pelled. “In the next year, social games will explode from shallow, repetitive interactivity to more complex, engaging entertainment. The entire social games space is in the process of changing and Rocket Ninja is going to be a part of that change.”

Also joining the Rocket Ninja executive team are chief technical officer Randy Fish, and executive producer Neil Haldar. Fish is a veteran of several startups and joins the company from his recent position with Rich Relevance, where he helped to build the engine used to provide recommendations and personalization for top e-commerce sites like Sears.com, Walmart.com and Overstock.com. Haldar is an 18-year videogame industry veteran, having participated in the production of over 80 games, including brands such as James Bond, Rocky, and Unreal Tournament, resulting in nearly $3 billion in consumer spending worldwide. Previously, Haldar served as VP of Content Programming and Strategy at upstart mobile game publisher SkyZone Entertainment and as VP of Production and Business Development at MGM Interactive. Also serving on the company’s advisory board is company founder and TechCrunch 50 veteran Damon Grow, lead designer of several hit social games.

To learn more about Rocket Ninja, please visit http://www.rocketninja.com

About Rocket Ninja

Rocket Ninja is a games and apps company focused on creating and publishing high-quality entertainment products for global mobile and social networks.  Rocket Ninja’s games and applications are defined by groundbreaking technology and tools, high quality art and a dedication to using self expression and personalization as a means to form lasting connections between player and game.  The company publishes a mix of titles, developing games internally as well as providing publishing and platform support for third-party developers. Rocket Ninja’s US headquarters are located in San Francisco, CA.