Edge Case Games is the team behind the popular space flight combat game Strike Suit Zero, downloaded and enjoyed by well over a million gamers on PC, XBOne and PS4.
Formed by two industry veterans, James Brooksby and Chris Mehers, and supported by an experienced creative team based in Guildford, Edge Case Games is moving to the free to play games as a service model, focusing on the core PC gamer audience. First steps will be to focus on building a vibrant engaged community around its first soon to be announced free to play game.
Chris Mehers, co-founder of Edge Case commenting on the investment said: “These funds will be used to expand the development team, and create the right launch platform for our first free to play game.” He added: “We chose Mercia as our funding partner as their experience and depth of knowledge in the digital entertainment sector means that they will add value way beyond simply being a financial investor.”
Mike Hayes, head of Mercia Fund Management’s Digital Division added: “Digitally delivered free to play games as a sector is enjoying explosive growth with games like League of Legends, World of Tanks and many more delivering hundreds of millions of dollars of high margin revenue, disrupting the traditional retail and digital pay to play incumbents. Investing in this sector with an expert team is a natural choice for us as we expand our digital portfolio.”
Mercia, the business incubator and investor, recently launched the Mercia Digital Fund, to complement its suite of growth funds that uses the hybrid structure for tax-efficient investing via the Enterprise Investment Scheme (EIS) and Seed EIS (SEIS). Mercia invests in a diversified portfolio of technology business with high growth potential to include innovative digital companies.