nDreams, a UK based videogame development studio, today announced a $2.75 million investment from Mercia Technologies for the development of VR content. The studio has several projects in the works including Gunner, which was recently launched as a demo on Samsung’s Gear VR headset.
nDreams was founded in 2006 by former Eidos Creative Director, Patrick O’Luanaigh. The company says that it was the “largest global publisher in PlayStation Home,” a virtual social world that launched on Sony’s PlayStation 3 system in 2008. Since then, nDreams has been actively involved in the consumer VR space since quite early on, with one of its first experiments into the new medium being SkyDIEving in 2013 as well as the founding of our friendly VR media neighbors, VR Focus, in 2014.
Having announced several VR development projects in months past, nDreams today reveals that it’s received a $2.75 million investment from Mercia Technologies, a UK based technology investment firm. nDreams says that they’ve just received the second installment of this investment, indicating that the deal itself was struck at some point prior to today’s announcement. Mercia Technologies began trading on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market in December.
“These funds will support continued expansion, provide working capital and allow the company to explore publishing and acquisition deals for other VR titles,” nDreams writes in a press release announcing the investment. I spoke with nDreams Founder Patrick O’Luanaigh to learn more about the studio’s plans.
O’Luanaigh told me that the company has been “Purely VR for the last 6 months.” Since founding the company in 2006, nDreams has grown to 28 people. And while the company isn’t currently hiring O’Luanaigh told me that they plan to expand “significantly” over the next year. He recommended that interested parties keep an eye on the company’s Jobs page.
nDreams has a number of titles currently in development for virtual reality platforms, some of which are being co-published by Oculus, creators of the Rift VR headset and the company that ‘Powers’ Samsung’s Gear VR headset. nDreams recently launched Gunner, a turret-based sci-fi combat game, as a demo for Gear VR, with a full releasing coming once Oculus and Samsung enable app purchasing on the platform. Another title that the studio has in the works for Gear VR is Perfect Beach, a relaxation experience that’s due soon to appear on the headset.
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On the desktop and console VR front, nDreams announced The Assembly back in June of 2014, and says that it will be a launch title for Sony’s Morpheus PS4 headset and the Oculus Rift. A trailer revealed at E3 2014 gives a glimpse of what is building up to be a mysterious game:
“We love adventure games, we aren’t big fans of dashing around at top speed. One of the lovely things we’ve found is that when you’re in VR you want to stop and explore and touch things. For us, adventure games are a brilliant genre for VR. The Assembly is built around that. It will have multiple characters, and a great story,” O’Luanaigh told me.
nDreams says that they’ll be at GDC and E3 to talk more about their VR titles and plans for 2015.
