Midverse Studios

Midverse Studios, Inc. was a mobile gaming company founded in 2012 by seasoned entrepreneurs Rizwan Virk and Mitch Liu. The founders brought significant experience to the venture, having previously co-founded and successfully exited Gameview Studios, known for the popular "Tap Fish" mobile game which was acquired by DeNA. Virk, an MIT and Stanford graduate, has a long history of founding and investing in tech and gaming companies, including Brainstorm Technologies and Play Labs @ MIT. Liu also co-founded Tapjoy, a company that pioneered monetization in social and mobile apps.

The company positioned itself as a developer and publisher in the mobile gaming market, focusing on the sci-fi, fantasy, and horror genres. Midverse Studios developed a proprietary engine, the "Undead Engine," designed to facilitate the creation of customizable card battle games based on licensed intellectual properties. This engine enabled the episodic release of game content that could align with television series, a key part of their strategy. A notable product was "Penny Dreadful: Demimonde," a puzzle and collectible card game based on the Showtime series. The firm also offered the AppEngage platform, a tool created to assist other mobile game developers with monetization and user acquisition challenges.

Midverse Studios operated on a business model that involved both in-house game development and a publishing program, "Invest+Publish," to support third-party developers like Disruptor Beam and Imaginary Games. Their revenue generation was tied to in-app purchases and leveraging their platform to help other developers monetize. In February 2014, the company secured a significant milestone with a $6.5 million Series A funding round. This investment was led by firms including IDG Capital, Signia Venture Partners, and Seraph Group, and was intended to expand sales and marketing efforts. According to PitchBook, the company is now out of business as of December 2017.

Keywords: mobile gaming, game development platform, licensed IP games, card battle games, game publishing, Undead Engine, Penny Dreadful game, Rizwan Virk, Mitch Liu, Gameview Studios, AppEngage, mobile game monetization, user acquisition, episodic content games, fantasy games, horror games, sci-fi games, entertainment software, Invest+Publish, DeNA acquisition