Red Robot Labs
Users with a location-based mobile gaming platform.
| Date | Investors | Amount | Round |
|---|---|---|---|
| investor investor | €0.0 | round | |
| investor investor investor | €0.0 | round | |
$5.0m | Series B | ||
| Total Funding | 000k | ||
Red Robot Labs was a mobile game developer founded in January 2011 by Mike Ouye, Peter Hawley, and John Harris. The founding team comprised veterans from prominent social and console gaming companies, including Playdom, CrowdStar, Lionhead, and Electronic Arts. Ouye, serving as CEO, brought expertise in monetization, while Hawley, the Chief Product Officer, and Harris, the CTO, contributed extensive game development experience. The company was established to pioneer location-based mobile games, aiming to create more immersive experiences than the simple check-in mechanics prevalent at the time.
The firm operated in the freemium mobile gaming market, generating revenue through in-app purchases. Its business model centered on developing a proprietary location-based gaming platform, the R2 Gaming Network, which could also be licensed to third-party studios. The company secured significant venture capital, raising a total of $15.5 million across three rounds from investors like Benchmark Capital, Shasta Ventures, and notable individuals such as Playdom co-founder Rick Thompson and former Facebook executive Chamath Palihapitiya. A strategic partnership with Next Media in March 2012 included a $5 million investment to expand into Asian markets and establish Next Media as the first third-party studio on the R2 platform.
Red Robot Labs' breakout title was *Life Is Crime*, a location-based multiplayer game launched for Android in August 2011 and iOS in January 2012. The game allowed players to form gangs and compete to commit virtual crimes at real-world locations, turning their neighborhoods into a contested game board. Players could customize avatars, level up their criminal reputation, and generate in-game currency by controlling territories. Following this, the company released *Life Is Magic* in late 2012, a fantasy RPG that transformed real-world maps into a fantasy kingdom with dungeons to explore and monsters to battle. The company also acquired UK-based Supermono Studios in December 2011 to bolster its development team. Despite its early traction and successful funding, Red Robot Labs is now considered a deadpooled company.
Keywords: Red Robot Labs, mobile gaming, location-based games, Life Is Crime, Life Is Magic, Mike Ouye, Peter Hawley, John Harris, R2 Gaming Network, geospatial gameplay, freemium games, in-app purchases, venture capital, Benchmark Capital, Shasta Ventures, Supermono Studios, Next Media, mobile entertainment, location-based services, multiplayer mobile games