Dublin gaming studio WarDucks gears up to take on Pokemon Go

There’s a “huge opportunity” in AR mobile gaming, says WarDucks CEO
The WarDucks team and their adorable office dog
Warducks
Amelia Heathman21 March 2019

In general, whenever people talk about augmented reality (AR), they bring up two major examples: Pokemon Go and the Snapchat dancing hotdog. But, as more and more companies enter the space, the AR competition is starting to hot up.

Dublin-based gaming studio WarDucks is ready for the challenge. The studio, which launched in 2013, has always focused on creating virtual reality (VR) games like RollerCoaster Legends and Sneaky Bears. Now, thanks to a £2.86 million investment from EQT Ventures, the company is gearing up to enter the AR gaming space.

“Anyone would have to be living under a rock to not know how well Pokemon Go did,” WarDucks’s CEO Nikki Lannen, tells the Standard. “They’ve made $2 billion since they launched, still making over $2 million a day. For a game that’s a few years old, to have that traction is outstanding.

“We feel there’s an opportunity within that new genre on mobile and we want to be a part of that.”

WarDucks is planning to use the investment to build its own location-based mobile AR game. All Lannen will say at the moment is that the game is in development, but the funds have also allowed the studio to bring on some pretty big names.

WarDucks' CEO Nikki Lannen
WarDucks

John Romero, the co-founder of Romero Games and the winner of more than 100 awards, is coming on board as a creative consultant for the new game. As well, the game designer behind Civilization II, Doug Kaufman, and narrative designer Lawrence Schick, whose background includes working on Dungeons & Dragons in the 1970s, are also joining the team.

“Our main asset is our team, we have amazing team and that is a large part of what the investment is for, to scale up that team,” explains Lannen. “John Romero, the creative consultant on the project, is a huge win for us.”

WarDucks is going to need a powerhouse team behind it to compete with the likes of Niantic. The company is gearing up to release its second AR mobile game later this year, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite.

Lannen doesn’t see it as a competition though, but simply as proof that location AR games are the next big thing in the mobile gaming space. Given Lannen’s background in Facebook’s gaming team, working with the likes of King (Candy Crush and Farm Heroes Saga) and Rovio (Angry Birds) to bring their titles to the social network, she’s well-placed to know what’s going to be making waves next.

“I don't think there's going to be one sole winner within that genre - there will be multiple winners. And as the genre grows, that will be the case,” she says.

“I would classify it as a new genre of gaming, we're seeing new launches in the space, and there's massive amounts of interest in these types of games. We're delighted to be a part of that and to be bringing something to market.”

Having EQT Ventures on your side helps too. The venture capital firm recently exited its investment in Small Giant Games, a Finnish mobile gaming studio, after it was acquired at the end of last year in a deal worth $700 million. EQT’s investment in the studio came after it used its artificial intelligence (AI) platform Motherbrain to spot the next big thing in gaming.

“For us, if we could pick any investor to have on board, it would be EQT,” says Lannen. “For them to approach us was a dream come true.”

Exciting times are ahead for WarDucks, so be sure to watch this space.

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