LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Mythical Games, a next-generation gaming technology studio and leader in the growing play-and-earn games vertical, today announced plans to expand globally in Q1 2022 with its first in Asia office in Seoul, South Korea, and its first office in the European Union in Stockholm, Sweden, as part of the company’s overall growth following its $150M Series C raise late last year. Mike Kang has been named as the vice president of business development for the APAC region, while Jikhan Jung will be the vice president of production. Adam Schaub will be the head of Mythical Europe and studio general manager. The company has also acquired technology and staff from Shortround Games, a UK studio based in Brighton with a range of battle-hardened client and server tools built to develop and maintain large-scale, socially interactive and competitive games.
Shortround studio director Andrew Hubbard, a 15-year games industry veteran who previously served as a lead programmer at Criterion Games and Disney Interactive’s BlackRock studio, will continue to helm the team of eight joining Mythical. As part of Mythical Europe, the new hires from Shortround will help the company realize its aspirations to build engaging virtual worlds that leverage the Mythical Platform, beginning with an unannounced sports game releasing in 2023. This is the second acquisition for Mythical this year; in January it announced the purchase of metaverse streaming platform Polystream, which provides Mythical with a hub in Guildford, England, that will become the epicenter for cloud-native, blockchain-based technology and entertainment experiences.
“We’re thrilled to bring the talented Shortround team under the Mythical umbrella, as well as having Adam, Andrew, Mike and Jikhan on board for this next step in our global expansion as we build out our team and scale operations to bring new games to our platform,” said John Linden, co-founder and CEO, Mythical Games. “The play-and-earn community is rapidly growing, and we as a company are growing alongside it, to better meet the needs of consumers who want to interact and transact in immersive 3D game worlds. Our new studios in Seoul and Stockholm increase our publishing and platform capabilities, and alongside the team from Shortround, and Polystream, rounding out our UK presence, these moves further our position as a leader in bringing decentralized gaming to a mass market audience across the globe.”
Adam Schaub, who most recently served as a studio general manager at Electronic Arts (EA), brings to Mythical over two decades of experience in the international mobile games and entertainment industry. In his role at Mythical he will focus on scaling EU operations and partnerships while building a Stockholm studio HQ focused on delivering the next generation of blockchain games.
“Mythical Games is uniquely positioned in the blockchain gaming space to create new and exciting opportunities for both players and game creators,” said Schaub. “I believe that we can fundamentally change the traditional view of currencies, what value creation is and how markets operate, changing not only the current state of gaming, but the world as we know it. When speaking to the Mythical founders about their vision for the company I immediately knew this was the place for me, and I’m eager to tap into the hotbed of highly skilled AAA and mobile gaming talent available in Stockholm to grow our European team and offer an opportunity to be part of the next wave of gaming.”
Mike Kang, a business and technology professional with 20+ years of experience working in various capacities to enable innovation to client and internal organizations, comes to Mythical from Mana Partners, a gaming and esports agency, where he was a co-founder and managing partner. Prior to Mana, Kang led business development in the APAC region for Electronic Arts (EA), managing key partners to execute strategic deals across the region. His experience spans technology, media and entertainment verticals, across companies including Samsung Electronics, IBM, Sony, Warner Bros. and Disney, working on projects to transform and optimize businesses enabled by technology. At Mythical, he will lead the company’s international expansion efforts into APAC by building commercial relationships with development, enterprise, and brand partners.
Jikhan Jung has dedicated 16 years to the gaming industry as a producer and CEO across PC, mobile, VR and blockchain projects, including free-to-play and play-and-earn games. He most recently served as founder and CEO of Subdream Studios, whose titles included VR Arcade game Galaga Fever, in partnership with Bandai Namco; and Ethereum-based RPG play-and-earn game Bit Kingdom. Before that he served as U.S. CEO of Japanese mobile giant COLOPL. He also served as Executive Producer at Kabam which brought multiple hit titles from APAC including Netmarble and WeMade to the global market, and he also founded and sold one of the first western free-to-play game companies’ service brands as gPotato, Gala-Net to Webzen. As Mythical’s vice president of production in the APAC region, he will lead cross-border strategy, publishing and multi-location production across games on the Mythical platform.
“We believe the Korean gaming market is the ideal launch point to grow and expand Mythical into the APAC region,” said Kang. “APAC is critical to our global growth and key to our continued success. The untapped audience in this region shows a growing interest in play-and-earn gaming, and games on our Mythical Platform are well-positioned to meet that demand by delivering a best-in-class experience to players, whether they are new to blockchain or well-versed in the technology and the benefits it can provide.”
Valued at $1.25 billion in its Series C raise, led by Andreessen Horowitz, Mythical Games is at the forefront of bringing play-and-earn game concepts and playable NFTs to the mainstream gaming market. Games on the Mythical Platform can unlock the value of a player’s monetary and time-based efforts, or the rarity of their collection, by providing a way for them to sell their digital assets to other players for real money, in safe and secure transactions on the Mythical Marketplace, increasing engagement and introducing new business models that allow players to become stakeholders in their favorite games.
Named one of Inc.’s 2021 Best Places to Work, Mythical has grown to more than 200 employees and is continuing to hire for select roles on its Game, Marketing, Platform and Marketplace teams across North America, APAC and Europe. For a listing of open positions, please visit: mythicalgames.com/careers.
As part of its expansion, Mythical is also actively looking for new developer and investor partners in the APAC region. Those interested in working with Mythical can contact apac@mythical.games for more information.
About Mythical Games
Acknowledged by Forbes’ Disruptive Technology Companies To Watch in 2019 and Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas 2021, Mythical is a next-generation games technology company creating a universal gaming ecosystem by leveraging blockchain technology and playable NFTs for tools that enable players, creators, artists, brands and game developers to become stakeholders and owners in new play-and-earn game economies.
Led by gaming industry veterans, the team specializes in building games around player-owned economies and has helped develop major franchises including Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Guitar Hero, DJ Hero, Marvel Strike Force and Skylanders.
The Mythical Platform is built on a permissioned chain using a Proof of Authority consensus model that is more environmentally friendly and sustainable than the Proof of Work model. Minting NFTs and integrating the Marketplace via the Mythical Platform do not require any mining or cryptocurrency to operate, or for players to participate.
Mythical is a registered trademark, and Mythical Games and Mythical Marketplace are trademarks of Mythical, Inc. All other marks are the trademarks of their respective owners.