Former Bungie CEO Unveils Company to Support Game Developers

By admin On Oct 10, 2019

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Harold Ryan, the former CEO of Bungie, has started his own game company. The company called Probably Monsters is not a game studio or game publisher. Instead, the company invests in game studios and provides support to development teams.

Based in Washington, Probably Monsters helps new game studios through the process of developing games. According to Ryan, these studios operate as independent companies with their own management, writes Gamasutra. Probably Monsters helps with business planning, concretizing creative visions and offering support during the game development process.

The goal of Probably Monsters, according to Ryan, is ‘to create development teams that eventually no longer need him’. Ryan also mentions that the studios that are founded by Probably Monsters will not necessarily remain the property of his company. He sees his company as a new category of game companies ‘for the next generation of gaming’, so Probably Monsters is neither developer nor publisher.

Probably Monsters has been quietly operating since 2016. The company now runs two studios: Cauldron Studios and Firewalk Studios. Both studios are currently working on their own triple-a-game and are supported by Probably Monsters. To finance this, Ryan has raised just under 19 million dollars from investors.

Harold Ryan, the boss of Probably Monsters. Photo via Probably Monsters

Harold Ryan joined Bungie in 2000 as test manager for Halo: Combat Evolved. Over the years, Ryan worked his way to the top of the studio, eventually becoming CEO. Among other things, he was responsible for Bungie’s split from Microsoft, with which the studio has collaborated for years. Ryan retired from Bungie in 2015 and a year later he quietly founded Probably Monsters.

Cauldron Studios is led by Dave Matthews, known for God of War and Myst, among others. Matthews has also worked as a character artist at Sony Computer Entertainment and art director at Bungie and WB Games. The game director at Cauldron Studios is CJ Cowan, who is responsible for House of Wolves and the Taken King expansions of Destiny.

Tony Hsu is the boss of Firewalk Studios. He was a vice president in the Activision industry responsible for Destiny. He works with game director Ryan Ellis, former creative director at Bungie. Ellis has also worked at Oddworld Inhabitants, known for the Oddworld franchise.