Announcing a slew of exciting new hires here at XR Games

In September it was announced that XR Games had secured $2.1 million (£1.5 million) in funding. The investment was led by Maven Equity Finance with backing from ACT Capital Partners, and will allow us to expand the size of the team, focus on original IP, increase work-for-hire opportunities, and develop our research into AR/VR technologies and platforms.

We’ll have lots to say on these different areas in the coming months, but today we’re focusing on recruitment and the stellar industry talents that we’ve brought into our ranks over the past few weeks.

Our latest round of investment is allowing us to add a further 20 roles to the team across the studio. At the time of writing the team now consists of 43 full-time staff, which represents a 40% size increase in just six months.

We’ve already been putting this latest round of investment to good use by recruiting top talent across the business, ensuring we’re ready for new project wins and upcoming work.

Recent hires include:

• Jason McGann - Technical Director Jason was co-founder of Rockstar Leeds and has now been elevated from Advisor to working in the studio with us on a daily basis as we work through this period of growth.

• Ross Logan - CFO Advisor Ross was CFO of MiniClip (valued at £275m in 2008, exit to Tencent in 2015), Wooga ($200m+ exit to Playtika), and Kolibri Games (€160m exit to Ubisoft).

• Dan Roberts - Art Director Dan was the Head of Art at Rockstar Games and Activision Blizzard and comes with 20+ years experience as our full time Art Director.

• Viki Freeman - Head of HR Viki headed up HR and Wellbeing at Team 17. She comes to XR Games with over 15 years’ experience across Recruitment, Account Management, Employee Relations and HR. She played a pivotal role in the recent expansion of teams and studios for the northern giant, Team 17.

• Rich McCormick - Senior Producer Rich joins us after producing the highly acclaimed Oculus Quest, Rift, and PlayStation VR title ‘Song in the Smoke’, by 17-BIT in Kyoto, Japan. Prior to this, Rich spent three years as a reporter for The Verge, and as Associate Editor and Staff Writer for PC Gamer, and other publications.

By recruiting top talent from around the gaming industry, we’re setting ourselves up for future success, so these hires are playing a pivotal role in the next chapter of XR Games.

In addition to the hires above, we've also added extra members to teams around the studio. These include:

• Adam Fautley: Junior 3D Artist

• Andy Radulescu: Junior 3D Artist

• Edward O’Reilly: 3D Senior Technical Artist

• Gabriele Zotti: Junior Programmer

• Jessica Wilson: Finance Assistant

• Justin Roberts: Senior Programmer

• Lucas Jones: Senior Programmer

• María Díez: Head of Production

• Robert Grant: C++ Senior Programmer

• Sanjit Daniel: Graphics Programmer

• Seyyid Dogan: Senior Programmer

• Steve Hack: Senior Programmer

• Tamara Whymark: QA Technician

• Toby Rock: Junior Programmer

• Toby Woolhouse: Producer

Our talented team has now grown to such a size where we can tackle multiple projects at once across different platforms and clients. But that's just the start. Stay tuned for more recruitment announcements later this year! As well as supporting recruitment, we're also using our latest investment round to tackle the following: Original IP The team has been developing original IP concepts and ideas for a while now, and this new injection of investment allows us to finally build upon those ideas and truly showcase our skills. We’ve been working on something rather special when it comes to our own original IP, so stay tuned for that. R&D We’re always looking ahead at what’s next in gaming, technology, and devices, and this funding ensures we’re there with the knowledge, passion, and experience when new platforms and services appear. Keeping our team knowledgeable about what’s next ensures we’re at the cutting edge of new technologies and allows us to strike when new opportunities present themselves. Work-for-hire opportunities Since the release of Zombieland VR, our inbound work enquiries have gone through the roof. This new funding enables us to work on even more projects, and helps us to further develop our sales and marketing initiatives to expand our work-for-hire division. Following our success with Angry Birds and Zombieland, we’ve got more projects in the pipeline and we’re excited to make more announcements about future work-for-hire and licenced projects in the coming months. A word from our CEO Bobby Thandi, our Founder and CEO, said, “We’re delighted with the investment from our new partners at Maven Capital Partners, as well as ACT Capital Partners following on from their previous investment, and continued support from Praetura Ventures. We’re already putting the investment to good use by hiring senior personnel such as a Technical Director, Creative Director, Head of HR, and a new Head of Production.” Bobby continues “We’re also expanding the development, game design, and art teams, and we’re further developing our sales and marketing initiatives to expand our work-for-hire division. It’s so exciting to see the team grow and develop, and with our vacancies receiving hundreds of applicants, it’s clear that there’s a huge appetite from others wanting to join our journey. This most recent round of investment enables our recent hires and existing team to kick start our own original IP initiatives, and helps to fund further R&D into AR and VR.” The months ahead This investment marks the start of a new exciting chapter for XR Games. We’re committed to delivering new and exciting VR and AR experiences, and this round of investment will enable us to bring our own ideas to life in the form of original IP for the first time. This is only the beginning, and we’ll have much more to say over the coming months. Stay tuned!