Avatar Reality Secures $4.2M, Appoints Design VP

Blue Mars developer Avatar Reality announced that it raised $4.2 million in additional capital from co-founder/game industry legend Henk Rogers and Kolohala Ventures. The new funding brings the total amount invested in Avatar Reality to over $13 million. The company launched the CryEngine-powered Blue Mars, a 3D virtual world platform designed to offer "fidelity, scalability, security and connectivity", last October with an open beta and began selling virtual land to third-party developers last January. The platform allows artists and developers to create and distribute 3D games and applications globally. Avatar Reality also revealed that it appointed Trent Ward as its vice president of design. Ward has a long history in the game industry, having recently worked as creative director at Ubisoft (on the Shaun White Snowboarding Wii game), Foundation9, and Electronic Arts. The firm was founded in 2006 by Henk Rogers (best known for his work popularizing the Tetris franchise) and Kazuyuki Hashimoto, the latter of which was formerly CTO at Squaresoft and vice president at Electronic Arts. Avatar Reality's team currently has more than 30 employees across Honolulu and San Francisco. "For the past three years, we've been laying the foundation for Blue Mars so developers can create extraordinary 3D experiences and share them in their own personalized virtual world that is scalable and secure," says Avatar Reality CEO Jim Sink. "This investment is a strong endorsement of the progress we've made towards providing the next generation in virtual world platforms."