Trilogy Raises $3.2m in Latest Funding Round

Next-gen console game and virtual world development company Trilogy Studios, has announced it has raised $3.2 million in its latest round of independent equity funding. This new round comes on the heels of a "significant" investment in its virtual worlds endeavors from Chichen Itza Ventures, the lead investor in There.com producer Makena Technologies. Trilogy aims to combine game-like content and social networking with extensions of popular brands to enable media companies to monetize their content in online worlds through avenues like microtransactions, sponsorship and advertising, and says it will allocate the funds to expand the company's virtual world and casual MMO business. Trilogy was originally founded in late 2005 by former Electronic Arts Los Angeles executives Rick Giolito and Mark Skaggs, along with former Vivendi Universal executive vice president Michael Pole. Pole and Giolito also named Michael Wilson, CEO of Makena and producer of There.com, to Trilogy Studios' board of directors. "Combining our decades of experience in traditional gaming with Makena's leadership in social networking, we can provide media companies the opportunity to build a one-on-one relationship with their consumers while promoting and monetizing their content libraries and new entertainment properties in this exciting new medium," Pole said. "We're having a successful run with MTV's Virtual 'Pimp My Ride,' and we've received very promising feedback from established media companies looking to extend their film, television and music content into the virtual world space," Giolito added.