Calabasas, California-based Emergent Game Technologies, creator of the Gamebryo middleware, picked up $12.5 million in a new round of funding. The investment, led by new investors Hopewell Ventures, comes ahead of a a new product scheduled to be revealed at March's Game Developers Conference. "We have invested enormous development time in our new product, layered on top of our rock solid, stable Gamebryo technology," says Emergent CEO Geoffrey Selzer. "This new product will massively speed up the development of games and other 3D interactive experiences." The company describes Gamebryo as a "modular game engine framework." It integrates the technologies of partners like NaturalMotion, Illuminate Labs, Nvidia and Allegorithmic, and is available for development on PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, and Wii. Gamebryo has been used in over 250 shipped titles, including EA Mythic's Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning and Firaxis' Civilization Revolution. The company says another 150 games are currently being developed on the platform. In addition to Hopewell Ventures, other firms contributed funding, including Adena Ventures Worldview Technology Partners, and Jerusalem Venture Partners. The last two investors previously led a $12 million round of investment for Emergent in July 2007. "Though the video game industry is weathering the worldwide liquidity crisis better than most, increased financial pressures are intensifying the many difficulties the industry is facing such as bloated budgets, increased complexity of core technology and changing consumer expectations," says Selzer. "We very much appreciate our investors’ vision. They see the significant opportunity Emergent has to be of service to developers and publishers alike."