I first met Anthony, the founding CEO of Singularity 6, five years ago at a cafe a few blocks inland from Venice Beach. They were not raising at the time and he had somewhat hesitantly accepted the meeting noting that it was very early in the company’s development and he did not want to put the wrong foot forward with a potential investor. Over breakfast however it quickly became clear that despite “not being ready”, he and his co-founder Aidan were focused on a concept, direction, and audience that directly aligned with the thesis I was building for what would become Transcend.
Many years ago as a Producer on The Sims, I had a front row seat as one of the industry’s legendary franchises charted a uniquely nonviolent and creative path rooted in the power of community, deep systems design, emergent gameplay, social engineering, and user generated content. Unlike many of its contemporaries, The Sims appealed to female and male players alike and was popular around the world. Play patterns were varied and deep. Engagement was long. People stopped me on the street when I wore my development team hoodie to tell me how much the game meant to them and their friends. It was an early view into what a truly inclusive, mass market modern gaming franchise could be. From that moment to this, I have believed there is a much more surface area to the games industry than has historically been apparent.
Audience and technology maturation in the intervening years has begun to reveal more of this expansive surface area. The recent success of gaming IP at the box office and across streaming platforms underlines the wide demographic and multigenerational appeal of popular gaming franchises powered by increasingly sophisticated and durable interaction and business models. Thanks to the compounding convenience resulting from advances in digital distribution, discovery, and frictionless payments, the addressable gaming audience of today is orders of magnitude larger. While there are over 3B gamers globally now, the potential audience will include most of the planet by the end of this decade. Against all of this, deeper games have led to fandoms also having more depth and longevity. Games and gaming IP are now an integral part of a much broader social language with cultural gravity and impact that goes way beyond gameplay. As I observed when founding the fund in 2020, the resulting scale of the modern gaming opportunity is truly staggering.
Enter Palia, the hotly anticipated flagship title from Singularity 6. What Anthony and I discussed at that early breakfast meeting has grown into a joyous and welcoming home online for us all to laugh, play, and connect. From the first trailer and invite-only pre-alpha in 2021, the response from press and players alike has been deafeningly enthusiastic. After years of development and several extremely competitive funding rounds, today the company is announcing that players' wait will soon be over. It is an exciting moment, many years in the making. While time will tell the scale tale, my view is that Palia stands exceptionally well positioned. My partners and I are proud to join the S6 team and our fellow investors in celebrating today’s news and hopefully delighting players for years to come!
About Transcend Fund
Transcend is a top performing early stage venture capital firm that partners with the boldest founders in the industry to collaboratively build the future of interactive entertainment.
Founded in San Francisco by gaming veterans, the Transcend portfolio features a preeminent group of high growth digital entertainment companies around the world.
More information about Transcend can be found on our website. Follow us on LinkedIn for the latest news from around the Transcend ecosystem.
About Shanti Bergel
Shanti is the founding partner of Transcend and a 30 year game industry veteran.
His global operating experience spans every major platform and business model transition of the last several decades and is animated by a career-long fascination with how changes in technology and distribution affect products, services, and communities.
Shanti is a recognized member of the Techcrunch List, speaks fluent Japanese, and is a frequent speaker on early stage investment, M&A, and strategic partnerships in digital entertainment.