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Second Dinner, the studio co-created by former Hearthstone leads including Ben Brode and Hamilton Chu, has secured a $30m minority investment from NetEase.
Announced on Twitter, this investment is enough for the eight month old studio to hire a team and “get to the end of the first project without having to stop in the middle to scramble for more investment,” Chu – CEO of Second Dinner – said in the announcement video.
Second Dinner’s first game will be Marvel-related, the team also revealed, adding that they’ve been working on the project for six months and have started playtesting. Now based in a brand new office in Irvine, California (as opposed to its previous location: Ben Brode’s garage), Second Dinner is currently hiring for a client engineer and a technical artist. You can find more details here.
In a statement, Brode (who is chief creative officer) said: “The team is really excited to get some new perspectives on the game and some awesome folks to help design and build it. I really want to encourage people to drop us a line, even if they like their current job. Like, what could it hurt? We offer competitive salaries, insurance, 401k – all that real-company stuff. Hit me up for coffee or something, even if you’re just curious if you’d be a good fit for one of our openings.”
Jay Ong, EVP and head of Marvel Games at Marvel Entertainment, commented: “I’ve worked with Hamilton and Ben for years and they are exactly who we want making Marvel games. They and the team they’ve assembled at Second Dinner have made some of the greatest games in history. And now, working with the Marvel Games team and playing in the Marvel Universe… It’s going to be Amazing! Or maybe Spectacular! Or Incredible! Or Mighty! Or quite possibly all of the above!”
Ben Brode’s wife added: “I’m just excited they’re out of my house.”
Second Dinner was launched eight months ago by former Blizzard employees Hamilton Chu, Mike Schweitzer, Yong Woo, Jomaro Kindred and Ben Brode, who left his position as Hearthstone game director after 15 years at Blizzard in April 2018.
Here’s the full announcement video:
