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Destineer Secures $12 Million Private-Equity Investment
Deal is the Latest in Trend Changing How Games Get Made
MINNEAPOLIS, MN, April 27, 2006 – Destineer®, a developer and publisher of videogames and virtual training simulations, today announces that it has secured an equity investment of $12 million from private-equity firm The Exxel Group. Destineer plans to use the investment to help fund development of a group of un-announced games for videogame consoles and personal computers, as well as expand the company’s distribution and product development in Latin America.
“Exxel’s investment in Destineer is part of a trend that is changing how videogames get made,” according to Peter Tamte, Destineer’s founder and president. “Recently, we saw many big publishers shift their development funding to low-risk sequels and me-too knockoffs. Now, we’re seeing private equity firms step in to provide creative companies with funding to build truly innovative games.”
Paul Rinde, Destineer’s CEO, adds, “The venture capitalists of the videogame industry have traditionally been the large publishers, because they’re the ones who have funded most game development until now. But, this new trend of private-equity firms investing in the games industry gives creative companies like Destineer much more flexibility to make games the established publishers are less likely to create.”
Exxel’s investment is the second equity investment Destineer has secured outside the games industry during the past year. In mid-2005, Destineer also secured an investment from In-Q-Tel, a private venture capital firm funded by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency.
Destineer was created in 2001 by former Bungie executive vice-president Peter Tamte, and is now managed by Mr. Tamte and CEO Paul Rinde, who was formerly senior vice-president at Atari. The company develops and publishes videogames under the Destineer, Bold Games®, MacSoft®, and Atomic® brands, and the company develops highly realistic virtual training simulations for government, military, and intelligence organizations around the world.