AMC Networks and Lionsgate were among existing investors that put a combined total of $10 million into Next Games, a Finnish game maker, the company announced last week.
Next Games has produced two mobile games: “The Walking Dead: No Man’s Land,” based on the AMC show, and “Compass Point: West.” A third game is in the works, and the new cash will help pay for marketing for the first two and for speeding up development of the third.
The new investment comes on top of a previous round of about $8 million and highlights the deepening interest among Hollywood studios for extending their hits to new forms of entertainment. Smartphone games have become an easy choice because of affordable development costs and an incredibly broad potential audience.
Next Games said “The Walking Dead” has been downloaded about 10 million times since being released in October.
“Compass Point” went live nearly a year ago, but the company didn’t release download figures for the Wild West frontier game.
