Back in January, Zynga’s chief game designer Brian Reynolds, who was also behind older hits like Rise of Nations and Civilization II, quietly left the company.
He’s popping up back on the scene this month with a new company called SecretNewCo. (Appropriate, eh?)
And the startup is announcing a strategic partnership with Japanese gaming giant Nexon today. The Tokyo-based company is investing an undisclosed amount of capital in Reynolds’ company for a minority stake.
That will give Nexon worldwide publishing rights for SecretNewCo’s flagship game, which has an appropriately named working title of “SecretNewGame.” Nexon is making this deal to appeal to Western audiences after building up longstanding franchises in China, Japan and South Korea like MapleStory. The company made 44.4 billion Japanese yen (or $447.3 million) in the first three months of this year with 15.3 billion yen (or $154.8 million) in profit.
The company has a much smaller presence in English-speaking and European markets, and this could patch up its offerings in these countries. Europe and North America contributed less than 5 percent of Nexon’s revenues in the first three months of this year, while China produced nearly half of the company’s in-take.
SecretNewCo’s flagship game itself sounds reminiscent of Civilization. The title is a “mobile strategic social network game” where the player begins as the leader of a tribe in the Stone Age and has to guide their civilization through all ages of human history. Like in Civilization, they can trade with their friends, launch raids enemies, form alliances and defend against attacks from other players.
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