Challenge Games, developer of the popular Duels online fantasy game and member of the Austin Emerging 100, today announced it has secured $4.5 million in Series A funding from Sequoia Capital, which has a long history of investing in market-leading gaming companies – including being the original investor in Atari, Electronic Arts and nVIDIA. Challenge Games also announced it signed a multi-year licensing deal with MLB Advanced Media, LP (MLBAM), the interactive media and Internet company of Major League Baseball. The funding and licensing deal will support expansion of the short-form, browser-based online game titles developed by Challenge Games, including a new kind of collectible card-based web sports game called Baseball Boss, which the company launched today.

As part of the agreement with the MLBAM, Baseball Boss allows players to collect and trade virtual online baseball cards, which can be used to build teams and challenge other gamers or historical teams to fantasy baseball games. Like traditional baseball cards, the online cards available in Baseball Boss include player statistics and photos. Baseball Boss currently allows gamers to collect and trade virtual baseball cards of players from the 1907 and 2007 baseball seasons – with new seasons to be released over the coming months.

“Both casual and hardcore gamers alike have few choices when it comes to finding challenging quick-fix gaming experiences that are high-quality and engaging,” said Roelof Botha, venture capitalist with Sequoia Capital. “But when I found and played Duels for the first time, I was hooked. It’s clear Challenge Games is filling a major opportunity in the gaming market.”

Duels and Baseball Boss are the first titles developed by Challenge Games. They’re free-to-play online games that combine the collectibility and trading associated with collectible card games (CCGs) and sports cards with the competitive aspects of massively multi-player games (MMORPGs) and the ease of access of community Web 2.0 applications. They are also unique in their asynchronous, short-form design, which allows them to be played in 5-15 minute increments rather than in long marathon sessions.

“With nearly 250,000 loyal Duels gamers in its first ten months and a fantasy sports world worth $2 billion, we’re just beginning to skim the surface of the growing market for short-form online games,” said Andrew Busey, founder and CEO of Challenge Online Games. “We’re excited to have the support of one of the top venture capital firms as well as MLB Advanced Media as we continue to bring together the best of the old and new gaming worlds.”

Sphere: Related Content

Technorati Tags: Austin, challenge games, gaming, Startup

Filed under: Funding