San Jose, Calif. – Chichen Itza Ventures, the lead investor in Makena Technologies, the producer of the popular social virtual world There.com, today announced a significant investment in Trilogy Studios, a next generation console game and virtual world development company.
“Trilogy’s founders are leveraging their years of developing multi-million unit selling video games to enhance entertainment options for consumers within virtual worlds. This investment strengthens the partnership between Trilogy and There.com and it also marries Trilogy’s gaming expertise with There.com’s leadership in social virtual worlds,” said Michael Wilson, CEO of There.com. “We see a wealth of opportunity in new financial and distribution models for interactive entertainment, and There.com and Trilogy are building the infrastructure to support these new efforts.”
Trilogy and There.com are looking to expand the entertainment value of virtual worlds by combining entertainment brands that people love with social networking and game play mechanics found in today’s top next generation console games. Trilogy and There.com are working with entertainment media companies to leverage and extend their brands and content libraries in the virtual world arena. The two companies worked together to create content for MTV’s popular Virtual Pimp My Ride and are working with other major media companies on the development of new virtual world properties that will be announced shortly.
“Our team brings a fresh approach and skill set to the virtual world business,” commented Michael Pole, CEO of Trilogy Studios. “There.com and Trilogy are uniquely positioned to secure a significant share of the expanding virtual world market, by raising the platform’s entertainment value, interactivity, and brand loyalty. Combining our decades of experience in gaming with There.com’s leadership in social networking, we think we can take virtual worlds to a new level of enjoyment for users, and create new ways for entertainment companies to monetize their content.”
About Chichen Itza Ventures
Headquartered in San Jose, CA, Chichen Itza Ventures is an investor in Makena Technologies, the creator of There.com, Forterra Systems and other communication companies like Cerulean Studios, the maker of Trillian.
About Trilogy Studios
Founded in 2005 by video game and entertainment industry veterans Michael Pole and Rick Giolito, Santa Monica, CA-based Trilogy Studios develops high quality next generation console games and online virtual world networks. A pioneer in virtual world software development, Trilogy offers major media companies the opportunity to promote and monetize their content libraries and new entertainment properties in the online space, through micro-transactions, premium subscriptions, e-commerce, sponsorship and advertising. In 2007, Trilogy designed and launched MTV Networks’ most popular online virtual world to date, Virtual “Pimp My Ride.” Since the company’s inception, Trilogy has attracted some of the finest talent in the videogame industry from market-leading companies such as Electronic Arts, Take-Two Interactive, Rock Star Games and Vivendi Universal Games.
Contacts
Dotted Line Communications (for There.com)
Aimee Yoon, 646-678-4980
aimee@dottedlinecomm.com
Bender/Helper Impact (for Trilogy Studios)
Stacy Miles, 310-694-3106
stacy_miles@bhimpact.com