Hydratac raises $ 3m to play a “extremely realistic” shooter

Hydrate is a small company with only seven people working in a next -generation shooter game, and she raised $ 3 million.

The company is run by former risk capitalist Louis and is supported by former Treyarch Studio accomplice, Dan Bunting, who is a member of the Hydratac board. They have essentially switched the roles in the process of reviving this studio.

“As a VC I joked that it would take a long time for me even the scales with the time of
an investor country, considering that I spent 15 years before VC as an entrepreneur/contractor/operator/builder in
Numerous start -ups, Google X, Riot Games and Deloitte, “said the mistake. “Today, I am ecstatic to announce that these scales have returned the other way – I return to entrepreneurship after spending almost five years as a co -founder/partner at 1 in the morning Gaming VC and our parent company March Capital.”

He added: “Dan Bunting (former Call of Duty) will be my member of the board. We are building an extremely realistic military simulation with an initial focus on the battle of nearby neighborhoods. ”

Bunting spent his career building a Call of Duty franchise in Treyarch, where he rose to the studio and helped create games like Call of Duty: Black Ops and Zombies Frankishes. He left the Activision against the backdrop of some of the turmoil through which the company went to the ME-TOO era. Bunting did not speak publicly about these circumstances in detail, but a lot was written about it.

I am wrong said that the work on the moisturized started last year and he realized that “it was just too massive and too perfect, so that we would not make me plant a banner in the precipice.”

First -person shooters are a massive market, the team had a lot of experience and interesting technological and product. So he pulled the trigger and joined them as CEO.

At the end of last year, the company raised $ 3 million initial capital from a leader 1 in the morning of Gaming VC and HGM Fund. The team has seven full -time people and has the first iteration of the product and works internally. The company tests daily, has several open positions and is on a public launch schedule in 2025, Self said.

“Although we are not ready to fully reveal everything publicly about what we are still building (and
Who builds it, including my co -founder, given even more insane attention these names will
Attracting to the Community!), This is what we can share today: We develop what it will be
An unprecedented high -faithful military simulation, starting with CQB and expanding from there.

He said Hydratac is a port of Hydra Tactical, Hydra briefly.

The first product will be a PC consumer edition later this year, which was built on a patented, tested front-end battle+Backdal (hence the speed of the market), and the team already includes specifications from the military for their use cases-which will further improve What players they try.

“This flywheel effect was a huge multiplier for us in my last endeavor, financed / complicit startup
Cape (supported by Nea, Google, others) and acquired by Motorola Solutions (www.cape.com),
where we gave PC players the opportunity to fly and Dogfight Real Drones (virtual weapons) around
the world with an almost zero latent camera and control, then gave the same ability to our
Military and police customers, “Smrasham said.

The idea that became hydra gathered after the initial brain attack sessions last year with
Some of the best minds in the military FPS, tactical shooters, hardcore Milsimi for business and consumers and FPS in general, as well as military people both from the uniforms and the private sector of the table.

“Immediate enthusiasm and insight from Dan Bunting, a former studio leader in Treyarch for 20
Years of the Call of Duty Black Ops titles waiting for years to see this fulfilled was
A large -scale impetus, ”he said.

Bunting led the investment on behalf of 1 in the morning in its capacity as a risky partner and served on board. I am essentially wrong and Bunting switched jobs. In an interview, Bunting said, after learning so much work on a studio, he wants to share some of his experience as a VC and advisor to many games for games.

“This would not have been possible without the incredible support of my 1 morning co -founders Gregory Milken, whom I joined in March Capital to launch our first Games Fund in Q4 2019, and Francisco Liquido (also co -founder of my first company in 2004 . The founder of Par Chadha and the entire crew in the HGM Fund, whose participation covers revenue over $ B, 15K employees and over 20 countries; And the legion of others who devote their experience, mentoring and support for taking us from the earth, “said the sin.

More details about the game will come later. As this is a new company, the team has thought of AI but has not yet applied anything that can be considered a transformative AI tool.

“Ai, it’s not yet quite there for our purposes,” said the mistake. “There are interesting things. Dan and I talked about the beginning of last year about the fact that AI can interpret the voice well. In fact, being able to give commands to teammates from units – this is interesting. This is not something we will soon apply because of the problems of calculations, but this is interesting. “

Origin

He works with March Capital with Milken, and then 1 am with Milken, Frank Liquido and now Bunting. The team has invested in 15 different gaming companies. But for the last four or five years as a VC, I finally decided to return to the startup games.

Bunting and the mistake began to talk seriously about the game in early 2024. The wrong began much of the original work in May 2024. This is the original intellectual property.

“We actually started looking at the market and saw if there was a team that happened after this exact market this way and it just wasn’t,” said the mistake. “There were many independent studios in this segment. They had made hundreds of millions. But no Gorilla industry goes after the opportunity. So, after chewing the idea for about two months together, I said that it just has to be done and no one does it. “

Grosham has gathered a team of recognizable veterans in the game shooter market, but the mistake is not yet revealing their names. The goal is to deliver a Steam game later this year in early computer access. The company can hire several more people in the stage before launch.

“We will be very, very quiet about notifying players what the plan is and what the game will be,” he said. “Pre -start, we operate some arbitration of IP and technology that allows us to break through a lot, much above our weight.”

The company will do some quiet tests in the summer and will probably announce the game at about the same time.

“We are going exclusively to Hardcore Milsim,” said the sin. “We treat him has a hydra for a short time. The name is Hydra Plus Tactical Mushed together. “

I asked Bunting why he did not join the launch.

“Where I am currently in my career, I am comfortable working with many different game manufacturers that I have never had before because he has always been so focused on Call of Duty,” Bunting said. “The thing with VC for me was really a way to enable the next generation of talents to be, set up studios and inventing new ideas and playing cool games.”

He sees him as a way to come back a little and starts with the company of sin. Bunting was considering starting his own studio, but he said, “Don’t drive me right now. Lewis and I have a great partnership. We are friends, except we are business partners. “