Investor Interview Vol. 1: Hiro on Look North World
Hello everyone!
I’m Nazuki, a junior associate that recently joined the 021 Fund.
In July, we announced an investment in Look North World (LNW), an LA-based game studio and publisher specializing in UGC (User-Generated Content) gaming platforms.
(Click here for further details)
To help deepen my understanding of our initiatives, I interviewed Hiro, my senior colleague who led this investment.
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Nazuki:
First, can you explain what LNW is working on?
Hiro:
LNW is a game studio and publisher specializing in UGC gaming platforms like Fortnite and Roblox.
The founders are industry veterans with a significant amount of experience in the gaming business.
They are currently focusing mainly on UEFN content (*1), leveraging the platform’s tools to produce games at a low cost and in a short time. Plus, the team also has great marketing capabilities using modern platforms like TikTok, Discord, Twitch, etc.
Nazuki:
So, the company is focusing not only on development but also on publishing and marketing. What made you interested in LNW in the first place?
Hiro:
There are mainly two reasons. The first is their expertise in delivering content to young users.
UGC gaming platforms like Fortnite and Roblox attract young users, aka Gen Z and Alphas, who would hopefully become Bandai Namco Entertainment’s fans in the future. LNW spends time to understand how to create and market content to these users. For instance, these generations are more familiar with TikTok and YouTube than TV shows or films, so they are used to consuming content quickly. LNW has the capabilities to match this consumption speed, and they have already released six games in its first year.
Nazuki:
It seems like they already have the foundation to quickly catch user trends and produce games. What is the second reason?
Hiro:
The second reason is the management team. The CEO, Alex Seropian, is an industry veteran who has produced the Halo series. Maybe Japanese people aren’t that familiar, but this game became a massive hit in the West during the early days of PC gaming. Afterwards, Alex founded two more game studios that he sold to EA and Disney, respectively. His ability to sense new opportunities in the gaming business is highly regarded in the industry. When I saw that someone like Alex was starting a new company on a new platform like Fortnite, I could not pass on the opportunity.
Nazuki:
I can see how the founding team is an important aspect when making investment decisions.
So now that you have made the investment, what do you hope to get out of it?
Hiro:
LNW is constantly trying out new things in the UGC gaming space while building a community of Gen Z/Alpha players and young content creators. Bandai Namco Entertainment America is already working with LNW to produce a new UEFN experience using our Mobile Suit Gundam IP, and I would love to be able to bring more of Bandai Namco’s IPs to broader audiences by working with LNW and leveraging their strengths.
Nazuki:
I hope we can continue to collaborate with LNW and positively impact each other's businesses. Finally, we have a comment from LNW's CEO, Alex!
“One of the things I love about the video game industry is that it is always changing.
Every few years, there’s new technology or new platforms to work with and new ways to build fun and entertaining games. Fortnite and platforms like Overwolf are exciting opportunities for a company like Look North World to invent a faster, more iterative way of making games that engage a brand new audience. These platforms encourage experimentation and learning quickly.
Bandai Namco is an ideal partner for us as we explore how UGC communities fit within the overall market of video games and the potential for game mechanics, characters, and worlds to move freely between traditional game and UGC communities.”
― Alex Seropian, CEO, Look North World
（*1 UEFN：stands for Unreal Editor for Fortnite, a game editor based on the Unreal Engine used to create original games on Fortnite. UEFN is also used to refer to UGC games on Fortnite created with this editor）
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