Are living-service sport engine Pragma nets $12.75 million in funding

Illustration by Mountaintop Studios.

Pragma, a backend framework designed for live-service games such as Spectre Divide and Predecessor, recently garnered $12.75 million in a “strategic investment” round.

Square Enix along with venture firms Insight Partners, Upfront Ventures, and Greylock Partners all played a role in this funding round. This new investment, according to VentureBeat, totals over $50 million in financial backing for Pragma.

In its statement, the organization indicated that the funding “enables us to persist in offering scalable, live-service infrastructure while broadening our lineup of game development tools.” Pragma’s offerings include cross-platform accounts and monetization, live operations, and social components such as matchmaking and player engagement systems.

Key players in Pragma’s network

Past Pragma clients have featured People Can Fly, Frost Giant Games, and the external studios division of Square Enix.

“This investment reflects our dedication to fostering innovation and high standards within the gaming sector,” stated Square Enix’s investment general manager Hideaki Uehara. “We anticipate that this partnership [with Pragma] will promote substantial growth and innovation, benefiting our company as well as the broader gaming landscape.”

Pragma CEO Eden Chen remarked that their ongoing collaboration with the Final Fantasy developer “allows us to expedite product development, enabling clients to launch their games online more affordably and swiftly, while scaling up with improved tools for developing communities and retaining players.”

This investment followed their acquisition of player engagement tool FirstLook in late February. As noted by VentureBeat, Pragma now offers “a comprehensive solution for game development,” catering to both getting games online and assisting developers in growing their games’ communities.

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