Surrogate.tv
| Private | |
| ISIN | 🆔 |
| Industry | Video games |
| Founded 📆 | 14 January 2018 |
| Founder 👔 | |
| Headquarters 🏙️ | , , |
Area served 🗺️ | |
Key people | Shane Henrik Allen, CEO Esko Vähämäki, CSA Stan Dmitriev, CMO Severi Tikkala, CTO |
| Members | |
Number of employees | |
| 🌐 Website | surrogate |
| 📇 Address | |
| 📞 telephone | |
Surogate is a Finnish game development and video streaming company based in Espoo, Finland. Founded in January 2018 with the goal to bring real-life experiences into the gaming industry - they call it "Surrogate Reality".[1]
Company[edit]
Background and founding[edit]
Before founding Surrogate, back in 2010, one of the founders Shane Allen was at a business pitching competition which asked competitors to pitch their craziest ideas on stage. Allen looked through his business ideas and picked the idea which he called "Shoot Real People" - a game where players from all over the world can pay 1USD to be connected to a real paintball gun, control it, and shoot at a real host who is dodging the shots. After the overwhelmingly positive reception he received at the competition for this idea, Allen started to research into making this game a possibility. At this time though, the internet was not yet quick enough and latency was in the tens of seconds on even low definition video streaming - so Allen shelved the idea for the time while vowing to return to it when the time was right.
In 2016, Allen became the Product Owner at Tuxera, where he oversaw the AllConnect video streaming software team and also the time when he decided to pick up the idea again. It was at Tuxera that Allen teamed up with his co-founders Severi Tikkala, Stan Dmitriev, and Esko Vähämäki and decided to begin prototyping of this potential game "Shoot Real People". After noticing there were no existing solutions for what they wanted to do, the team decided to for the next 1-1/2 years to develop their own low-latency video streaming and control package which they titled SurroRTG. During development, they had come to the realization of many more game potentials that could be made with this kind of technology. After they had successfully prototyped this package, they managed to expand the team to an additional 6 team members, create a demo of a wireless first-person racing game, and successfully secured their seed round investment.
SurroRTG Low Latency Streaming and Control Technology[edit]
This is the software package which is developed by Surrogate that allows for ultra-low latency HD video streaming and robotic control from anywhere in the world. Most specifications of this technology have not been made public as of yet.
Maker Community[edit]
Surrogate is very active in helping the maker community and helping them create their own real-life experiences. With every game they develop, they release a build video along with it which explains how they can also create their own similar experience.[2] Additionally, Surrogate writes up full instructions on constructing real-life games which have been picked up by publications such as Make: Magazine [3]
Funding[edit]
On 15 July 2019, Initial Capital, ProFounders Capital, Brighteye Ventures, and Business Finland have invested a total of $2 million finalizing Surrogate's seed round. [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]
Games[edit]
| Title | Year | Status | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Race Real Cars 1:43 | 2019 | Available - Event Based | Surrogate's first publicly released game. It is a browser game that was released in August 2019,[15] where anyone from around the world can race real 1:43 scale RC cars over the internet using their PC or Mac on Chrome or Firefox browsers. The cars are based physically in Espoo, Finland inside Surrogate offices. |
| Real Batman '66 Pinball | 2019 | Beta | Real Batman '66 Pinball is the company's second game release. It is a browser game where players from all over the world can control a physical Stern Batman '66 pinball machine over the internet. |
Acknowledgements[edit]
In September, 2019 Surrogate was acknowledged as one of the top 10 video game startups to watch in 2019 by publication EU-Startups[16]
References[edit]
- ↑ Dmitriev, Stan (15 July 2018). "Surrogate.tv raises $2 million to bring real-life gaming to the internet". Surrogate.tv Blog. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
- ↑ Day, Lewin (August 31, 2019). "Race RC Cars From Anywhere On Earth". Hackaday. Retrieved August 31, 2019.
- ↑ "Driving A Tiny RC Car Over The Internet Using ESP8266". Make: Magazine. September 12, 2019. Retrieved September 12, 2019.
- ↑ Loritz, Mary (15 July 2018). "Espoo-based Surrogate.tv raises €1.8 million to bring real-life gaming to the internet". EU Startups. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
- ↑ Wauters, Robin (15 July 2018). "Finnish studio Surrogate.tv raises $2 million in seed funding to blur the lines between reality and gaming". Tech.eu. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
- ↑ "Finnish video game tech firm Surrogate.tv raises $2 mln". CoFounder. 15 July 2018. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
- ↑ "Finnish start-up Surrogate.tv raises $2 million". Pocket Gamer. 15 July 2018. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
- ↑ "Finland-based Surrogate.tv raises €1.8M to build the next generation of online games". Silicon Canals. 15 July 2018. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
- ↑ Kerr, Chris (15 July 2018). "'Reality-focused' game dev Surrogate secures $2 million in funding". Gamasutra. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
- ↑ Takahashi, Dean (15 July 2018). "'Surrogate raises $2 million for 'reality'-focused games and video streaming". VentureBeat. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
- ↑ Valentine, Rebekah (15 July 2018). "'Surrogate raises $2m in seed round". GamesIndustry. Retrieved 15 July 2019.
- ↑ Konttinen, Erno (15 July 2018). "Suomalainen startup haluaa mullistaa pelaamisen – keräsi 1,8 miljoonan rahoituksen". Tivi. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
- ↑ Konttinen, Erno (15 July 2018). ""Haluamme tuoda tosielämästä asioita pelikokemukseen" – Suomalainen pelialan startup sai 1,8 miljoonan euron rahoituksen". Gekniikkatalous. Retrieved 16 July 2019.
- ↑ ""Haluamme tuoda tosielämästä asioita pelikokemukseen" – Suomalainen pelialan startup sai 1,8 miljoonan euron rahoituksen". Galouselama. 15 July 2018. Retrieved 17 July 2019.
- ↑ Day, Lewin (August 31, 2019). "Race RC Cars From Anywhere On Earth". Hackaday. Retrieved August 31, 2019.
- ↑ Terrisse, Arnaud (September 6, 2019). "10 video game startups to look out for in 2019 and beyond". Hackaday. Retrieved September 6, 2019.
External links[edit]
This article "Surrogate.tv" is from Wikipedia. The list of its authors can be seen in its historical and/or the page Edithistory:Surrogate.tv. Articles copied from Draft Namespace on Wikipedia could be seen on the Draft Namespace of Wikipedia and not main one.
