It looks like my dreams of piloting a giant death robot at some point in my life have been answered. Meteor Entertainment has managed to raise $10 million for their upcoming title Hawken, a dystopian mech-based FPS. Developed by Adhesive Games, Hawken will be released this December as a free-to-play title for the PC.
No Kickstarter campaign for this one, Meteor Entertainment has raised cash for Hawken the old fashioned way, by asking people who have a lot of money. Venturebeat is reporting that Hawken’s new investors, Benchmark Capital and FirstMark Capital, are the same investors who put their faith and their cash behind Riot Game’s League of Legends. Hawken will also be a free-to-play title and looks like it will follow the same basic formula, with in-game goods available for those who pay real money.
Meteor Entertainment hopes to “disrupt” traditional business methods by also releasing some form digital distribution system with Hawken. The company hopes to find success combining the free-to-play model with this digital distribution system which will eventually host other games as well.
So far 200,000 people have signed up for the game’s closed beta, in case you were wondering about the game’s popularity. There isn’t much competition out there in the giant mech FPS genre, so expect to see more people sign up as the release date approaches.
Check out some initial gameplay of Hawken below. I dare you to not get excited.