Shortly before abandoning his most recent game, it was announced that Sergey Titov and company were shifting their attention away from developing games, and would instead be pursuing new opportunities in the world of financing. Ever true to his word, it appears that the creator of controversial games such as The War Z, Shattered Skies, and Wild West Online, has landed a position at The Games Fund - a self-described "early-stage VC fund" geared towards helping burgeoning studios secure capital for their projects.
"The Games Fund has been established by games industry professionals with substantial development, publishing, operating and investment experience." Reads a press release from TGF, "Among the general partners are former executives of MGVC, one of the largest game funds in the world, GEM Capital, a heavyweight in deal sourcing and structuring, and Sergey Titov, a founding employee and former Technical Director/CTO of Riot Games, creator of one of the world's most widely-played gaming franchises, League of Legends."
While it's true that Titov was around in the early days of Riot Games, it's interesting that his brief tenure there would be his only qualifier for why he should be responsible for potentially millions of dollars. In fact, searching through TGF's published material, I wasn't able to locate any mention of Titov's activity between his departure from Riot Games way back in 2008 and now. That said, It's possible that his affiliation with Riot Games was chosen for being more recognizable than his other credits, but it also could be purposeful given that everything he's done in the decade since then has been riddled with controversy.
Not to suggest that Titov having a prominent position at TGF is an immediate cause for concern, but it's certainly worth noting. After all, I'd imagine that hustling gamers $20-$30 at a time carries significantly less accountability than hustling investors out of millions of dollars. Additionally, it doesn't appear that Titov is the sole authority here, as he is joined by three other partners who seem to have legitimate backgrounds in this arena.
Since TGF is only about a month old at this point, I'd say it's best to file this one under "wait and see". After all, the best case scenario is that some up-and-coming studios get the investment they need to get their projects off the ground. As for the worst case, well, it won't come as a complete shock.
