Dark Passenger raises $3 million to fund debut multiplayer game

Indie developer Dark Passenger recently raised $3 million in seed funding. According to the announcement, venture firms The Games Fund and Blite Fund led the round for the Polish studio.

That money will go toward developing its first project, a multiplayer game inspired by feudal Japan. The developer first surfaced and announced its unnamed game back in 2022.

Dark Passenger is made up of several ex-CD Projekt Red developers, who previously worked on The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and Cyberpunk 2077. Other staff hail from fellow Warsaw-based studios, such as People Can Fly, Reikon, and Flying Wild Hog.

It's also another recent studio formed by CDPR alums. Fellow indie Rebel Wolves was also founded in 2022 by Witcher 3 director Konrad Tomaszkiewicz after he exited CDPR due to accusations of workplace bullying. Earlier this year, his brother Mateusz (also from CDPR) joined his studio, which is currently developing the triple-A dark fantasy RPG, The Blod of Dawnwalker.

Rebel Wolves' debut is set to be published by Bandai Namco. Over the weekend, it released a teaser for Dawnwalker, with the promise of a full reveal on January 13, 2025.

"Although we’re best known for triple-A, story-driven RPGs, our true passion has always been multiplayer," said Dark Passenger CEO Jakub Ben in a statement. "It takes imagination, trust, and vision to fully understand our direction, and these are the qualities we found in The Games Fund. This investment is a game-changer for us—it’s helped expand our team and set the foundations for our project, allowing us to focus on production."

Games Fund managing partner Ilia Eremeev said the firm was drawn to Dark Passenger's "vision [of] an exciting, undiluted power fantasy. There’s a shortage of games that dare to take risks and deliver bold, unapologetic experiences, leaving players craving that 'Hell yeah' factor. After seeing their early demo, we instantly recognized that Dark Passenger is set to deliver exactly that."