Alternate Reality Game Company Fourth Wall Studios Raises $15 Million

Los Angeles-based Fourth Wall Studios has raised $15 million from California Capital Equity to support its efforts in alternate reality gaming. The 20-person company was co-founded in 2007 by Sean Stewart, Jim Stewartson and Elan Lee. The threesome had previously worked on alternate reality games including 2003's The Beast, in association with the Steven Spielberg movie AI, and 2004's I Love Bees, in promotion of Microsoft's Halo 2. Since forming Fourth Wall, the team has worked on ARG projects including "Sadie's Story," a meta-game and radio drama hidden within Halo 3: ODST. In an announcement, the company said the new investment will help add "social networks and other new media" to their projects, and help drive planned partnerships with film, TV, video game and publishing companies in the next year. “Right now, there is a once in a generation opportunity to produce the iconic properties that will help define the landscape of entertainment for the 21st century,” Stewartson said in a statement. In a 2006 interview with Gamasutra, Lee said he saw the role of promotional ARGs as different from that of traditional marketing. "Typically marketing tries to get more new eyeballs on a product," Lee said. "What we try to do is get a product into venues they wouldn’t normally have access to. ... Halo 2 was going to be huge, no doubt about it. But suddenly you saw crazy, fanatic people answer telephones in bee costumes in the middle of a hurricane; you saw that on CNN and you saw that in the New York Times." California Capital Equity is run by Patrick Soon-Shiong, who also owns the L.A. Lakers.