Eschatology Entertainment raises $11.3m in one of Cyprus' largest-ever Series A rounds

In August 2024, Nicosia-based gaming startup Eschatology Entertainment secured a landmark for local standards US$11,3 million Series A round, led by South Korean gaming giant Krafton, with significant reinvestment from The Games Fund and GEM Capital.

Talking to CBN, CEO and Creative Director Fuad Kuliev credits the investment to a simple factor: the gameplay.

Small Beginnings

As with most ambitious ventures, Eschatology Entertainment began as a spark that quickly ignited into something much bigger. Fuad Kuliev and Dmytro Kostiukevych, who crossed paths while working at Wargaming, which established headquarters in Nicosia in 2012, decided to strike out on their own and build an indie, arena-based prototype, a job that could be done by a couple of people. As positive feedback rolled in, they realised it warranted a much bigger vision. Kuliev tells CBN, “At that moment, we understood that we needed a much better direction that I alone could provide. It required more financial and operations expertise.”

Two key people joined the fold as co-founders: Viktor Antonov, known for his groundbreaking art direction in titles like Half-Life 2 and operations expert Boris Nikolaev (another Wargaming employee). Just months after its launch in 2022, Eschatology Entertainment secured a US$4 million seed round led by GEM Capital and The Games Fund, two VC firms known for backing high-potential gaming startups in Southeast Europe and financing much of Cyprus’ fast-growing game development scene.

Today, Eschatology’s team has grown to about 70 members. Though the company technically calls Nicosia home – Kuliev lives in Souni, a village in the Limassol District – the team is fully distributed, with talent spanning from Armenia to France.

Cyprus’ Gaming Scene On The Rise

Kuliev and Kostiukevych aren’t alone in their post-Wargaming ventures. Other ex-employees of the video game company, which by 2023 employed some 450 people in the country, have branched out to form their own studios, such as Apella Games and Pump. So, is a Wargaming founders’ collective blossoming in Cyprus?

Kuliev replies, “Wargaming wanted to have the best resources and bring them here, which grew this whole expertise inside Wargaming and inevitably outside it. Five years ago, if you were looking to create anything other than a mobile game, you’d meet a former Wargaming employee on every corner. These days not so much, because companies like Nexters have come to the island, and there’s a big stream of talent relocating to the island, bringing their own experience and ideas.”

By 2023, Cyprus had become a hub for over 300 gaming companies and supporting service providers, with a fast-growing community of more than 2,000 game developers. In the January 2024 cover story by GOLD magazine that profiled the local industry, the island's favourable tax regime emerged as a decisive factor: income tax is halved for owners and employees of newly established international companies for 20 years, corporate tax is set at a competitive 12.5%, and foreigners enjoy zero tax on dividends and capital gains. Add to this a business-friendly atmosphere, high quality of life, access to EU markets, newly introduced naturalisation rules for skilled talent and a warm climate, and it’s easy to see why Cyprus has become a base for gaming startups and veterans alike. It makes sense, then, that this segment of the local startup scene would start attracting Series A tickets, which rarely come Cyprus’ way; besides 3D and AR engine Threedium, which raised a US$11 million round from US bigwig IPG in 2023, and Strikerz Inc., the developer of the next-gen football simulation game UFL, which has raised US$40 million in 2023, there haven’t been any other recent examples.

Eschatology’s Edge

So, what exactly is Krafton, GEM Capital and The Games Fund backing? Eschatology’s in-progress title merges the gritty aesthetics of soulslike games with first-person shooter mechanics, setting the stage in a post-apocalyptic Wild West. For the uninitiated, soulslikes – a term originating from the Dark Souls series – are hardcore dark-fantasy epics where players trudge through eerie, treacherous landscapes crawling with monsters. The mechanics typically involve close-quarters combat with melee weapons. Games in this genre, including Dark Souls, Sekiro and Elden Ring, have attracted a large fan base, selling millions of copies worldwide. While there have been some attempts to create shooter-souls games, Kuliev explains, they use shooting as a side mechanic rather than as a fully-fledged gameplay element. “I’m a shooter player,” he says, “and I know a lot of guys who play shooters and we’re looking at soulslike and we like the approach, the world the gothic fantasy and stuff like that. But if you give me a gun in this game, I’d be much happier. So, it basically came down to the question: is it possible to recreate the experience of the soulslike genre by not using soulslike tools?” Integrating Wild West themes was integral in creating such an experience, as it allowed the developers to incorporate period-specific weapons like the Conversion Colt Army 1860, introducing high-stakes mechanics into the gameplay, which are part and parcel of hardcore games. “What’s cool with revolver mechanics,” he says,” is that it gives you a limited amount of bullets and that means you can rotate the cylinder and choose a piece in your arsenal to attack your enemy, which adds a layer of reactivity.”

For non-gamers, Kuliev describes the game’s vibe as a blend of the arthouse film Dead Man by Jim Jarmusch, with echoes of Clint Eastwood’s Man with No Name character from Sergio Leone's famous Dollars Trilogy. “Like Clint Eastwood,” he adds, “our character has some backstory, some things that are important to him, as opposed to the typical soulslike character. But they are a bit vague and you can decide if they are good or bad. For obvious reasons, I cannot spoil the details!" As for when the game will hit screens, Kuliev remains hesitant, although early 2026 seems a likely release date.

Why Venture Capital Matters For Indies

While some corners of the industry have criticised VC funding for its supposed creativity-strangling oversight, Kuliev's experience has been nothing but smooth. "Without all investors, including Krafton, it would have been impossible to build a 70-member team," he says. More importantly, he considers VC funding as especially vital for indie studios – the money coming from specialised firms gives these studios the runway to push creative boundaries. “If you look at my library, in the last two weeks, I played so many indie games and a lot of them have some beautiful ideas that you look at and say, wow, that seems awesome,” he says. While it might be hard to sell those ideas to the generally more risk-averse larger game companies, they can still be taken, polished and perfected. “The indie segment acts as a melting pot to create new ideas. This is very important stuff,” he adds.