Press

DURHAM, NC, July 14, 2011 —  After reviewing applications from around the country, Joystick Labs (www.joysticklabs.com)  is pleased to announce the first team who will participate in its 2011 Summer Underground program. wefiends (www.wefiends.com), a Los Angeles based developer founded by brothers Nick and Kevin Barrios, develop fun, creative, and original games that anyone can [...]

DURHAM, N.C. – July 7, 2011 – Joystick Labs (www.joysticklabs.com), an innovative accelerator program focused exclusively on video game companies today announced that Unity Technologies is providing Unity Pro  licenses free of charge to studios selected to participate in Joystick Labs accelerator program. Unity is the #1 game engine for creating awesome games and interactive [...]

Mighty Rabbit Studios Saturday Morning RPG also shows a lot of promise especially if you grew up in the 1980s. The gameplay is standard Japan RPG fare, but the nostalgia and humor that permeates the game definitely brought a smile to my face.

In the $15 billion video game industry, it can be difficult for the little guys to get their start. Large companies producing Blockbuster games often squeeze out the young, creative computer science students who have very little chance of successfully producing and releasing a game on their own. That’s where Joystick Labs comes in.

The American Underground DURHAM, NC, Feb. 24, 2011 —  Joystick Labs (www.joysticklabs.com),   an innovative accelerator program focused exclusively on video game developers, announced today that it has opened the application process for its 2011 Summer Underground program.  It will be hosting a free web information session on Tuesday March 15, from 11:00 a.m. to 12:00 [...]

Lab Rats Studio finds success after participation in accelerator program DURHAM, N.C. – April 5, 2011 – Joystick Labs (www.joysticklabs.com),  an innovative accelerator program focused exclusively on video game companies, announced today that the first of its portfolio companies has secured a major publishing deal with a prominent global partner in the game industry for [...]

DURHAM, N.C.— Joystick Labs, the first seed-stage venture fund and accelerator program focused exclusively on the development of digitally distributed video games, today announced the names of the initial group of mentors that will advise teams selected to participate in its Fall 2010 accelerator program, including video game industry luminaries from Epic Games, Insomniac Games, [...]

DURHAM, N.C.—North Carolina is now home to the next generation of video game development. Joystick Labs announced Tuesday it is accepting applications for the first seed-stage venture fund and accelerator program focused exclusively on the development of digitally distributed video games.  Juan Benito, a veteran executive of the gaming industry, co-founded Joystick Labs to help [...]

On the gaming front, that’s something that’s good to point out because I think most people don’t know about the gaming cluster here. It’s been a really strong area for us since the early 90s: Epic Games, EA, Emergent Game Technologies, Red Storm Entertainment, they’ve all either been based here, have presences here, or were founded here. I think at last count there’s something like 30 gaming industry related companies here. One cool thing about that, too, is that the community kind of recently came together and angel funded and launched Joystick Labs, which is an incubator.

“The creation of the entity(Joystick Labs) has interesting timing. In the past, game developers were at the mercy of game publishers, who controlled retail distribution of games and could often dictate terms. The costs of game development for the consoles became so large that the publishers only backed sequels of hits or proven teams. The [...]

“The creation of Joystick Labs is one of the latest signs that the video game production and distribution model is changing. With the mass adoption of browser-based and mobile gaming platforms, the market is increasingly shifting its focus away from traditional retail distribution channels to digitally distributed video games that can be downloaded over the [...]

“Most in the game industry — and those who’d like to be in it — know that funding is the arguably the biggest challenge to an independent project. Now, a new Durham, North Carolina-based organization hopes to assist, but it’s aiming beyond the traditional model of project-based funding — Joystick Labs’ aim is to provide [...]