Griffin Gaming launches $100 million fund for indie games with revenue-share model

Griffin Gaming Partners launched a $100 million Special Opportunities Fund on May 6, and the pitch cuts against the standard equity-first deal that dominates game investment. Instead of buying ownership stakes, the fund will finance indie projects in exchange for a share of game revenue, a structure Griffin says is meant to give studios simpler, fairer terms without forcing them to surrender as much control.

That matters because the pressure points in game financing have shifted. Smaller studios still need capital to finish ambitious projects, but many no longer want to trade away ownership just to get through development. With Tim Bender, the CEO of Hooded Horse, serving as managing director, Griffin is leaning into a model that fits a publisher already known for strategic and tactical depth. Bender has previously criticized recoup clauses in publishing deals, and Hooded Horse itself has built a reputation around revenue-share terms rather than the usual hard-edged advance-and-recoup structure.

Griffin said the fund has already backed 15 titles. Nine of them have been publicly announced: MENACE, Begone Beast, Expedition: Into Darkness, Vaunted, Gilded Destiny, Darkwood 2, Kinstrife, Highland Keep and Hellforged. The firm also said six more projects remain under wraps, including a sci-fi grand strategy game tied to a book and TV franchise, a god game with physics, a gladiator management sim, a dinosaur multiplayer RPG, a hard sci-fi space ARPG and a fantasy ARPG with base-building. That slate shows exactly where the money is going: into projects with enough identity and upside to justify a revenue split, but not necessarily a full equity handoff.

The new fund also fits Griffin’s larger push into games. The firm says it manages $1.5 billion, was founded by Peter Levin, Phil Sanderson and Nick Tuosto, and previously raised a $750 million gaming fund in March 2022. In January 2024, Griffin led a $100 million Series B investment in Marvel Snap developer Second Dinner, underscoring how aggressively it has backed the sector before now. The difference this time is the target: earlier-stage indie teams that may want capital without giving up the same control that traditional venture money usually demands.

That puts Griffin in the middle of a broader shift. In June 2024, Among Us developer Innersloth launched Outersloth, another creator-led indie fund, as studios looked for alternatives to tougher publishing terms and tighter financing. If Griffin’s model holds up, more developers could keep ownership intact while still getting the money needed to finish games, and players could end up seeing more risky projects survive long enough to reach launch.