Making headlines with success stories crowned with funding pouring in from many prominent global names has almost become an ordinary scene for Turkish gaming companies.

What is even more ordinary is the impact the country’s first-ever billion-dollar company has had and is still having on the Turkish startup scene.

Mobile games studio Magic Games, another venture founded by former Peak Games veterans, has announced that it raised more than $5 million in a seed round led by Makers Fund, with participation by Fırat Ileri and Hummingbird Ventures.

Peak became somewhat of a training ground after it achieved status as Türkiye’s first-ever unicorn startup in 2020. It has transformed Türkiye’s startup scene, shedding light on the country’s emerging tech promise for global investors and spurring young entrepreneurs to find their own companies.

The fact that Magic Games raised funding of such size despite being in a seed round is said to lie in large marketing and game development expenses.

Founded by former Peak Games leaders Çağrı Öztürk, Rüya Çelikcan and Mert Kasar, and joined by senior industry leaders Murat Özçelik, Anıl Sert and Orhan Tuç, the team draws from deep experience creating top-grossing mobile puzzle games including Toy Blast, Toon Blast and Star Blast.

On a mission to define a new genre of casual, community-driven multiplayer puzzle games, Magic Games will use the funds to grow the team, hiring artists and developers in Istanbul and soon for a second office in Europe.

Social interaction

Magic Games builds around the belief that social interactions are the key to deepening end enriching shared gameplay experience, said Çağrı Öztürk, CEO and co-founder of Magic Games.

"We believe that in-game communities can transform the way that our users play with and against each other – creating friendly camaraderie out of competition. Social features are integral to our development cycle as we work to build multiplayer games that anyone can enjoy."

Curtis Urbanowicz, Makers Fund lead on the deal, said they were "immediately drawn to Magic Games’ ambition of creating match-3 puzzle games that blend community features with multiplayer elements."

"Çağrı and his team have built world-class games in this genre before, and we think the casual games market is going to love the fresh perspective that they’re bringing to this next chapter," Urbanowicz noted.

Magic Games is looking to hire talented artists and developers to work on the company’s first game, a new social title with a match-3 core, currently in development.

Istanbul: A gaming startups hub

The industry monitor startups.watch has published its latest report that sheds light on the development of gaming ventures in the Turkish startup ecosystem.

The report particularly stresses the momentum mobile games have gained since 2012 while also highlighting the effect that spurred many developers and a major appetite when it comes to global investors since 2018.

Over the past four years, it says, many former game startup developers have moved forward to establish their own startups. Relying on their knowledge and previous experience, "they quickly raised investments, quickly made exits, and even quickly turned into unicorns," it noted.

"The Turkish Gaming Ecosystem has already seen the birth of two unicorns," referring to Peak and Dream Games. All founders of Dream, dubbed Türkiye’s fastest unicorn, are Peak Games alumni.