According to GeekWire, Seattle startup Sound Games has raised $6.5 million in seed funding. The 12-person company, co-founded by ex-Rec Room and Apple veteran Mike Schmid and brothers Jacobo and Sergio Abril, is pushing a “pay once, play anywhere” model for premium games. Their first title, Go Ape Ship!, is scheduled to launch on February 18 as an early test of this cross-platform approach. The seed round was led by Point72 Ventures, with participation from Timeless, Daybreak, and others. The funding will be used to ship multiple original titles, build cross-platform tech, and grow the team.
The cross-platform bet
Here’s the thing: this idea sounds fantastic for players, but it’s a massive technical and business hurdle. We’re not just talking about cloud saves here. Sound Games is promising a single purchase that grants access across fundamentally different ecosystems—PC stores, console walled gardens, and mobile app stores—each with their own payment cuts and platform rules. That’s a brutal negotiation to have with Sony, Microsoft, Nintendo, Apple, and Google. If they can actually pull it off technically and commercially, it would be a minor miracle. But it’s a bet worth making, because the current model is, frankly, annoying for anyone who games on more than one device.
Winners and losers
So who loses if this takes off? The obvious targets are the platforms themselves, whose cut of every transaction is a huge revenue stream. They might tolerate it for smaller indie titles, but if a major publisher ever demanded this model, the fight would be epic. The winners, in theory, are gamers and developers who want to focus on quality over monetization tricks. Sound Games says it’s avoiding heavy in-game purchases, which is a refreshing stance. But let’s be real: that $6.5M needs to turn into profitable games, and premium, one-time-purchase titles live and die by word-of-mouth and quality. There’s no recurring revenue safety net. It’s a high-risk, high-reward play in a market dominated by free-to-play giants.
Does this model have a future?
I think the success hinges entirely on the games. A compelling, must-play experience like Go Ape Ship! could make consumers actively seek out this consumer-friendly model. But if the games are just okay, the novelty won’t save them. They’re essentially asking players to trust that the library will be worth it. Look, the vision is noble. Who wouldn’t want to buy a game on Steam and also have it on their Switch during a commute without paying twice? Basically, they’re trying to de-fragment the gaming experience. It’s a big swing, and the first trailer will need to convince a skeptical market. Now we wait for February 18th to see if the gameplay matches the ambitious premise.
