AVALON EMPOWERS CREATORS TO BUILD THEIR MMO DREAMS INTO REALITY INSIDE A NEW GAME WITH AN OASIS OF POSSIBILITIES
Fully remote start-up studio unveils flagship game created by industry veterans and visionaries that gives unprecedented power to community
Nov. 14, 2023 – From the minds of developers who have been living and breathing massively multiplayer online (MMO) games for more than two decades comes AVALON, the first MMO designed from the ground up to empower players to create, share, play, and take ownership of their experiences.
The remote and global AVALON team is led by Jeffrey Butler, one of the original producers for EverQuest, its first expansions, and numerous other iconic MMOs, and Sean Pinnock, a games CEO with multiple successful games projects and exits. The game uses the company's proprietary tools that prove Butler and Pinnock's shared desire for a player-centric and publisher-agnostic game experience can work.
"I've always had a clear vision of a limitless online world where players are equipped with the tools to not only create whatever they can dream, but also share the experiences across multiple connected realities,” explains Sean Pinnock, CEO, AVALON. “All of us nerds share this dream of an MMO that blurs the lines between the virtual and the real. When Jeff and I realized our shared vision, we knew we had to work together to create it. It's too difficult for any one person or company to build, but we believe that by empowering our community alongside us, we can make something that fulfills the promise of the metaverse."
Built using Unreal Engine by video game industry veterans from EverQuest, Call of Duty, Diablo, Assassin's Creed, Elden Ring, World of Warcraft, and more, AVALON leverages next-gen technologies from fellow start-ups like Didimo and Inworld AI. Using Didimo's Popul8™ end-to-end character creation platform and Inworld's AI-powered character engine, creators are enabled to design characters and interact with NPCs in ways no MMO to date has allowed.
Jeffrey Butler, chief product officer, AVALON, adds, "We want to give AVALON players control over the way they play, where creating is just as rewarding as questing - something that I began planning for even as I worked on EverQuest. With the technology and tools we're developing alongside our partners, we want to foster a community for our namesake game that is able to create their own content and benefit from it, and immerse themselves in content that others have made and shared."
A first look at the AVALON experience, including a peek at how everything in-game is creatable by players, is available here.
AVALON is being unveiled as the first and best example of the possibilities of the company's platform and tools designed to reinvent how games and virtual experiences are built. Design decisions are steeped in the art and sorcery of game-making rather than the finance and business of the metaverse.
Follow along with what AVALON is creating on LinkedIn, X, and playavalon.com.
About AVALON
AVALON is an international, fully remote studio developing a platform and tools that will revolutionize how games and virtual experiences are built. Led by Jeff Butler, Sean Pinnock, and Zack Karlsson, AVALON is "building people, building games" through a team of video game industry veterans from EverQuest, Call of Duty, Diablo, God of War, Assassin's Creed, Elden Ring, and more. The studio's approach is steeped in the sorcery of game-making and the core belief that players deserve true ownership of their digital assets.
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For more information, contact:
Johner Riehl/Molly Engelberg
Zebra Partners for AVALON Corp.
avalon_team@zebrapartners.net
