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Smilegate announced a strategic investment in Dan Houser’s Absurd Ventures on December 4, 2024, but it did not disclose the investment amount, valuation, or equity stake. A later agreement linked Smilegate to a specific Absurd Ventures game: it will publish a science-fiction action-adventure globally and said it planned to fund development.
How much did Smilegate invest in Absurd Ventures?
The amount is not public in Smilegate’s December 4, 2024 announcement. The release describes a strategic investment and partnership, but gives no transaction value, valuation, or ownership percentage. As a result, there is no supported figure for how much Absurd Ventures received or what share Smilegate acquired.
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Street Punx | Buy on Amazon | |
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Hudson Hawk | Buy on Amazon |
Smilegate’s announcement also mentioned the opportunity to partner on Absurd Ventures’ new intellectual property. It did not say that the investment was tied to a particular game or disclose the terms of any future project agreement.
What did Smilegate and Absurd Ventures announce later?
In August 2025, the companies announced a global publishing agreement for an AAA, open-world science-fiction action-adventure set in Absurd Ventures’ A BETTER PARADISE universe. Smilegate said the game was in early development and that it planned full-scale investment, including development funding. The announcement did not state a funding amount or say that all planned funding had been paid.
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The August 2025 announcement gives no game title or release date. It establishes a publishing and planned funding relationship, not a publicly priced investment in the game.
Is the game connected to Lost Ark?
No. Lost Ark is one of Smilegate’s franchises, but the announced project is a separate game set in Absurd Ventures’ A BETTER PARADISE universe. The companies have not described it as a Lost Ark title, sequel, or spin-off.
Absurd Ventures’ games page lists two open-world action-adventure projects in development: one in A BETTER PARADISE and another in the Absurdaverse. Only the A BETTER PARADISE project is identified in the Smilegate publishing agreement; the two projects should not be conflated.
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What is A BETTER PARADISE?
A BETTER PARADISE is an Absurd Ventures fictional universe that includes a novel and the announced game project. The novel is a related work, not the announced game itself. Absurd Ventures says the novel is available as a hardcover, ebook, and audiobook; its store listing gives October 14, 2025 as the hardcover publication date. See the official A BETTER PARADISE page and store listing for book details.
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Smilegate’s 2024 announcement identifies CROSSFIRE, Lost Ark, and Epic Seven as franchises it created. It also reported that Grand Theft Auto and Red Dead Redemption had sold more than 550 million units combined worldwide, that CROSSFIRE had been played in more than 80 countries by approximately 1 billion gamers, and that Lost Ark had been played in 160 countries with 1.32 million concurrent users. These are figures reported by Smilegate in that announcement, not independently verified totals.
Those franchise figures provide context for the companies’ partnership, but they do not reveal the financial terms of Smilegate’s investment in Absurd Ventures.
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