Dark Passenger, a studio formed by veterans of The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, has raised $3 million in a seed round.
The Games Fund led the round, with support from Blite Fund. The investment fuels the development of an unannounced, cutting-edge, first-person multiplayer PvPvE stealth-action game, set in a unique universe inspired by feudal Japan and martial arts cinema.
Cofounded by Jakub Ben and Paweł Kuleta of the renowned CGI studio RealTime Warriors, Dark Passenger also reunites CD Projekt Red veterans, including Marcin Michalski. With their experience on iconic titles like The Witcher 3 and Cyberpunk 2077, the team aims to create an original IP unlike anything gamers have seen before.
The core team blends the art expertise of RealTime Warriors with top talent from acclaimed studios like CDPR, People Can Fly, Reikon, Flying Wild Hog , and Covenant.dev. With the backing, Warsaw, Poland-based Dark Passenger plans to grow its team to more than 30. The company aims to reach more than 60 by launch.
Poland has solidified its position as Europe’s top video game developer and exporter, with the industry generating nearly €1 billion annually and exporting over 96% of its production globally (according to The Polish Agency for Enterprise Development). This success stems from a pool of passionate and ambitious creators. Dark Passenger is tapping into this rich talent base with aspirations to become a leading force in Europe’s gaming landscape.
The team is set to deliver the ultimate ninja experience, featuring thrilling rooftop chases across stunning vertical landscapes and intense, fast-paced combat. Players will wield bladed and ranged weapons, use gadgets, and navigate environmental hazards, all from an immersive first-person perspective.
Dark Passenger promises to redefine melee combat in the first-person perspective genre, ditching slow-paced gameplay for ultra-dynamic, responsive combat inspired by fighting games, martial arts films, and anime classics. The team is developing an advanced locomotion system that allows for seamless movement, including fast climbing, wall running, base jumping, running on water, and even creating new pathways with spears and arrows.
To provide the ultimate ninja experience, Dark Passenger will allow players to unlock and extensively customize their characters, equipment, and skills and even create their personal dojo. The game’s arsenal will feature a wide range of fully customizable weapons and firearms, including both original and iconic historical variants. Some weapons will even enhance mobility, enabling players to climb higher, leap over obstacles, or support wall running making combat and locomotion truly interconnected.
Dark Passenger is focused on creating a rich IP with a compelling, multi-branch story full of twists, extraordinary characters, and tense conflicts within a dark, evolving world. As the game progresses, new secrets will unfold, ensuring its longevity and potentially expanding the narrative into other media. The founders believe modern online experiences are about more than just competition; they aim to create immersive, socially-driven gameplay focused on interpersonal dynamics. Their passion for multiplayer action games fuels this vision, offering unique opportunities for developers passionate about the genre.
“Although we’re best known for triple-A, story-driven RPGs, our true passion has always been multiplayer,” said Jakub Ben, CEO of Dark Passenger, in a statement. “This obsession started over two decades ago, playing fighting games, LAN parties, and tournaments in Quake 3 Arena and Unreal Tournament. The intense emotions of playing together and against each other forged unforgettable stories. We’ve always dreamed of creating a multiplayer game that orchestrates those moments.”
Ben added, “While the multiplayer landscape is more exciting than ever, we still see vast untapped potential. It takes imagination, trust, and vision to fully understand our direction, and these are the qualities we found in The Games Fund. This investment is a game-changer for us—it’s helped expand our team and set the foundations for our project, allowing us to focus on production.”
The Dark Passenger team is exploring the most engaging aspects of the game-as-a-service (GaaS) model, with a focus on avoiding predatory practices and unfair mechanics. Instead, they aim to prioritize live operations, community engagement, a steady stream of meaningful content, and events that shape the game world. They put communication with players at the forefront with the intention of listening and observing their actions in order to continually improve the experience.
“We’re committed to investing in the CEE gaming industry, and Poland has always been strong in PC and console single-player game development. However, this team chose to follow their passion for co-op multiplayer games, which is a vision we strongly believe in,” said Ilia Eremeev, managing partner of The Games Fund, in a statement. “There’s a shortage of games that dare to take risks and deliver bold, unapologetic experiences, leaving players craving that “Hell yeah” factor.”
He added, “After seeing their early demo, we instantly recognized that Dark Passenger is set to deliver exactly that. The quality of the experience, given the team’s size and development time, was astonishing. We immediately aligned with their vision: an exciting, undiluted power fantasy. We’re thrilled to partner with these great founders on this adventure.”
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