From Pixels to Passion: The Journey of Guy Costantini in Revolutionizing the Gaming World
I had the pleasure of interviewing Guy Costantini, a veteran of the video games industry. He has worked on incredible games like League of Legends, The Witcher 3, Marvel: Contest of Champions, Cyberpunk 2077, and The Walking Dead: Saints & Sinners. He also helped put together a yet-to-be-released game, Skydance’s Behemoth.
Guy Costantini is the CEO of a newly founded stealth game studio. He is known for his work at Riot Games, Kabam, CD Projekt Red, and Skydance. Having worked on multiple multi-billion dollar game and entertainment franchises over his career, some notable ones would be League of Legends, The Witcher, Star Wars, Marvel, Terminator, and The Walking Dead. Guy has served in an advisory capacity to a select number of companies, out to change the games space for the better. The only thing he loves more than games is his family and bringing amazing games to eager players, which he has had the pleasure of doing for hundreds of millions. Before getting into the space, he worked several years in the high-growth tech startup and music industries in New York but was not in games and was encouraged to wear suits, so instead, he quit that and went on to do what he loves in Southern California.
What motivated you to launch your startup?
I have always wanted to have enough knowledge of our space and the right creative inspiration to start a game studio, and I finally got to a point where the time was right to take the plunge. It happens to be one of the hardest times to raise funds for games, but that just means that if we succeed, we will be ahead of the pack. It’s a time of great opportunity when it comes to building a games business. There have been industry-shaking layoffs and a reduction in investment of about 70% over the past 12 months. There is blood in the streets, if you will forgive my platitude. There will never be as good a deal on a games business as this year; if you are part of the investor class, now is when fortunes are made if you pick the right team.
What excites you about what you’re building?
Games are the main storytelling medium of this century. They are an incredible way to engage with the 10,000+ year-old practice of human storytelling in an interactive way, and with those whom we care about. We want to build exactly that, a way for you to play with the friends whom you already have. It’s exciting because not a lot of people are trying to bet as big as we are.
What has been your biggest challenge when growing your startup?
Fundraising in the worst fundraising climate for games in over two decades. We welcome the challenge, however, as we know that if we can navigate the storm, we will be ahead of the pack in 12–18 months.
What are your future plans for your startup?
The objective is to laser-focus on delivering heart-stopping narrative games which you can share with a friend across multiple gaming platforms. Building original games and IP universes which can also live outside the game.
If you had to share “words of wisdom” with a founder who’s about to start their own startup, what would they be?
Make sure you have a healthy runway and that you have contingency plans. It will do wonders for your mental health.
How can our readers follow you on social media?
https://www.linkedin.com/in/gcostantini/
This was very insightful. Thank you so much for joining us!
