Challenge Games raises $10 million for web-based role-playing games

Browser-based fantasy game company Challenge Games has raised a $10 million second round of funding.

Globespan Capital Partners led the round, which came just two months after the company raised $4.5 million in a first round. Sequoia Capital led the previous round and participated in this one as well.

The Austin, Texas-based company has two “quick fix” role-playing games, Duels and Baseball Boss, that run in a web browser. They are free games that encourage the trading of virtual goods. If you buy the goods, you can improve your chances of doing better in the games.

The company will use the proceeds to expand into Asia, launch its new game Warstorm, develop new titles and perhaps acquire rivals. Game sessions take about five to 15 minutes. A couple of months ago, the company said it had acquired 250,000 gamers playing Duels in the first 10 months after release. The company was founded by Andrew Busey in 2006.

Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He has been a tech journalist since 1988, and he has covered games as a beat since 1996. He was lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat from 2008 to April 2025. Prior to that, he wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, the Red Herring, the Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times, and the Dallas Times-Herald. He is the author of two books, "Opening the Xbox" and "The Xbox 360 Uncloaked." He organizes the annual GamesBeat Next, GamesBeat Summit and GamesBeat Insider Series: Hollywood and Games conferences and is a frequent speaker at gaming and tech events. He lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.