Thirdverse's leaders. Hironao Kunimitsu is in blue.

Thirdverse raises $20M and names Gumi founder Hironao Kunimitsu as CEO

Thirdverse raised $20 million and named Gumi founder Hironao Kunimitsu as its CEO as he trades mobile gaming for virtual reality and the metaverse.

That’s a big move for one of Japan’s entrepreneurial gaming CEOs, who rose to prominence in the mobile gaming era and is now betting big on VR. Thirdverse develops virtual reality games such as Swords of Gargantua, and Kunimitsu has been increasingly impatient in his aim of establishing VR and the metaverse as the next great entertainment platforms.

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Dean Takahashi

Dean Takahashi is editorial director for GamesBeat. 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.