Marvel Snap maker gets $100M funding for ‘years’ of development, plus new IP

Second Dinner will still operate independently

Marvel Snap developer Second Dinner has found new investment after TikTok owner ByteDance dropped the game’s former publisher, Nuverse. Griffin Gaming Partners will invest $100 million in Second Dinner; it has previously funded companies like Discord, developer Frost Giant Studios, and mobile marketing platform AppLovin. Second Dinner “will continue to operate independently,” according to a news release. Griffin Gaming Partners will act as a minority investor alongside NetEase.

Second Dinner was founded in 2018 after Hearthstone developers Ben Brode and Hamilton Chu left Blizzard Entertainment. Marvel Snap was originally released in June 2022 and found quick success — 22 million downloads and $200 million in revenue since the game was released. After the news of ByteDance’s divestment from Nuverse, Second Dinner reassured nervous Marvel Snap players that Second Dinner was not impacted, and that Marvel Snap “will continue to operate and flourish in the future.”

In Monday’s news release, Brode said Second Dinner intends to work on Marvel Snap for years — the majority of the team is working on the game. But Second Dinner also has “a couple other things cookin’,” he added. No other details are available, except that they’re “super super fun,” according to Brode. Second Dinner chief operating officer Matt Wyble added that the investment is intended to “develop and commercialize new titles [and] incubate original IP.”

Marvel Snap was released on Steam in August, making the game “fully cross-platform,” something Second Dinner called a “significant milestone.” It’s available elsewhere on Android, iOS, and macOS. Like Hearthstone, Marvel Snap is a card game — but it’s designed to be more approachable from the start. However, it’s not without complexity. Even though matches typically last minutes, there’s a ton of strategy to learn, keeping the game interesting for quite a while.

Correction: The original version of this story listed Frost Giant Studios by the incorrect name.