Richard Garriott's Portalarium raises $7 million towards its first title

Richard Garriott's Portalarium raises $7 million towards "Ultimate Collector."

Portalarium, a social games developer and publisher founded by Ultima designer Richard Garriott, raised $7 million to complete development on its social networking game Ultimate Collector, the company announced today.

Ultimate Collector, a game in which players collect household goods to decorate their in-game homes, will release this summer on Facebook, browser, and mobile. The game will serve as a testing ground for the technology behind Garriott's new mobile RPG and spiritual successor to Ultima Online, Ultimate RPG.

"Richard is one of the legendary developers in the gaming industry and his vision for this next era of mobile and social gaming will firmly position Portalarium as an industry leader," said m8 Capital general partner, Joseph Kim. "We are looking forward to a successful launch of the company's next game, Ultimate Collector, and to see how Richard will redefine the role-playing genre for the mobile-era."

Funding was led by Garriott along with London-based mobile technology investors m8 Capital, FF Angel of San Francisco, and BHV Venture Capital of New York. The funding comes a month after Zynga announced its deal with Portalarium to publish the startup's games on Zygna.com and Facebook under the Zynga's third-party publishing program.