According to a statement, the two have bolstered their staff with "core members" of the teams that developed games including Ultima Online, Dungeon Siege, Jak & Daxter, Heroes of Might & Magic, Neverwinter Nights 2, Sly Cooper and Total Annihilation.

Riot received the funding from FirstMark Capital and Benchmark Capital.

Brandon Beck, 26, and Marc Merrill, 27, lead L.A.-based Riot as CEO and president, respectively.

According to Riot"s website, Beck was formerly a strategy consultant for Bain & Company, while Merrill was previously a marketing exec at Advanstar Communications.

As part of the investment, games industry stalwart Mitch Lasky, the former head of Jamdat and EA Mobile who recently joined Benchmark, will become part of Riot"s board of directors.

Also joining the board is FirstMark"s Rick Heitzmann, who is also on the board of Live Gamer, weplay and Clickable.

Riot"s new game is an unnamed "soon-to-be-announced" online, community-focused title based on the studio"s own technology platform.

Beck stated, "Tremendous opportunities continue to emerge in the online games industry as distribution and business models evolve.

"As independent, direct-to-consumer developers with the vision of treating games as services, we are focused on delivering first-rate game experiences to highly targeted online audiences.”

Pic from Riot"s website, presumably art from upcoming game.