More social gaming: Row Sham Bow raises $3M

Infused with capital and Electronic Arts ex-employees, Row Sham Bow team launches in Orlando, Fla.

Social gaming studio Row Sham Bow announced Monday that it has raised $3 million from early stage venture capital firm Intersouth Partners.

John Glushik of Intersouth will join the company’s board of directors.

Though it’s hardly even newsworthy anymore when a social gaming company raises funds, Row Sham Bow has attracted attention early on just for its founders. President and CEO Philip Holt formerly served as VP and GM of Electronic Arts (EA) Tiburon and, before that, as SVP of Product Development for THQ, for a total of 18 years experience in game development. CTO Nick Gonzalez previously served as Chief Software Architect at EA Tiburon and CTO of video game technology company Massive.

Also on board are Ian Cummings (former Madden Creative Director), Richard Wifall (former CTO at EA Tiburon), Christopher Staymates (former software engineer at Livewire and EA Tiburon) and Jeremy Paulding (former Technical Director at EA).

While a major portion of Row Sham Bow’s team has been drawn from EA Tiburon, the classic gaming company’s Orlando, Fla. studio, EA has for the past year been losing talent from its lowliest workers to its top-level executives. Most recently, John Schappert, chief operating officer at EA, left his former position for a shiny new seat leading Zynga’s game division.

EA has not been blind to the rise of social and mobile gaming, however. As far back as 2009, the company has invested tons of money in the blooming space, evidenced by a $275 million purchase of Facebook game developer Playfish. The acquisitions haven’t slowed either. Just last week, EA (for an undisclosed amount) bought Firemint, a Melbourne-based studio responsible for two of the hottest iPhone and iPad games, Flight Control and Real Racing.

If the social and mobile gaming space has proven anything, though, it’s that there’s always room for more entrants, like Row Sham Bow.

The Orlando, Fla.-based startup, which just opened its doors last month, will use its funding for everything from game development to making new hires.