Michael Borras

🔜 CIGDC, CGDC, ChinaJoy || VP BD & Scouting @ Arc Games @ Arc Games

About

6x founder with 25+ years XP as a games industry executive and studio head. I live and breath game development, indie games, business development, platform relationships, and games investment/M&A. In my career I've Founded several tech startups and game studios, focusing on studio general management, P&L, business development, fundraising, platform and partner relationships, executive production, publishing, and business strategy. ➡️ In Spring of 2025 I joined Bitwise Alchemy, a specialist engineering consultancy studio led by an ex-BioWare team as their Head of Global Business Development, helping solve tough engineering problems Take-Two, 2K, Zynga, CDPR, Xbox Game Studios, Riot Games, Wizards of the Coast, Smilegate Entertainment, General Motors, STRAVA, and more. ➡️ In April 2020 I co-founded and led Rare Earth, a 26+ FTE indie game studio. In August 2020 Rare Earth was acquired by the Embracer Group ($EMBRAC-B.ST) under Coffee Stain ($COFFEE-B.STO). ➡️ In 2017 I co-founded the indie game studio, IMI backed by Zeus Entertainment / 天神互动 ($002354.SZ) where I worked across LA, Vienna and Beijing developing an indie multiplayer sports brawler for PC and PS4. ➡️ In 2010 I co-founded Socialspiel Entertainment, backed by Nexon Korea ($3659.T) where I led a 25+ FTE team creating our own PC/F2P live service games, "Asterix & Friends", and developed mobile games for Asian markets. ➡️ In 2006, I co-founded Tupalo (backed by European Directories), leading a team of 40+ across multiples offices build a Pan-European Location-Based Service app and Community where millions of people discovered the best places to eat, drink, and shop. ➡️ In 2003 I joined the Production, Localization, and QA team at Rockstar Games where I was part of the dev teams of Grand Theft Auto III, GTA: Vice City, Max Payne, and Manhunt, in partnership with Microsoft, Remedy, and Capcom Japan. ➡️ As a teen in high school, I founded my first tech startup, an e-commerce platform where thousands of independent music merchants sold and traded their overstock vinyl, CD, cassettes, merch to millions of monthly visitors. ➡️ At the same time, I produced, recorded and managed several independent musicians, producing 75+ physical and digital releases together, touring the world, co-creating a sub-genre of electronic music, briefly becoming "big in Japan", and was part of the first-wave establishing MP3 "net labels" before streaming music existed.

Country

Austria

City

Vienna

Industry

Computer Games

Skill

Start-ups, Indie Games, Game Development, Game Publishing, Executive Management, Video Games, Business Development, Early-Stage Startups, Venture Capital, Executive Production, Mentoring, Startups, Community Development, Influencer Outreach, Console Games, Fundraising, International Business Development, Co-development, Partner Relationship Management, Entrepreneurship

Experience

Head of Global Business Development

Bitwise Alchemy

2025-5 - Present · 1 yr 5 mos

Austin, Texas, United States

I'm an executive road warrior, leading global business development, publisher/partner/platform relationships, and supporting internal self-publishing initiatives at Bitwise Alchemy. Based in Austin, Texas, BA is a specialist games engineering consultancy studio that solves tough problems for a portfolio of AA/AAA game, tech, and automotive clients.

Advisory Board Member

Pragma

2026-1 - Present · 9 mos

Los Angeles, California, United States

Supporting the management team in an advisory role as Pragma navigates the rapidly-changing games industry and expands their business development activities throughout Europe and APAC. Pragma Platform is an extensible backend services that let you build online games your way. Seamlessly integrate cross-platform social features, monetization, and essential services like Steam, Twitch, and Discord. Trusted by leading studios including EA, Bungie, Square Enix, Dreamhaven, People Can Fly, Frost Giant, and Gardens, and backed by Greylock, Insight Partners, and Upfront.

Advisory Board Member

FirstLook.gg

2026-1 - Present · 9 mos

Los Angeles, California, United States

Supporting the management team in an advisory role as FirstLook navigates the rapidly-changing games industry and expands their business development activities throughout Europe and APAC. FirstLook is the player CRM and marketing OS for game publishers and studios. Build direct player relationships and launch games with data-driven confidence. Includes tools for playtesting, creator management, rewards, and much more.

Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer

Rare Earth Games

2020-3 - 2025-5 · 5 yrs 3 mos

Vienna, Austria

Founded Rare Earth in early 2020, leading all strategy, business development, fundraising and operations. Acquired by the Embracer Group in Aug. 2020, published by Coffee Stain Publishing.

Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer

Iron Mountain Interactive

2017-5 - 2020-4 · 3 yrs

Vienna, Austria

An indie game dev studio and publisher backed by Oasis Games (天神互动) and SIEJ creating our own free to play IP and games for PC, Console, and mobile. Bouncing between Los Angeles, Vienna, and Beijing, responsible for overall studio direction, strategy, business development, platform relations, and growth. • Steel Circus (PC / PS4)

Advisor

Hypest Hive

2018 - 2019 · 1 yr

Vienna, Austria

Co-founder & Chief Executive Officer

Socialspiel Entertainment GmbH

2010-8 - 2017-5 · 6 yrs 10 mos

Vienna, Austria

An indie game developer and publisher where I led a fabulous team of 20+ game developers creating and publishing free to play mobile, PC, and console games together with our strategic investor Nexon Co., Ltd. • Legacy Quest: Rise of Heroes (Nexon Korea / Socialspiel Entertainment - iOS / AOS / PC) • Legacy Quest (Nexon Korea - IOS / AOS / PC) • Asterix & Friends (Deutsche Telekom / Sproing Publishing / Bandai Namco - PC / FB) • Tight Lines Fishing (Socialspiel Entertainment - FB) • Push! (Socialspiel Entertainment - FB)

Co-founder & Managing Director

Tupalo Internetservices GmbH

2006-9 - 2013-8 · 7 yrs

Vienna, Austria

Co-founder of Tupalo.com, where together with my partner I scaled a 25+ person team across several countries, raised 4 rounds of investment and built a profitable local search community reaching millions of users per month throughout Austria, the Netherlands, Finland, Denmark, Poland, Sweden and more EU markets.