Hutch联合创始人Shaun Rutland创立交互式生成视频工作室Anorak

Hutch co-founder Shaun Rutland is teasing his new studio Anorak, a new outfit focused on what it calls “interactive generative video”.

We’re told a funding announcement is imminent from some well-known VCs and mobile game companies. Anorak CEO Rutland described the company in a recent blog post as a technology entertainment business rather than a games company.

“At Anorak we’re working on play patterns and a platform to make any pursuit playable,” Rutland wrote. “It’s interactive generative video entertainment, not traditional mobile or video games.”

The studio has staff in London, across Europe and in Chengdu, China, and also refers to an AI lab in China. Fellow games veteran David Amor is COO at the firm, which is currently in a research and development phase.

But Rutland is sharing some of his team’s findings already – yesterday, Anorak posted a demo of a dress-up game build from generative video, and has previously showcased a boxing game and a tech demo where an alien salesman looks at images you feed them and tries to sell them back to you.

Anorak says it is still working out what to call its format. Its best description so far is “Generative video, made playable” and the plan is to put the technology in users’ hands so they can create play for their own subcultures. Community-made content could also be monetised. Rutland adds that Anorak is also working on distribution, with details to follow in a later post.

Rutland spent a decade at Hutch, which MTG acquired in 2020 for $375m. MTG announced in October 2024 that Rutland would step back from his co-CEO role at Hutch to become executive chairman from January 2025.