Journey and Edith Finch designer's studio Gardens raises over $70 million

California-based Gardens Interactive announced on Wednesday it raised over $35 million in a Series B round led by Lightspeed Venture Partners, bringing total funding to over $70 million. Investors include Zenith Capital, Sequoia Capital, Index Ventures, Accel, Eric Schmidt's Innovation Endeavors, Bayshore and former Slack CEO Stewart Butterfield, with the family office of late Nintendo president Hiroshi Yamauchi reinvesting. Led by co-founder and CEO Stephen Bell, the studio's debut is a shared-world fantasy adventure it calls a strandbox, with designer Chris Bell citing Death Stranding, GTA roleplay and Arc Raiders as influences and a closed pre-alpha now open for sign-ups.