Balderton acquired the remaining 30% of Codemasters from the founding Darling family last week after taking an original 40% stake in 2005, and a further 30% in 2006. In addition, Goldman Sachs has provided $100m of finance to support the British company's future growth plans.

Codemasters now owns the lucrative Lord of the Rings gaming franchise and launched The Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) in April. MMORPGs allow players to pilot their own characters through a shared virtual landscape.

Balderton's parent US fund Benchmark Capital holds a stake in Linden Labs, creators of the doyenne of online virtual reality, Second Life.

Balderton partner and former Esat-Digifone chief executive Barry Maloney said the online and interactive nature of these games gives them a longer shelf life in investment terms.

"There's a longer term revenue stream, and this mobile phone-style subscription model is what we're interested in, " he told the Sunday Tribune.

Balderton said the Codemasters acquisition follows its strategy of taking large stakes in technology and media companies with "superior growth prospects". Other Balderton investments include stakes in social network website Bebo and open source database firm MySQL.

Balderton is the rebranded arm of Benchmark Capital's European arm and manages approximately $1.5bn in committed capital. Irish ventures include pay-TV broadcaster Setanta Sports and electronic payments firm Alphyra.

Balderton recently put its 67% stake in Alphyra up for sale. Last week's edition of this newspaper erroneously reported that it had been sold. It is expected at least part of this stake will be sold over the coming months. Media reports suggest Alphyra is valued at 500m including 140m of debt.