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Solana to Replace Ethereum in Blockchain Gaming, Paradox Studios Founder Says

Compared to Ethereum’s Solidity language when developing play-to-earn (P2E) games, the ease of use of Solana’s building language- Rust will give Solana a competitive edge, according to AmioTalio- the founder of UK-based animation and game development platform Paradox Studios.

With blockchain gaming continuously accelerating the metaverse narrative, AmioTalio believes that the huge funding that Solana is offering developers is intended to woo them from the Ethereum network, and it is starting to take shape. He pointed out:

“Solana will leave Ethereum in the dust this year when it comes to gaming. They now have a huge list of games looking to launch this year on Solana, which will take them into the lead position in this area, in my opinion.”

Solana has already rolled out $400 million to enhance Web3 gaming in the last six months.

AmioTalio noted that he made these observations after meeting various specialists who disclosed the simplicity of Rust. He added:

“When you realize every product or service is made by or provided by a business, you must realize the main goal of a business is to make money and maximize profit, so with low costs and high transaction speed and massive funding for gaming developers; the growth is going parabolic.”

The blockchain gaming sector continues to gain steam, given that it attracted investments worth $1.1 billion in January, according to a recent Blockchain Game Alliance and DappRadar report. Virtual worlds, decentralized applications (dapps), and play-to-earn platforms attracted the lion’s share of these investments.

Additionally, the gaming transparency rendered by blockchain technology is also making them tick.

Meanwhile, two-time Indonesian football league champion Persib Bandung partnered with blockchain gaming platform Liberty Gaming Guild (LGG) to offer its fans an ecosystem to learn and thrive in the new gaming era.

Blockchain Soccer Startup GOAL Pulls $15m in Seed Funding

Stockholm-based Non-Fungible Token (NFT) based soccer startup GOALS has raised the sum of $15 million as seed funds from venture capital firms and angel investors.

While this is not the very first-time GOALS will be pulling funds from investors, this round is undoubtedly its most groundbreaking as the company plans to boost its outfit with about 30 new game developers.

According to Tech.eu, a European tech media hub, the funding was led by Northzone with participation from existing investors Cherry Ventures, Moonfire Ventures, Banana Capital, and new investors Not Boring Capital and Cassius participating. Rounding out the lineup, angel investors include Sorare CEO Nicolas Julia, FC Barcelona star Gerard Pique, and Axie Infinity COO Aleksander Larsen.

Laid Down Dynamics for GOALS

GOALS is one of the numerous blockchain gaming protocols that allow users to take ownership of the in-game assets. While not necessarily a new concept, GOALS hopes to hinge on its unique design and the feeling of thrill to complement its players’ capabilities further to monetize their players, skin colours, in-game merchandise, and many more.

The growing blockchain gaming economy, especially with a focus on football, has been projected to be worth well over $190 billion, a substantial chunk GOALS is willing to tap. With the funding and the help of its investors, it finally is able to tap into this growing marketplace.

“We have been in the very fortunate position where investors reached out to us before we were actually fundraising so we were able to pick the ones we felt had the best fit for GOALS,” commented co-founder and CEO Andreas Thorstensson. “After playing most football games on the market and observing the esports scene for a long time, I could see that gamers deserved something new.”

GOALS aims to make its revenue by taking cuts from sales of these in-game assets on the secondary marketplace. Like the newly funded Fractal marketplace for game developers, it aims to carve out a niche for itself in the fast-growing Web3.0 ecosystem.

Video Game Company BoomBit Launches Blockchain Gaming Platform BoomLand

Video blockchain gaming company BoomBit has launched BoomLand, a top blockchain gaming platform where players and game developers can earn NFTs and cryptocurrencies in the form of $BOOM and $BGEM tokens.

On the game platform, players can establish direct contact with game developers, creating a new Web 3.0 ecosystem with its own unique Metaverse and Marketplace.

The company stated that the release of BoomLand is due to the huge demand for high-quality video-based games in the current blockchain game.

BoomLand founders Hannibal Soares and Marcin Olejarz said the company has released more than 200 games with more than 1 billion downloads over the past decade. And hope that this kind of achievement can be extended to the blockchain game.

The BoomLand team believes that while the “Play and Earn” blockchain gaming market is in its infancy, it has reached a staggering $21 billion valuation.

Play-to-earn (P2E), or GameFi, is the next major opportunity for Web3 and blockchain.

P2E is a popular business model that stays in the blockchain game world that integrates both Web3 and blockchain, which corresponds to the F2P (Free to Play) model common in the real world of the game industry.

Cometh Gaming Studio Announces $10m Funding in Seed Round

Cometh gaming studio has announced a $10 million seed round as it launched a second blockchain-based video game.

The startup creates games built on blockchain technology. The games created by Cometh can seamlessly connect with DeFi protocols so that they are equipped with a suite of crypto-based financial tools.

Cometh’s primary focus is to build an end-to-end gaming platform powering the next generation of play-to-earn (P2E) games.

Besides creating games, Cometh also helps gaming firms build out crypto functionality.

According to a press release, venture capital firm White Star Capital, gaming giant Ubisoft and DeFi group Stake Capital led the investment, with Serena Capital, Shima Capital and IDEO Colab Ventures all participating. However, Cometh has not disclosed its valuation yet.

Cometh’s founder Jerome de Tychey said, “our team builds games that explore the new possibilities offered by blockchain technology along with the tools to enhance traditional games with it.”

Cometh also released the studio’s second title, Cometh Battle.

Along with games, Cometh is also working on supplying its technology to help other brands to showcase non-fungible tokens.

Web3 Gaming Platform LootRush Raises $12m in Seed Round

Web3 gaming platform LootRush has raised $12 million in seed funding led by crypto company Paradigm, aiming to make playing Web3 video games more accessible and more convenient for users.

The company said the financing would expand the team globally and buy NFTs at scale.

In this round of funding, investors include Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Y Combinator, and the creators of Axie Infinity, Plaid, Wildlife Studios, Dapper Labs, and The Chainsmokers and Vivi Nevo participated as angel investors.

LootRush says that：

“To play videogames using web 3 technologies, players experience a high barrier of entry. And, as interest in these types of video games continue to skyrocket, players are looking for ways to go from intent to enjoyment in as little time, with as little cost, as possible.”

“We enable players to play video games with NFTs at 100x lower price, providing more flexibility and a larger portfolio of NFTs to have fun,” said by LootRush.

The US-based LootRush was founded in 2015 to “make Web3 video games as easy to use as a mobile device or play video games on Steam.”

Irreverent Labs Raises $40m in Funding, Led by a16z

Seattle-based startup Irreverent Labs has once again raised $40 million in funding led by Silicon Valley heavyweight investment firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z).

Irreverent Labs is building games and entertainment in which all the characters are AI-powered NPCs.

The financing will lead to the development of a blockchain-based fighting game called MechaFightClub, which pits chicken-style fighting games against each other.

The platform will integrate emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence and NFTs to run on the Solana blockchain, allowing players to trade fighter jets called “mechanical robots” and play “cruelty-free” fighting games at any time.

The game is Play-to-earn (P2E) mode or GameFi. P2E is a popular business model that exists in the blockchain gaming world that integrates Web3 and blockchain, which corresponds to the F2P (Free to Play) model commonly seen in the real world of the gaming industry.

Players can use their blockchain currency, gold nuggets, to make in-game purchases or withdraw them for use on the wider Solana blockchain.

Investors including Solana Ventures, the venture capital arm of Solana Labs; Michael Ovitz, founder of Creative Artists Agency (CAA), participated in this round of financing. Rahul Sood, co-founder of Irreverent Labs said that:

“Gamers will soon realize that having ownership of the characters within the game and building a relationship with that character over time is actually a really good thing,”

Irreverent Labs has raised a total of $5M in funding over 1 round. The seed round was raised on Oct 29, 2021. a16z also contributed to emerging blockchain startup Irreverent Labs which raised a record $25.2 billion last year, up 713% year-over-year.

Japan's Akatsuki Raises $20m Fund for Investing in Web3 Projects

Japan’s Akatsuki announced that it has raised a $20 million fund for investing in web3 projects, according to The Block.

In a press release, the Japanese entertainment and gaming firm said that the fund titled “Emoote” will focus on backing startups working on projects in GameFi, non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and the metaverse.

According to The Block, Akatsuki has been investing in crypto-adjacent projects. The company has funded more than 20 early-stage startups, including rapidly scaling move-to-earn startup STEPN.

Tokyo-listed Akatsuki’s focus for the new $20 million investment fund is 50% in Asia and 40% in the United States while channelling the remainder of funds to other regions.

The firm added that the fund would also focus its efforts on collaborating with Japanese entertainment and media companies, The Block reported.

Akatsuki was first incorporated in 2010 and it obtained a global presence for co-developing the Dragon Ball Z: Dokkan Battle with Bandai Namco Entertainment, which has earned over 350 million downloads worldwide as of May 1.

Prior to Emoote’s web3 project, venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) launched a $600 million fund known as Games Fund One earlier in May.

According to Blockchain.News, a16z floated the $200 million fund believing it will help position it aright to tap enough market share in the more than $300 billion gaming industry.

The enormous funds will be used to support startups building a wide range of solutions in the space. These solutions border on infrastructure, supporting ecosystems for developers, and outfits developing games directly, Blockchain.News added.

Playful Studios Launches Web3 Game Division, Raises $46M in Series A Funding

The Wildcard Alliance, Inc., a new web3 gaming studio focused on interactive entertainment, announced on Tuesday that it raised $46 million in a Series A funding round.

The funding was led by crypto-native investment giant Paradigm. Other investors such as Griffin Gaming Partners, Polygon, and venture capitalist Sabrina Hahn, also participated in the funding round.

The Wildcard Alliance is a video web3 game developer best known for creating high-quality, smooth 3D animation games powered by polygon blockchain. Wildcard will be powered by Polygon in order to produce cutting-edge games that are both creative and technically efficient.

Polygon’s key focus on eliminating the carbon footprint of cryptocurrencies has been the major reason why Wildcard Alliance decided to leverage the Polygon suite of technologies.

Paradigm’s investment in The Wildcard Alliance highlights a shared belief that interactive entertainment will be a key driver of growth in Web3. Paradigm is a company known for backing the disruptive Web3 and crypto projects that promise to build the future of utility, value, and empowerment that benefits everyone.

Wildcard Alliance is a subsidiary business owned by independent game studio Playful Studios based in Texas. The game development studio is co-founded by married couple Katy Drake Bettner and Paul Bettner. In the past, Paul Bettner worked on the popular game “Words with Friends” and the early VR game Lucky’s Tale.

Paul Bettner, Co-Founder and CEO of The Wildcard Alliance, talked about the development and said: “Web3 platforms present a tremendous opportunity to build entertainment that can include, empower and onboard millions of new players. Despite this opportunity, the current focus of Web3 game development tends to be on finance over fun, economy over engagement, and currency over the community. With Wildcard, we’re focused on fun first, building a next-generation ‘spectator sport’ to welcome the entire community of competitors, collectors, sponsors, and fans to play together.”

Tapping the Web3 Market

The latest move by Playful Studios shows that the game development studio is committed to tap the Web3 market to allow mobile gaming to enter and have a place in Web3 gaming. The move will eventually allow a diverse global demographic of developers, creators, and players to enter Web3 and collaborate as a united community of game lovers.

Web3 has revolutionized several industries, including gaming. Web3-based games allow the players to engage with the games in decentralized and innovative ways, which is a major shift from traditional gaming platforms.

The web3 gaming world is known for play-to-earn economies whereby blockchain technology, cryptocurrencies, and NFTs are creating a new breed of games that enable users to earn ‘money’ as they play. This democratizes all aspects of gaming and puts the main power in the hands of the players rather than confining it to one central authority within a game.

Although in traditional gaming, in-game content or digital assets are purchasable with fiat currencies, game operators still reserve the copyrights to the in-game content. In other words, players do not own the in-game digital assets.

Web3 gaming addresses these problems by providing fair virtual markets for the gaming industry, where players can access and have full ownership of in-game digital assets. Web3 games are developed by integrating blockchain into the gaming ecosystem, allowing gamers to express their views on when and how the game should evolve.

Konvoy Ventures Launches $150M Gaming Fund

Konvoy Ventures, a venture capital startup, has announced the launch of its Konvoy Ventures Fund III as it looks to deepen its feet in the Web3.0 gaming ecosystem.

With the fund, the startup said it will back outfits at the intersection of industries, such as education and healthcare, in regions including the United States, Europe, and America. Over time, Konvoy Ventures plans to expand its influence to outfits in Asia and Latin America.

“This new fund will not only allow us to focus on additional geographic regions but also new types of companies and technologies,” said managing partner Jackson Vaughan in a statement. “Our growth and industry impact since launching Fund I has been spectacular to be a part of, and if there’s one main learning from this period, in which the world has undergone unprecedented disruption, is that there is such an enormous opportunity ahead of us.”

Beyond the current bearish outlook of the digital currency ecosystem, investors are still passionate about protocols committed to building value for the Web3.0 space.

Konvoy Venture’s investment strategy is centred on firms that model this reality. One of the gaming protocols in its portfolio includes Axie Infinity, games publisher and payments company Carry1st and avatar platform Ready Player Me.

The Konvoy Ventures move aligns with a related strategy developed by Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), one of the biggest venture capital firms in the world. a16z launched a $600 million Web3.0 Gaming Fund earlier this year in line with the investor’s belief that Web3.0 is more profitable and reliable than Web2.0.

To date, Konvoy Ventures said it has invested in as many as 35 companies to date. The company reiterated that it values its human capital so much that it defines the bedrock of its investment strategy.

Magic Eden Floats New Venture Unit to Double Down on Web3 Gaming

Solana-backed non-fungible token (NFT) marketplace Magic Eden has announced the establishment of its own venture outfit called Magic Ventures, focusing on bootstrapping Web3.0 gaming protocols.

While projecting that Web3.0 games will serve as a GoTo ecosystem for many people, Magic Eden believes most innovations are still very rough, and they needed facilitating. The trading platform said the advent of Magic Ventures will absolutely help in investing in promising games and gaming infrastructure, which will bolster the growth of Web3 gaming.

Magic Ventures will be led by Tony Zhao, who will double as the Head of Gaming Investments. The appointment of Tony is a thought-out decision drawing on his experience while staff at Tencent Games. During his time at Tencent, Tony focused on he focused on investing in up-and-coming games, acquiring world-class studios, and forming strategic partnerships across the entire Tencent Games portfolio.

Tony will also be joined in charting the way forward for Magic Ventures alongside Yoonsup Choi, Harrison Chang, and Matt Biamonte, all of whom have personally launched their own NFT collections and have a deep understanding of the Web3.0 ecosystem.

“The world of gaming is a massive market that has just started to venture into the world of Web3. We intend to deepen our relationships with both gamers and game developers alike to champion the future of games on the blockchain. With Magic Ventures, we are excited to invest in the next wave of creativity and innovation in Web3 gaming,” said Jack Lu, CEO of Magic Eden.

The launch of Magic Ventures trails the $130 million funding round the firm completed last month and the second for this year. Per the June round, Magic Eden entered the unicorn club with a $1.6 billion valuation. From its latest strides and with the advent of Magic Ventures, the startup said it is on track to expand its gaming ecosystem across the board.