Revolving Games, a publisher of mobile free-to-play games revealed on Friday that it has secured $13.2 million in seed funding from several investors, increasing its overall investment to $25 million.
The founder of Rockstar Games, Dan Houser, Animoca Brands, Polygon, Dapper Labs, and others took part in the most recent round, which was led by Pantera Capital.
Houser, an accomplished game producer, wrote the “Red Dead Redemption” and “Grand Theft Auto” video games for Rockstar. He has now joined the advisory board of Revolving Games as an investor and counselor.
Yat Siu, a co-founder of Animoca Brands, and Paul Veradittakit, a partner at Pantera Capital, both said in a statement that they were “glad” to have invested in Revolving Games.
According to a press statement, Revolving Games, which was created by the three brothers Saad, Ammar, and Shayan Zaeem, would use the recently collected money to produce “decentralized” games.
Our goal is to create AAA-caliber games that stand out among the best releases at prestigious gaming conventions like Gamescom and E3!”, stated Saad Zaeem, co-CEO of Revolving Games.
Co-CEO Ammar Zaeem noted in a statement, “We will be able to strengthen our technology and develop a more scalable and decentralized gaming-focused future.”
There are already two verified games being developed by Revolving Games. The first is a 4X strategic MMO blockchain game based on “Battlestar Galactica” that was created in collaboration with Gala Games and NBCUniversal. It was initially introduced earlier this year during the Galaverse conference.
The second is “Skyborne Legacy,” a cooperative RPG on Polygon that was inspired by Nintendo. Although it won’t be officially revealed until October, Skyborne has been keeping its Twitter account active with some amusing tweets from what is probably going to be a mascot or character in the next blockchain game.
The co-CEOs of Revolving Games, Saad and Ammar, responded to Decrypt’s inquiry about their intended market by stating that they are primarily interested in luring “traditional gamers.”
However, these co-CEOs are not ardent cryptocurrency “Moonboys.”
The Zaeem brothers emailed Decrypt and said, “Not every game will or should use NFTs. Furthermore, if you incorporate NFTs into your game, they must do so in a way that enhances the user experience rather than just advancing revenue.
So, what information should traditional players be aware of before playing a Revolving Games game? For starters, the creators want their games to have an opt-in economic system and be free to play.
They added that “the industry has largely switched from what was successful in Web2 free-to-play (frictionless awareness-to-discovery) to gated entry requirements (paywalls, wallets, and investments),” saying “the prevalent misunderstanding is that Web3 gaming requires an investment to get in.”
The Zaeem brothers seek to give AAA titles with less commitment required from gamers rather than requiring upfront purchases or “scholar” systems.
We think that before spending their hard-earned money to support our games, players should be able to try out our games for free, spend time getting to know our universe, and then determine whether or not we delivered the experience they were seeking for.
Image Credit: Revolving Games
