Blockchain gaming startup OP Games secures $8.6 million in seed funding.
The venture is created by a team of gaming industry veterans. It is a multi-chain gaming platform currently built on Ethereum and the NEAR Protocol. The project aims to create a new gaming ecosystem centered on community-owned games involving NFTs and DAOs.
In the process of lowering barriers to ownership, OP Games aims to help developers monetize their work via patronage, DeFi protocols, and play-to-earn.
OP Games Seed Funding
The seed funding round witnessed participation form leading blockchain venture capital firms, including Republic Crypto, Ascensive Assets, Morningstar Ventures, Mechanism Capital, Polygon Studios and Bitcoin.com. Additional investment came from Mentha Partners, OKex Blockdream Ventures, SevenX Ventures, GFS Ventures, Defi Alliance, Everest Venture Group, LD, LONG HASH Ventures, 3COMMAS CAPITAL, LucidBlue Ventures, INFINITY VENTURES CRYPTO, OSAZ, M6, DOUBLE PEAK, and GENBLOCK CAPITAL.
OP Games, CEO and co-founder Chase Freo, commented:
“We welcome this hearty endorsement of the work we have done to power up the gaming landscape using Web 3.0’s superpowers: open-source and community ownership.”
“The $150 billion gaming industry is evolving at an astonishing rate. By giving developers the tools and guidance they need, and by giving players the chance to co-create their favorite projects, we are opening up new revenue channels for the sector’s talented creators.”
Chase Freo
OP Games Gaming Platform Bridge Game Developers To Web 3.0
OP Games is helping game developers to transition to Web3.0. Its gaming platform combines non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), working with developers to create games that they can collaborate on with their communities.
Op Games says that the platform will incorporate a Play-and-Earn model, a variation on a pillar of the gamefi movement.
The platform’s player-facing gateway is OP Arcade, where communities discover HTML5 games, compete for prizes in tournaments, and participate in a progressive crypto-economy. OP Arcade is built on the developer-friendly NEAR Protocol.
OP Games plans to support the creation of up to 500 games by the end of 2022, nurturing a vibrant community of creators, players and investors.
Op Games also revealed that it is launching its genesis NFT project, Arcadians, on October 12. This inaugural series of Avatars for the OP Arcade platform are built on the open-source tools created by OP Games, and are one of the pillars of the upcoming OP Games metaverse.
Decentralized Gaming Is Hot Now
Play-to-Earn gaming has gained tremendous uptake in the past two years. Many blockchain based play-to-earn gaming startups have garnered significant venture capital investment in the recent past.
Read More: How Blockchain Will Completely Transform The Gaming World?
In May, Animoca Brands, a Hong Kong-based blockchain gaming company, raised US$89 million at US$1 billion valuation, making it the newest blockchain unicorn in Asia. In May, another blockchain gaming firm Sky Mavis raised US$7.5 million in Series A funding led by Libertus Capital. Sky Mavis is the developer of one of the world’s most popular blockchain games, Axie Infinity.
In September, gaming NFT marketplace Ulti Arena raised over US$4 million from prominent investors, including Luna Capital, Panda Capital, and Lucid Blue Ventures.
Read More: Gaming NFT Marketplace Ulti Arena Raises $4 Million
In fact, this segment is so hot that Huobi Eco Chain (HECO) recently launched a new accelerator program – HECO Gaming Accelerator – dedicated to decentralized gaming. It will offer emerging game developers with all the tools and resources they need to create and market their decentralized games.