Studio behind Pirate Nation secures $33M funding
Proof of Play, the innovative studio responsible for the blockchain-based role-playing game Pirate Nation, has successfully raised $33 million in seed funding. This round was co-headed by influential venture capital firms Andreessen Horowitz and Greenoaks Capital.
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Funding round led by industry giants
Co-founded by CEO Amitt Mahajan, who is also renowned as the co-creator of Zynga’s iconic game FarmVille, Proof of Play intends to allocate the funds towards the expansion of the company and the advancement of its unique technology. This technology, which will soon be open source, facilitates the creation of fully on-chain games designed to exist perpetually.
Joining the board of Proof of Play, alongside the investment, is Emmett Shear, the co-founder and CEO of popular streaming platform Twitch. The funding round also witnessed participation from other notable figures such as Naval Ravikant, co-founder of AngelList, and entrepreneur Balaji Srinivasian, formerly the CTO of Coinbase.
Chris Dixon from Andreessen Horowitz expressed his enthusiasm regarding their investment, stating:
“We’re thrilled to be backing Proof of Play as they architect an on-chain gaming future. Their emphasis on composability, interoperability, and permanence ensures players truly possess their assets, and it paves the way for anyone to conceptualize a game atop another.”
Concept of multi-generational games
Mahajan reminisced about the discontinuation of FarmVille in 2020, which triggered his curiosity about blockchain’s potential to develop “forever games.” He lamented:
“Over a billion hours of playtime, creativity, and investment was lost with FarmVille’s termination. This made me search for ways to render games everlasting.”
He further expressed his vision of creating multi-generational games destined to live forever on the blockchain, outliving even their creators.
While the idea sounds attractive, games usually get outdated in a few years as graphics become outdated or the gameplay becomes stale in comparison to new titles. However, rare exceptions like Tetris could fit into this category.
Pirate Nation soon to be free-to-play
As a way to lower network fees, Pirate Nation transitioned from the Polygon network to Arbitrum Nova earlier this year. Despite being based on a blockchain framework, Proof of Play emphasizes that gamers can infuse their creativity, tweaking and broadening the game with personalized content.
Additionally, Proof of Play disclosed that Pirate Nation would soon commence its free-to-play mode. This mode permits players to design a free character sans owning an NFT. However, players who possess NFTs will enjoy a spectrum of exclusive advantages. The free version is tailored to cater to the preferences of a more varied player base.
