A16z Leads $15M Round for P2E Studio Azra Games

Blockchain gaming institution Azra Games has raised $15 cardinal successful a effect circular led by Andreessen Horowitz. The circular volition assistance money Azra’s archetypal game, a subject fiction/fantasy collectibles and wide combat relation playing crippled code-named Project Arcanas.

A16z invested successful Sacramento-based Azra Games done its crypto money and its caller $600 cardinal games fund announced yesterday. Azra was co-founded by entrepreneurs Sonny Mayugba (who serves arsenic COO) and Travis Boudreaux, on with seasoned crippled decorator and Electronic Arts alum Mark Otero (who serves arsenic CEO).

"CEO Mark Otero is simply a seasoned crippled manager who was astatine the forefront of mobile free-to-play games with the deed franchise Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes,” said a16z wide spouse Jonathan Lai successful the property release. “We’re excited to spouse with Mark and the Azra squad arsenic they use their expertise to web3 games successful creating caller types of gameplay and system design.”

Other participants successful the effect financing included NFX, Coinbase Ventures, Play Ventures and Franklin Templeton. Azra volition proceed to physique retired its 24-person squad with focuses connected crippled merchandise and improvement and marque building, Mayugba told CoinDesk successful an interview.

“We person a alternatively ample innovation budget," said Otero, speaking with CoinDesk. "And what I mean by that is we truly privation to revisit each the assumptions of what it means to beryllium a collectable toys positive combat RPG game," helium continued. "To bash that takes clip … [and] a batch of astute radical to spell distant from existing established conventions to invent caller things. And that evidently comes with cost.”

Project Arcanas is simply a phantasy combat arena crippled wherever players conflict for wealthiness and power. Participants tin garner non-fungible token-based (NFT) collectibles and physique retired legions for combat and rewards.

“As a kid, I spent countless hours relation playing with each of my antithetic toys,” Otero said successful the property release. “At Azra, we are making a crippled to recreate this joy, to re-engage adults’ imaginations erstwhile again with the eventual collectibles fantasy, combined with the eventual fast-paced mix-and-match combat that is accessible yet profoundly strategic.”

Azra has been prototyping the crippled for implicit 4 months, with a absorption connected creating a visually attractive, amusive crippled that’s besides accessible for players.

“We’re doing a batch of exploration connected the economy. We surely studied each of the play-to-earn games retired determination and, rather frankly, we’re not satisfied with what we see,” Otera explained. “We’re starting from a spot wherever the archetypal happening we’re going to bash is truly … absorption connected the postulation and absorption connected the worth of the things that you tin cod wrong the world.“

Azra has announced that users volition beryllium capable to cod NFT illustration pics called Play Forever Passes (PFPs) that volition fundamentally enactment arsenic crippled passes arsenic the squad builds retired the Project Arcanas universe. The institution volition merchandise the archetypal PFPs with gamification – called Genesis Explorers – wrong the adjacent respective months. By the extremity of the year, Azra plans to merchandise teaser footage of the collectible artifact conflict acquisition for the game.

There are plans for further games wrong the brand, which Azra views much arsenic crippled slices of a full ecosystem pastry alternatively than mini-games.

Otero: “We person a precise agelong word presumption of the innovations we’re gathering and the marque that we’re building. And we’re truly reasoning astir the further games that tin usage the innovations from our archetypal brand."

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