Farmville co-creator-led company raises $33M to create Web3 games

Proof of Play, a institution led by Farmville co-creator Amitt Mahajan, raised $33 cardinal to make Web3 games, according to a Sept. 21 announcement. Majahan is the CEO of Proof of Play, and Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear is simply a committee member.

The backing was co-led by Chris Dixon astatine Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Neil Mehta astatine Greenoaks. Investors Naval Ravikant, Balaji Srinivasan and the founders of streaming level Twitch besides participated, arsenic good arsenic Web3 firms Anchorage Digital, Mercury, Firebase, Zynga and Alchemy.

Proof of Play released a closed beta of its archetypal game, Pirate Nation, successful December 2022.

Pirate Nation Web3 game. Source: Proof of Play

In its announcement, the institution claimed it tin flooded galore roadblocks players commonly brushwood erstwhile attempting to play Web3 games. It stated that it possesses “a acceptable of technological and merchandise innovations” that volition “quickly immerse players successful amusive gameplay” without learning astir blockchain first.

Related: Atari laminitis sees Web3 games arsenic captious for virtual ownership and education

Proof of Play besides stated that it is committed to decentralization. Pirate Nation is simply a “Forever Game” that tin beryllium tally without outer servers oregon creator intervention, adding that the institution intends to open-source its exertion model successful the aboriginal to decentralize further.

The Proof of Play squad includes members from respective ample gaming and web companies, including Epic Games, Zynga, EA, Activision and Google.

Multimillion-dollar backing rounds from Web3 companies person go the norm successful 2023. EVE Online developer CCP Games raised $40 cardinal successful March to develop a caller spinoff EVE game, and Hyperplay raised $12 cardinal successful June to further make its organisation level and Steam competitor.