Quick take:
- Random Games has raised $7.6 million in a funding round co-led by Resolute Ventures and Asymmetric.
- The blockchain game developer will use the funds to beef up the development of its Unioverse gaming franchise.
- The seed round also attracted participation from IGNIA, 2 Punks Capital, ID345, and Polygon, among others.
Random Games has announced the successful completion of a $7.6 million funding round co-led by Resolute Ventures and Asymmetric. The seed round also attracted participation from IGNIA, 2 Punks Capital, ID345, Polygon and renowned game-developer David Jones.
The company is building Unioverse a community-driven web3 gaming franchise that will append the traditional video gaming model with features that empower players with blockchain-based rewards and free distribution of high-end assets.
The company boast leadership from video game veterans with co-founder Tony Harman having worked on top AAA gaming projects including Grand Theft Auto, Donkey Kong Country, and Crackdown.
Other members of the team involved in the development of the game include people who worked on Star Wars, Call of Duty and Star Citizen.
Unioverse is developing a series of video games whose assets will be made available to the community and developers royalty-free. This will enable anyone to download AAA-quality characters, artwork, models, and music for free, allowing them to make their own video games, comic books, movies, lunchboxes, and T-shirts, among others. They will also be allowed to keep the proceeds from any sales they make from their creations.
According to Tony Harman, Co-Founder of Random Games, this is the perfect model for onboarding masses to the creator community.
“Imagine if Marvel released character art and 3D models and told fans to go make – and profit from – their fan films and comics,” said Harman. “That’s how big this idea is. We have a team of world-class writers, artists and developers building the Unioverse and we are basically giving it away!”
Harman who previously ran development and acquisition for Nintendo is joined by Co-Founder, Wyeth Ridgway. Ridgway founded and was CEO of Leviathan Games, the organisation behind leading gaming titles including Terminator, Star Trek, South Park, and Pirates of the Caribbean.
Unioverse games will be an NFT-gated ecosystem that will give holders of its NFT character avatars access to its games. The NFT avatars will be interoperable across the gaming franchise, Random Games wrote in a press release on Tuesday.
Commenting on his firm’s leading role in the seed round, Joe McCann, Founder and CEO of Asymmetric said: “We’re very excited to back such a strong team and are looking forward to watching them build a franchise that is literally changing the economics of gaming. In the Unioverse, blockchain technology is organically and thoughtfully incorporated and will change the name of the game in the entertainment economy.”
On the other hand, Raanan Bar-Cohen, Co-Founder of Resolute Ventures, which co-led the round commented: “Rarely do you see a truly disruptive concept, cutting-edge technology and a stellar founding team converge in a single startup like this. “The Unioverse is poised to change the relationship between game developers and players in a way that benefits everyone involved.”
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