Fortnite,
the free multi-player survival game, has earned an astonishing $1 billion from
in-game virtual purchases alone. Now, others in the gaming industry are
experimenting with how they too can capitalize on new trends in gaming.
Mythical
Games, a startup out of stealth today with $16 million in Series A funding, is
embracing a future in gaming where user-generated content and intimate ties
between players, content creators, brands and developers is the norm. Mythical
is using its infusion of venture capital to develop a line of PC, mobile and
console games on the EOSIO blockchain, which will also be open to developers to
build games with “player-owned economies.”
The company
says an announcement regarding its initial lineup of games is on the way.
Mythical is
led by a group of gaming industry veterans. Its chief executive officer is John
Linden, a former studio head at Activision and president of the
Niantic-acquired Seismic Games. The rest of its C-suite includes chief
compliance officer Jamie Jackson, another former studio head at Activision;
chief product officer Stephan Cunningham, a former director of product
management at Yahoo; and head of blockchain Rudy Kock, a former senior producer
at Blizzard — the Activision subsidiary known for World of Warcraft. Together,
the team has worked on games including Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, Marvel Strike
Force and Skylanders.
Galaxy
Digital’s EOS VC Fund has led the round for Mythical. The $325 million fund,
launched earlier this year, is focused on expanding the EOSIO ecosystem via
strategic investments in startups building on EOSIO blockchain software.
Javelin Venture Partners, Divergence Digital Currency, cryptocurrency exchange
OKCoin and others also participated in the round.
It’s no
surprise investors are getting excited about the booming gaming business given
the success of Epic Games, Twitch, Discord and others in the space.
Epic Games
raised a $1.25 billion round late last month thanks to the cultural phenomenon
that its game, Fortnite, has become. KKR, Iconiq Capital, Smash Ventures,Vulcan
Capital, Kleiner Perkins, Lightspeed Venture Partners and others participated
in that round. Discord, a chat application for gamers, raised a $50 million
financing in April at a $1.65 billion valuation from Benchmark Capital,
Greylock Partners, IVP, Spark Capital and Tencent. And Dapper Labs, best known
for the blockchain-based game CryptoKitties, even raised a VC round this year —
a $15 million financing led by Venrock, with participation from GV and Samsung
NEXT.
In total,
VCs have invested $1.8 billion in gaming startups this year, per PitchBook.
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