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US developer Proof of Play has introduced it’s raised a $33 million seed spherical, which was led by a16z and Greenoaks.
Different participations included Anchorage Digital, Mercury, Firebase, Zynga, Alchemy plus angels reminiscent of Naval Ravikant, Balaji Srinivasian and the founders of Twitch. Former Twitch CEO Emmett Shear additionally joins the board.
Co-founded by CEO Amitt Mahajan, who co-created FarmVille at Zynga and early NFT market Uncommon Bits, the staff additionally boasts veterans from Epic Video games, EA, Activision and Google.
Its first recreation is Pirate Nation, an Ethereum-based social turn-based RPG with deck-building components, which has been reside in beta since December 2022 with gameplay on the Arbitrum Nova L2. You possibly can play a demo version here.
In addition to constructing video games, Proof of Play additionally plans to open supply the expertise and instruments it’s utilizing to construct them.
“As one of many creators and lead developer of FarmVille, I noticed first-hand what the quantity of power and storytelling gamers put into video games they love. When the sport shut down in 2020, nevertheless, over a billion hours of playtime, creativity, and funding was misplaced. Realizing this, I felt compelled to discover a higher strategy to make video games timeless,” Mahajan commented.

“Proof of Play is dedicated to constructing absolutely onchain video games, and the technical instruments to energy them, with a view to facilitate autonomous worlds, guarantee recreation longevity, and create a extra immersive participant expertise. We’re creating multi-generational merchandise — video games that may outlast us and are owned by the communities that play them.”