Original Title: "Ubisoft Enters the Game, What Other Popular Gaming Platforms Are There in the Chain Game Track Where a16z and FTX Are Accelerating Their Layout?"

Author: Block Rhythm

In recent years, the gaming market has shown a continuous growth trend, further boosted by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, which has increased user participation in gaming entertainment. In July this year, gaming market insight agency Newzoo released the "2021 Global Gaming Market Report," which indicated that the global gaming market is expected to generate over $170 billion in revenue this year.

On the other hand, the development of chain games that utilize blockchain technology to address the pain points of traditional gaming, such as centralization and lack of transparency, is also rapid. According to DappRadar data, as of November 10, 2021, there have been a total of 1,070 gaming Dapps launched across the network, with daily transaction volume and user numbers peaking on October 1 and 7, respectively, where the highest daily transaction volume reached $484 million and the maximum daily user count reached 1.33 million.

Among them, chain games represented by the Play-to-Earn economic model have recently attracted significant attention. On November 7, CMC data showed that the total market capitalization of Play-to-Earn tokens had surpassed $25 billion, setting a historical high.

While continuously capturing the attention of gamers and crypto practitioners, institutions are also being attracted to accelerate their entry. Whether traditional game manufacturers are transforming or crypto capital is establishing chain game platforms, they will inject continuous momentum into the chain game market. Below, Block Rhythm will summarize many well-known gaming platforms and their chain game projects.

Animoca Brands

Animoca Brands is an Australian mobile game development company headquartered in Hong Kong, founded in 2014. It has acquired game companies and launched original games, actively investing in related infrastructure and surrounding guilds, such as the metaverse The Sandbox, gaming guild Yield Guild Games, racing game REVV Racing, and F1 Delta Time.

On October 20 this year, Animoca Brands completed a $65 million financing round, with a pre-financing valuation of $2.2 billion. Investors in this round include Liberty City Ventures, Ubisoft Entertainment, Sequoia China, Dragonfly Capital, Com2uS, Kingsway Capital, 10T Holdings, Token Bay Capital, Smile Group, Tess Ventures, MSA Capital, Octava Fund, Adit Ventures, Summer Capital, Sigitech Holdings, Black Anthem Ltd, Mirana Corp, and Justin Sun. The funds will be used to support strategic investments and acquisitions, product development, and obtaining licenses for popular intellectual properties.

Dapper Labs

Dapper Labs was founded in 2012 by crypto enthusiasts Roham and Dieter Shirley, with founder Dieter Shirley being one of the main initiators of the ERC-721 standard. In November 2017, Dapper Labs launched the CryptoKitties game based on the ERC-721 standard. Additionally, due to the higher scalability requirements of decentralized games and crypto collectibles, Dapper Labs later developed a fast and more user-friendly blockchain network called Flow.

On the other hand, earlier this year, Dapper Labs' NFT project NBA Top Shot quickly gained popularity in the industry. On September 22, Dapper Labs announced the completion of a $250 million financing round led by Coatue, with participation from a16z, Google Ventures, and Version One Ventures, bringing Dapper Labs' valuation to $7.6 billion.

Sky Mavis

Sky Mavis was established in early 2018 and builds products that allow anyone to truly own their digital identity and gaming assets. It ranked 6th among all blockchain gaming companies in 2020 according to Blockchaingamer.biz, while Sky Mavis's flagship product Axie Infinity is known for its astonishing profitability.

Axie Infinity is a gaming metaverse where players can battle, breed, and trade pets called Axies. According to Token Terminal data, Axie Infinity's revenue reached $334 million in July this year, officially surpassing the monthly revenue of Honor of Kings at $231 million (according to Sensor Tower data).

On October 5, Sky Mavis announced the completion of a $152 million Series B financing round, led by a16z, with participation from Paradigm, Accel, FTX, Samsung Next, and others. The funds will be used to continue promoting the development of Play-to-Earn games and expand its infrastructure to achieve expected growth, including promoting the expansion of Axie Infinity and Ronin.

Enjin

Enjin is the largest multifunctional blockchain game development platform, consisting of Trusted Cloud, Blockchain SDK, Platform API, Wallet Daemon, and Efinity, launched in 2009 and headquartered in Singapore. Currently, Enjin has 250,000 game community guilds, esports teams, Minecraft servers, game communities, gaming tribes, role-playing groups, fan sites, etc., with 18.7 million registered players and approximately 60 million global gamers visiting each month.

On November 4 this year, Enjin announced the establishment of a $100 million Efinity Metaverse fund, aimed at supporting Enjin and Efinity developers in building the metaverse, providing support for the Enjin ecosystem, metaverse, chain games, decentralized infrastructure, NFT DApps, and more pioneering projects.

Gala Games

Gala Games was founded by Eric Schiermeyer, co-founder of the well-known social game Zynga, crypto miner Wright Thurston, and veteran game practitioner Michael McCarthy, aiming to be the Steem of the blockchain field. Gala Games has also developed a separate blockchain network, allowing users to purchase operational licenses for Gala nodes and earn rewards based on their contributions to the platform network.

The Gala Games platform can utilize cryptocurrency and blockchain smart contract functions, allowing developers to design blockchain games while allowing players to own and transfer loot NFTs obtained in the game and securely buy, sell, and trade through a peer-to-peer marketplace. The first game released by Gala Games is Town Star, an agricultural management simulation game where players can plant crops, collect resources, and build factories to continuously improve their economic level, receiving widespread acclaim from players in the industry. Additionally, the platform offers RPG game Mirandus, PVP tower defense game Fortified, and more, providing various choices for different players.

Mythical Games

Blockchain game startup Mythical Games was founded by former executives of AR/VR game companies Seismic Games and Grue Games, headquartered in Los Angeles, developing mobile, PC, and console games based on the EOS blockchain, which will build a new game economy controlled by players.

Recently, NFT game startup Mythical Games announced it has raised $150 million in Series C financing, with a company valuation of $1.25 billion. This round of financing was led by a16z, with participation from Alameda Research, Binance, D1 Capital, RedBird Capital, The Raine Group, the NFL's investment arm 32 Equity, OneTeam Partners, Michael Jordan, The Kraft Group, Michael Gordon of the Boston Red Sox, Mantis VC, and others. The company is preparing its Mythical platform to help other developers enter the growing crypto gaming space.

GAMEE

GAMEE is a Play-to-Earn gaming platform that has attracted 30 million users globally, who have played over 4.7 billion games and earned over $9 million in real rewards. The platform ranges from casual games to fiercely competitive tournaments offering prizes. In addition to dozens of original games, GAMEE has collaborated with internationally renowned brands such as NASA, Guinness World Records, and Manchester City Football Club to develop games.

Moreover, GAMEE launched a one-stop platform called ARC8, which has been launched on Apple and Google app stores and ranks first in the total user count leaderboard of Polygon's Dapps. Currently, several casual mini-games such as Marble Dash, Pixel Dungeon, and Globo Run are available on Arc8, where players can use their skills to earn reward tokens GMEE.

USM Labs

USM Labs developed Universal Metaverse (USM) and Metamon Game. USM is a 3D planetary virtual world where players can purchase land and build stores and art galleries. Users can dynamically zoom in and out within and around the 3D planet, similar to Google Earth. At the same time, the USM metaverse can also provide IGO (Initial Game Offering) for gaming projects and ISO (Initial Social Offering) for social applications.

Metamon is a blockchain game based on BSC, where players can control and collect cute Metamon creatures. Almost all in-game items, including Metamon, are NFTs and can be transferred or gifted on any NFT marketplace.

Additionally, Elon Musk's mother, Maye Musk, has also joined USM, with her Box (MPB) NFT and DeFi+GameF being exclusively managed by the blockchain game Radio Caca. The Radio Caca token RACA is also the native and governance token for USM, Metamon Game, and other games and social Dapps within USM.

Dacoco

The Dacoco gaming platform believes that the Metaverse is the next iteration of online social life, where participants are creators who own rather than consumers and data providers. Dacoco has developed a metaverse called Alien Worlds based on the WAX public chain, simulating economic competition and cooperation between players, providing land ownership, deployment tools, soldiers, and weapons, and customizing exclusive game characters. It is currently a multi-chain NFT DeFi metaverse game that supports Ethereum, WAX, and BSC. Additionally, Dacoco has two other games worth noting: eosDAC and Liberland.

Blockade Games

Blockade Games is an independent studio focused on developing blockchain-based video games, led by Marguerite deCourcelle and artist AKA. The team is currently developing a cyberpunk RPG game called Neon District, which integrates crypto assets and redefines the boundaries of traditional gaming experiences. Additionally, Blockade Games has invested in a game called PlasmaBears, which revolves around collecting, building, and adventure.

Virtually Human Studio

Virtually Human Studio's blockchain horse racing game ZED RUN allows players to buy, breed, sell, and race digital thoroughbreds on the blockchain, even establishing a star-studded racetrack. Each racehorse is uniquely created through smart contracts on the Ethereum network and is defined by its lineage, genes, and performance on the track. Additionally, another gaming platform under Virtually Human Studio, ZEST, is the first DApp on the NEAR mainnet.

Bright Star

Bright Star is an international studio developing an MMORPG (Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game) blockchain game called Ember Sword. Ember Sword features fast-paced combat, and players control the world through land ownership within this universe. In the game, players can freely buy and sell equipment, with high-value skins marked as NFT collectibles that players can earn through game levels. Additionally, Ember Sword raised up to $1.5 million in funding during its land sale on Polygon in May this year.

Ubisoft

Ubisoft, founded in 1986, is a video game developer and publisher headquartered in Rennes, France. It was recognized as the third-largest independent game developer in Europe and the fourth-largest independent game publisher in North America in 2008, currently operating 23 game development studios worldwide.

In the earnings call for the second quarter of this year, Ubisoft CEO Yves Guillemot confirmed that Ubisoft is not only investing in blockchain companies but will also create its own blockchain games. It is reported that Animoca Brands recently completed a $65 million financing round, in which Ubisoft participated.

Big Time Studios

Big Time Studios has recruited an all-star team of industry veterans from companies like Epic Games, Blizzard, EA, and Riot. Big Time Studios is working on building a second-generation blockchain gaming platform based on Decentraland, creating online adventure games through time and space.

Core Loop

Core Loop gaming platform was founded by veteran mobile game practitioners Vincenzo Alagna and Dan Chao, and on November 5, it completed a $12 million financing round led by a16z. The company will use blockchain technology to develop a sandbox massive multiplayer online game.

Faraway

Faraway gaming startup platform was co-founded by Alex Paley and Dennis Zdonov, who have years of development experience in mobile games. Recently, Faraway announced it has completed a $21 million Series A financing round, led by FTX and Lightspeed Venture Partners, with participation from a16z, Solana, Jump Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Pantera Capital.