Proof of Play, a company run by Farmville co-creator Amitt Mahajan, raised $33 million to create Web3 games, according to a Sept. 21 announcement. Majahan is the CEO of Proof of Play and Twitch co-founder Emmett Shear is a board member.
The financing was co-led by Chris Dixon of Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Neil Mehta of Greenoaks. Investors Naval Ravikant, Balaji Srinivasan and the founders of the streaming platform Twitch also participated, as well as Web3 companies Anchorage Digital, Mercury, Firebase, Zynga and Alchemy.
Proof of Play launched a closed beta of its first game, Pirate Nation, in December 2022.
In its announcement, the company claimed that it can overcome many obstacles that players often encounter when trying to play Web3 games. It stated that it has "a set of technological and product innovations" that will "quickly immerse players in a fun game" without first learning about blockchain.
Related: Atari Founder Sees Web3 Games as Vital to Virtual Property and Education
Proof of Play also stated that it is committed to decentralization. Pirate Nation is a "Forever Game" that can run without external servers or creator intervention, adding that the company intends to open up its technological framework in the future to decentralize it even further.
The Proof of Play team includes members from several large web and gaming companies, including Epic Games, Zynga, EA, Activision, and Google.
Multi-million dollar funding rounds from Web3 companies have become the norm in 2023. EVE Online developer CCP Games raised $40 million in March to develop a new game derived from EVEand Hypergame raised $12 million in June to further develop its Steam competitor and distribution platform.
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