A16z continues to be the leader in web3 investment. Now it wants the crypto gaming industry to compete with the biggest games in the world.  Covered: A16z Announces Games Fund One The Three Themes Of Games Fund One A16z Announces Games Fund One We are proud to announce ?????????? ???????? ?????? — $600M to build […] The post Can Crypto Gaming Compete With Fortnite, Minecraft? This VC Firm Thinks So appeared first on CryptosRus.

Can Crypto Gaming Compete With Fortnite, Minecraft? This VC Firm Thinks So

A16z continues to be the leader in web3 investment. Now it wants the crypto gaming industry to compete with the biggest games in the world. 

Covered:

  • A16z Announces Games Fund One
  • The Three Themes Of Games Fund One

A16z Announces Games Fund One

Venture capital firm a16z announced a massive $600 million USD fund for crypto gaming titled Games Fund One. As the name indicates, the fund is dedicated to funding the nascent space of blockchain-based gaming.

A16z is a web3-focused VC firm founded by Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz. A16z has supported crypto games before through investments in companies like Dapper Labs, which developed Crypto Kitties. This is the first fund by a16z completely focused on gaming.

“We’ve decided to build the a16z Games Fund because we believe this will be one of the most important new industries in the coming decades…” said Andrew Chen of Games Fund One.

One of the criticisms of crypto gaming so far is its scale. The games don’t compete tech-wise with the biggest of game producers. Triple-A games are estimated to cost around a 100 million USD to produce (though budgets vary from game to game).

Notably, some big names from the video game and video game-adjacent industry joined the fund as experts like Marc Merrill, cofounder of Riot Games (company behind League of Legends), Kevin Lin, co-founder of Twitch, and David Baszucki, founder of Roblox.

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A16z: The Three Themes Of Games Fund one

A16z’s Games Fund One is focused on three themes.

“Game Studios: The best games today are continually updated online services whose players form an integral part of the game through multiplayer and user-generated content. These “games-as-a-service” have become rich, interactive social networks, with players making in-game friendships that are just as meaningful as those made in-person.

 

Games x Consumer: The rapid growth in the number of gamers worldwide has created a thriving ecosystem of consumer apps to support them. As games become the dominant way people spend time, we believe some of the most innovative consumer companies will be built around player communities. (Social apps like Discord that help gamers build community, or platforms like Twitch where millions tune in daily to watch creators livestream video, are just a couple examples of this).

 

Infrastructure: As games evolve into virtual worlds and online services, the demand for tools and services needed to build great games is skyrocketing. Not only is this infrastructure important for games in its own right, we also believe that the coming Metaverse will be built by games companies, using games technologies. From content creation to multiplayer enablement to virtual economy management and live ops, the games industry has already solved many of the problems that need to be solved to create the Metaverse,” from a16z blog.

Interestingly, as part of the Game Studios theme, a16z notes that, “The best games today  are continually updated online services…” which points to a focus on competing with Fortnite and Minecraft. Games like Fortnite are continually updated with “seasons” rather than releasing sequels. This strategy can be rather lucrative considering Fortnite raked in over 5 billion USD in profit in 2017 and 2018 combined.

As for Games x Consumer, it appears a16z is interested building alternatives to Discord, and Twitch. Though it’s unclear. The vagueness could suggest they might be open to developing crypto-specific social media that’s tailored to the experience of owning NFTs in- game, for example.

Whether this fund will develop a game that can compete with the likes of multi-billion dollar success stories like Minecraft and Fortnite remains to be seen. But one thing is sure, if it doesn’t pan out, penny pinching won’t be the culprit.

Recommended: Interest In Crypto Gaming Is Surging

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