Farmville co-creator-led company raises $33M to create Web3 games

Evidence of Play, a business led by Farmville co-creator Amitt Mahajan, raised $33 million to create Web3 video 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 at Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and Neil Mehta at Greenoaks. Financiers Naval Ravikant, Balaji Srinivasan and the creators of streaming platform Twitch also took part, in addition to Web3 firms Anchorage Digital, Mercury, Firebase, Zynga and Alchemy.Proof of Play launched a closed beta of its very first game, Pirate Nation, in December 2022. Pirate Nation Web3 video game. Source: Proof of PlayIn its statement, the business declared it can conquer numerous obstructions gamers typically experience when attempting to play Web3 games. It stated that it possesses “a set of technological and item innovations” that will “quickly immerse gamers in enjoyable gameplay” without finding out about blockchain first.Related: Atari founder sees Web3 video games as essential for virtual ownership and educationProof of Play likewise mentioned that it is committed to decentralization. Pirate Nation is a “Forever Game” that can be run without external servers or developer intervention, adding that the business means to open-source its innovation framework in the future to decentralize further.The Proof of Play group includes members from numerous large video gaming and web business, including Epic Games, Zynga, EA, Activision and Google.Multimillion-dollar funding rounds from Web3 companies have become the standard in 2023. EVE Online developer CCP Games raised $40 million in March to develop a new spinoff EVE game, and Hyperplay raised $12 million in June to further establish its distribution platform and Steam competitor.