Blockchain related video games have been gaining traction lately. The traditional video game industry is therefore also starting to show more and more interest in the new developments. Partly because of this, Horizon Blockchain Games managed to raise $40 million in a Series A funding round.
Web3 Game Development
Horizon Blockchain Games focuses as a startup on the development of Web3 games. Some big names joined the funding round, including Ubisoft and Take-Two Interactive. Both companies have reportedly invested money in Horizon Blockhain Games. Naturally, more companies joined the funding round, including BITKRAFT, CMT Digital, Everyrealm, Polygon, Sky9 Capital, Translink, Xchange, and Xsolla, among many others.
Both Ubisoft and Take-Two have already proven themselves well within the crypto world. For example, Ubisoft is the developer of big names such as Assassin’s Creed, Far Cry and Rainbow Six, while Take-Two and Rockstar have released games such as Bioshock, Grand Theft Auto (GTA) and The Elder Scrolls.
Growing business further
Horizon has said that the proceeds from the financing round will be used to further grow the company’s ecosystem. They can do this by expanding their workforce, enabling better product development.
Where the blockchain concept is sometimes experienced as something difficult, Horizon’s focus for now is on building user-friendly Web3 products. They say the following about this:
Our Series A funding enables us to grow the Sequence ecosystem by attracting more builders to the platform and enabling the next generation of video games and applications.
They will also use some of the money to improve Skyweaver. Skyweaver is, as it were, the company’s flagship, which they call ‘the best blockchain game’. Finally, they want to launch NiftySwap, which in turn is a decentralized marketplace for Semi-Fungible Tokens (SFTs). This will allow the exchange of web-based in-game items and Metaverse collectibles.
What exactly is an SFT?
An SFT belongs to a relatively new group of tokens that can be both fungible and ineffective during their life cycle. Initially, SFTs behave like regular fungible tokens as they can be traded with other identical SFTs. The process of transforming from a fungible to a non-fungible token upon redemption is where semi-fungible tokens get their name.
An example of such an SFT could be a (valid) Amazon voucher. Using a valid $10 Amazon voucher would have the same value as an identical voucher with the same expiration date and would therefore be interchangeable.
The distinguishing factor that makes these special types of tokens “semi-functionable” is that once they are redeemed, the replaceable tokens lose their face value. That loss of exchangeable value renders the expired tokens non-functioning.