'MadWorld' Mobile NFT Shooter Launches in Early Access as Studio Raises $11 Million
Summary
MadWorld, a post-apocalyptic shooter game for iOS and Android, opened up registration for its early access playtest on Thursday, giving players an opportunity to test out its NFT-based territory control elements. And the studio behind the title, Carbonated, also shared that it has raised $11 million in fresh funding from prominent backers.Carbonated Inc, founded in 2015 by video game industry veterans from firms like PlayStation and Electronic Arts, revealed exclusively to Decrypts GG that it has raised a $11 million Series A round led by Com2uS, the South Korean gaming giant behind the XPLA blockchain network that MadWorld uses for its on-chain elements.Additional backers in the round include Andreessen Horowitz, Bitkraft Ventures, Cypher Capital, Blocore, Goal Ventures, and WAGMI Ventures, the company said. The studio previously raised $8.5 million in 2020 with Andreessen and Bitkraft both attached then, as well.MadWorld, which will launch to the public sometime in 2024, pairs competitive shooting action from a third-person perspective with territory control gameplay based around NFT land assets. While the usability still needs to be improvedand lots of great companies are working hard on thisit still all rests on great game experiences to drive it.In recent months, weve seen Google soften its stance towards Web3 games on the Android Play Store, while companies have launched NFT experiences in the iOS App Store while still playing within the rules of Apples walled garden ecosystem.Boatman said that regulations are ultimately a good thing for consumers to avoid the hacky, exploitative practices seen when free-to-play mobile games first hit the scene in the early App Store days. Thats much harder to dowhich is why we think were seeing fewer teams with deeper experience chasing this space.Editors note: This story originally stated an incorrect amount of funding raised.