Fenix ​​Games raises $150 million for blockchain game publishing

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Fenix ​​Games has raised $150 million to create a new kind of publisher for on-chain games.

The idea is to create a publishing and platform company that plays a key role in bringing blockchain games to market. Fenix ​​​​Games plans to acquire, invest and publish both existing games and blockchain games of the future.

Investors include Phoenix Group and Cypher Capital. The new company suggests that blockchain gaming – which has seen something of a Cambrian explosion over the past two years – is headed for consolidation where big companies will emerge acquiring or funding all solid startups. In other words, Fenix ​​Games hopes to be in a good position to consolidate many companies into one strong company with a big wallet - one that can survive the current blockchain gaming slump.

"You can think of us as a venture capital fund," said Chris Ko, CEO and co-founder of Fenix ​​Games, in an interview with GamesBeat. "The market is similar to before [mobile gaming to the rise of free games] but it hasn't found its Clash of Clans for blockchain games yet. We're using the VC arm to fund the next generation of games We're actually going to start with a huge capital base to invest in these studios. We're also looking to use our balance sheet to acquire a bunch of existing games in the web2 space to build a portfolio. And that will be the right foundation for our wallet.”

Chris Ko is CEO of Fenix ​​Games.

Historically, the gaming industry has had participants that have provided a marketplace or platform for gamers and game developers. In consoles, platforms included Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo. And in mobile, the platforms are Apple and Google.

In both of these cases, an entire market has been created and has led to an ecosystem enabling the consumption of content. However, for blockchain games, that market currently does not exist, Ko said. The company was founded by a group of gaming industry, blockchain and financial market veterans.

“We plan to acquire, invest, publish and in some cases operate games and studios,” Ko said. “We will have a few hundred million to deploy to execute our strategy.”< /p>

Channels represent a potential platform similar to previous gaming rounds, but at this point they don't appear to be focused on creating the marketplace for gamers, Ko said.

“We think this is temporary because the main apps on the channels are going to be games,” Ko said. “The infrastructure, tools and support just don't exist. We believe there is an opportunity for the role of publishing to elevate its role in the gaming ecosystem."

Matt Nutt is COO of Fenix ​​Games.

More senior game developers are looking to expand into blockchain gaming, especially in the wake of Apple's privacy policy in games mobiles. But Fenix ​​Games believes that a very limited set of games are being developed so far for blockchain platforms.

"We believe there is a structural void. We aim to fill that void with a redesigned editing group that leverages some of the traditional editing features...