Drivetime pivots to Blockstars with Web3 rock band game
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At the height of the pandemic, no one was driving cars, and that forced a big pivot for Drivetime, which created voice-enabled games for people to play in the car. So the company raised $5 million and changed its name to Blockstars.
The company raised the funding through a combination of an equity and token funding round led by Play Ventures through its Future Fund. Existing shareholders Makers Fund, Solana, Magic Eden, Merit Circle and Citizen X also invested.
Niko Vuori, CEO of Blockstars, said in an interview with GamesBeat that the company is creating its next game, Blockstars, a music management simulation game based on the Solana blockchain. Vuori is visiting Lisbon to participate in the Solana Breakpoint event in Portugal.
In the game, players collect musicians called Blockstars who write, record, and release singles. And they bundle their greatest hits into albums and put in the time and effort to improve their skills and ultimately work towards earning enough money to start and improve their own.
The game is designed and balanced to allow experienced players as well as complete beginners to compete for places on the leaderboards, based on a variety of factors that allow competition in many varied playstyles (so yes, you can of course always min-max your way to a top spot on one of the leaderboards if that's your jam, but there will be a few different ways to compete, win and win).
Winners of different competition categories earn rewards in the form of $ROC, the main in-game token on the Solana blockchain. The token is used for major game actions (such as minting, buying and selling Blockstars and other in-game NFT assets, as well as determining the governance structure), and is designed to withstand to the inflationary pressures that others play to-win games have experienced through negligent economic design, the company said. There is a second in-game utility currency called which is used day-to-day for basic in-game actions.
Besides Vuori, the founding team includes Cory Johnson (CTO), Sherrie Chen (Product Manager). Johnson and Vuori co-founded Drive.fm and Rocket Games (acquired in 2016), and they worked together at Zynga early on. Chen joined Drive.fm as a product manager, and she also previously worked at Zynga. That moment,
Vuori said Drivetime had solid business in 2019, when the company had already raised one round.
"Everything was fine, but the pandemic hit and no one was driving in their car anymore," Vuroi said. “So we had to do that. It's a totally different genre and a totally different space. We have made the very difficult decision to stop production on Drivetime."
Blockstars started making the new game in the summer of 2021, just when all the excitement was happening around Web3 games. The car game, where players use voice commands and voice responses to answer trivial questions, continues to work and generate revenue.
But the company...
Missed a session of GamesBeat Summit Next 2022? All sessions are now available for viewing in our on-demand library. Click here to start watching.
At the height of the pandemic, no one was driving cars, and that forced a big pivot for Drivetime, which created voice-enabled games for people to play in the car. So the company raised $5 million and changed its name to Blockstars.
The company raised the funding through a combination of an equity and token funding round led by Play Ventures through its Future Fund. Existing shareholders Makers Fund, Solana, Magic Eden, Merit Circle and Citizen X also invested.
Niko Vuori, CEO of Blockstars, said in an interview with GamesBeat that the company is creating its next game, Blockstars, a music management simulation game based on the Solana blockchain. Vuori is visiting Lisbon to participate in the Solana Breakpoint event in Portugal.
In the game, players collect musicians called Blockstars who write, record, and release singles. And they bundle their greatest hits into albums and put in the time and effort to improve their skills and ultimately work towards earning enough money to start and improve their own.
The game is designed and balanced to allow experienced players as well as complete beginners to compete for places on the leaderboards, based on a variety of factors that allow competition in many varied playstyles (so yes, you can of course always min-max your way to a top spot on one of the leaderboards if that's your jam, but there will be a few different ways to compete, win and win).
Winners of different competition categories earn rewards in the form of $ROC, the main in-game token on the Solana blockchain. The token is used for major game actions (such as minting, buying and selling Blockstars and other in-game NFT assets, as well as determining the governance structure), and is designed to withstand to the inflationary pressures that others play to-win games have experienced through negligent economic design, the company said. There is a second in-game utility currency called which is used day-to-day for basic in-game actions.
Besides Vuori, the founding team includes Cory Johnson (CTO), Sherrie Chen (Product Manager). Johnson and Vuori co-founded Drive.fm and Rocket Games (acquired in 2016), and they worked together at Zynga early on. Chen joined Drive.fm as a product manager, and she also previously worked at Zynga. That moment,
Vuori said Drivetime had solid business in 2019, when the company had already raised one round.
"Everything was fine, but the pandemic hit and no one was driving in their car anymore," Vuroi said. “So we had to do that. It's a totally different genre and a totally different space. We have made the very difficult decision to stop production on Drivetime."
Blockstars started making the new game in the summer of 2021, just when all the excitement was happening around Web3 games. The car game, where players use voice commands and voice responses to answer trivial questions, continues to work and generate revenue.
But the company...
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