Goal raises USD 20 million to continue development of NFT football video game
- Goals was founded in 2021
- The company has raised $39 million to date
Swedish startup Goals has raised USD 20 million in Series A funding to continue development of a non-fungible token (NFT) based football video game that could be a genuine alternative to traditional simulations of the sport such as EA Sports FC.
The round was led by Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian’s venture capital firm Seven Seven Six, with participation from Northzone, Moonfire and Cassius. The company has now raised $39 million, including $15 million in a seed round last year.
The fresh investment will be used to increase the number of employees from 50 to 75 and to accelerate the development of the game, which is currently in a pre-alpha state. The vision is for Goals to be free-to-play and cross-play across consoles and PC, with a focus on social and competitive gaming with Web 3.0 elements.
“Goals was born out of our passion for soccer, our passion for video games and our perception that soccer video games have become obsolete,” said Goals founder Andreas Thorstensson, a former Counter-Strike world champion and founder of e-sports organization SK Gaming.
“There are over 3.5 billion soccer fans in the world, and our team is united in the belief that a soccer game done right should be the world’s biggest video game. We’re focused on making sure we have a game that meets the needs of all fans, whether they’re looking for casual or highly competitive play, whatever hardware they play on, wherever they live.”
SportsPro says…
Even as late as the mid-2000s, there were several soccer video games on the market, but sky-high development costs and exclusive licensing deals are proving to be insurmountable barriers to entry for alternatives to EA Sports’ FIFA series.
EA’s deep pockets, emphasis on realism and the highly engaging Ultimate Team mode have led to any serious competition and encouraged the publisher to end its decades-long association with world soccer’s governing body Fifa
Goals believes there is a growing appetite for an alternative among gamers who have either become disaffected with EA’s approach or are not invested in the console gaming ecosystem. It believes the development team, some of whom previously worked on FIFA, combined with Web 3.0 mechanics can deliver that option.
The task of challenging a market leader with a decade-long advantage in virtually every area to create a successful football video game should not be underestimated. Even Konami, whose Pro Evolution Soccer (PES) series was considered superior to FIFA in the mid-2000s, has struggled to match EA over the past decade and eventually turned to a free-to-play, cross-play model with eFootball. The results of the experiment have been mixed.
