Rockstar co-founder Dan Houser invests in blockchain games

Co-founder of Rockstar Games, and one of the masterminds behind popular titles like “Grand Theft Auto,” Dan Houser participated in a $13.2 million funding round for blockchain game studio Revolving Games. Houser will work as an adviser to the company after his investment.

According to a report by GamesBeat, the blockchain game studio has raised over $25 million since 2020. The company was founded by Saad Zaeem, Ammar Zaeem and Shayan Zaeem, three brothers with experience in the industry.

At the time of its establishment, Revolving Games was focused on mobile gaming, but they changed their focus last year when they saw the potential for Web3 and NFT games to revolutionize the sector. Saad Zaeem has been friends with Dan Houser for a few years, the report claims.

In addition to Rockstar Games’ co-founder, Revolving Games’ latest funding rounds were led by major players in the crypto industry, blockchain gaming and Web3. This includes Dapper Labs, Pantera Capital, Animoca Brands, Polygon, Kenetic and others, as shown in the image below.

Since its inception, Revolving Games has grown from a small start-up to a company with over 100 employees worldwide. Their goal is to create decentralized gaming experiences for communities of players who want to earn rewards while having fun.

The company’s co-founder Ammar Zaeem said the following about the Web2 and Web3 models:

This whole concept of Web3 plays very well. We do not believe that you can retrofit anything [from Web3] into Web2.

A Bright Future for Blockchain Game Studios?

Over the coming years, Revolving Games will use the funds to develop its own titles, and titles with well-known franchisees. At the time of writing, the blockchain game studio is working on a game inspired by the Battlestar Galactica universe and a second game called Skyborne Legacy, an Animal Crossing meets The Legend of Zelda experience.

The company operates with the aim of gaining traction in a highly competitive sector and becoming a relevant player in today’s gaming sector. Zaeem believes that this industry is migrating from corporate-owned ecosystems to others where actors and local communities have a voice and power to direct the project’s future.

In that sense, Revolving Games is aiming to become a major blockchain game studio, if the support they have received from Dan Hauser and others is any indication, the company seems to be well on its way. Zaeem said:

Our vision is clear: to build triple-A quality games that stand out among the best launches at the best gaming forums like Gamescom and E3 (…). Revolving Games will be at the forefront of these developments as they continue to release titles that rival the best in the traditional video game industry. We are building the future of games and gaming.

Address players’ animosity towards blockchain games

Zaeem also talked about their communication strategy and why this has been key to communicating their goals and mission to the gaming community. The Revolving Games co-founder believes the GamiFi model does not need to be divorced from the idea of ​​fun games.

In the gaming community, some players have been very critical of companies trying to push this model as they believe digital assets are energy intensive and are being used by studios to implement a microtransaction model. This has led to the failure of many initiatives trying to bridge legacy with blockchain games.

However, Zaeem believes that free games faced something similar when they first came out in 2008. Now this format is highly adopted by many players as the products evolved. Time will tell if blockchain gaming will have a similar story.