Why Rockstar Co-Founder Dan Houser Took Stake In This Blockchain Game Studio

Co-founder of Rockstar Games, and one of the mastering minds 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 be working as an advisor to the company following his investment.

According to a report from 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 founding, Revolving Games was focused on mobile gaming, but they changed their focused last year when they saw the potential for Web3 and NFT gaming to revolutionize the sector. Saad Zaeem has been friends with Dan Houser for some years, the report claims.

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

Since its inception, Revolving Games has grown from a small startup to a company with over 100 employees worldwide. Their goals are to create decentralized gaming experiences for communities of players looking to earn rewards while having fun.

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

This whole concept of Web3 plays really well. We’re not of the belief that you can retrofit anything [from Web3] into Web2.

Source: Revolving Games

A Bright Future For Blockchain Game Studios?

Over the coming years, Revolving Games will use the funds to develop their own titles, and titles with well-known franchises. 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 is operating with the objective of getting traction in a highly competitive sector and becoming a relevant player in today’s gaming sector. Zaeem believes that this industry is migrating from company-owned ecosystems to others where players and communities have a voice and power to steer the project’s future.

In that sense, Revolving Games aims at becoming a major blockchain game studio, if the support that they have received from Dan Hauser and others is any indication, the company seems to be on a good track. Zaeem said:

Our vision is clear: to build triple-A quality games that turn heads amongst the best launches at the top gaming forums like Gamescom and E3 (…). Revolving Games will be at the forefront of this evolution whilst continuing to release titles that compete with the best in the traditional video games industry. We are building the future of gaming and gameplay.

Addressing Players’ Animosity Towards Blockchain Games

Zaeem also talked about their communications strategy, and why this has been key to conveying their objectives and mission to the gaming community. The Revolving Games co-founder believes the GamiFi model doesn’t have 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 demanding and that they are used by studios to implement a micro-transaction model. This has led to the failure of many initiatives trying to bridge legacy with blockchain games.

However, Zaeem believes that free-to-play 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 games will have a similar story.

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