According to Decrypt, crypto infrastructure firm Ceden and the studio behind the NFT collection Kanpai Pandas have acquired Raini Studios, forming a new joint venture called RJV International DBA Raini Studios. The team's token, RST, is a consolidation of its previous RAINI and PHOTON tokens and will now live on the Avalanche subnet Beam, a gaming network. The three teams have already begun work on a new game that uses one of the largest combat game IPs in the world, with more details to be revealed soon.
Raini Lead Designer Marty Burgess is now part of the new, larger studio, and the entire Raini team will stay on post-acquisition. Raini Studios is primarily known for its digital trading card game Raini: The Lords of Light, which offers a free-to-play Hearthstone-like gaming experience with crypto memes and optional NFT cards. Ceden CEO Alex Moody will oversee the new studio post-acquisition, while Michael Haller, a game industry veteran and Ceden co-founder, will serve as the new studio's head of gaming and lead development on the unannounced combat game with the Raini team.
Raini's crypto ecosystem has historically been multi-chain, offering both Avalanche and BNB Chain compatibility. Now, the team appears to be moving further into the Avalanche ecosystem with its RST token on an Avalanche subnet and RST liquidity pools established on both Avalanche and Ethereum DeFi platforms. Cross-chain compatibility is also in the works via a LayerZero integration, which allows traders to turn their existing Raini tokens into RST if desired. A cross-chain integration for Lords of Light card packs is also in the works, with the goal of allowing players to hold their NFTs on whichever chain they prefer.