Neon Machine, the team behind AAA extraction shooter Shrapnel, generated $20 million in a Series A funding round. In an October 25 update, the Seattle-based gaming company revealed that the investment will be utilized in revamping the Shrapnel game.
With the progressive growth of the gaming sector, the Neon Machine confirmed that the development of Shrapnel was at a “critical time.” Based on the launch phase of the Sharpel game, the developers will introduce an early-access version at the end of this year. This development aims at preparing the Neon Machine for the official launching of Shrapnel next year.
Polychain Capital Leds Neon Machine Funding Round
Interestingly, the successful funding round was led by Polychain Capital. Other companies that supported Neon Machine fundraising include Griffin Gaming Partners, Tess Ventures, Franklin Templeton, IOSG Ventures, and Brevan Howard Digital.
The Series A funding round aims at supporting the Neon Machine to attain its core objective. Initially, the gaming company was launched to produce exclusive HBO movies. The launching of Neon Machine came when there was a high demand for digital interactive experiences.
With the high demand for HBO-oriented interactive episodes, the studio attained a growth stage in 2021 after generating $10.5 million in a seed funding round. Since then, the Neon Machine has continuously debuted exciting content, including comic books and digital collectibles.
In 2022, the studio launched the PFP NFT collection, which was a combination of collectibles and generative arts. In the meantime, the Neon Machine has generated $37.5 million in seed funding and the sale of private tokens. This investment is expected to propel Neon Machine to hit its maturity stage.
Besides strengthening its financial capability, the Neon Machine has raised its talent bar to around 70 employees. The dedicated employees have supported Neon Machine in winning several gaming awards. The collaborative efforts made by the Neon Machine team have enabled the firm to recruit personnel with extensive experience in gaming.
Extraction Shooter Shrapnel Going Public in December
In an exclusive interview with the chief executive of Neon Machine Mark Long stated that the studio anticipates introducing groundbreaking technologies to the conventional gaming sector. Primarily, the studio seeks to develop an exclusive shooter game that allows the players to build their gaming applications.
The CEO confessed that the Neon Machine plans to allow the user to own some of the gaming features. Currently, the studio anticipates releasing Shrapnel, as a unique sci-fi extraction shooting game.
Long affirmed that the Shrapnel game will comprise in-game features such as cosmetics and weapons. These in-game features on the Shrapnel Avalanche will be available as non fungible tokens (NFTs).
The CEO admitted that the developers of the new game built Shrapnel on the Avalanche platform. At the primary development stage of Shrapnel, the studio introduced its ERC-20, dubbed SHARP, centered on the Avalanche network.
Gaming Companies Adopts Blockchain Technology
In an earlier announcement by the head of Web3 at Neon Machine, Marc Mercuri explained that the studio plans to leverage the GameBridge technologies to create the most awaited game, Shrapnel. A GameBridge is an advanced platform that supports game developers and artists in building unique content.
Mercuri confessed that GameBridge exhibits enormous capabilities in harmonizing the blockchain’s essential features, such as composability and interoperability. The executive noted that the Shrapnel game corresponds to the free-to-play multiplayer game.
Mercuri revealed that the Shrapnel game will accommodate the solo and group players. This development seeks to allow the players to create their gaming software on the Shrapnel platform. Later, the owners of the Shrapnel gaming features will be allowed to mint them as digital collectibles.
Currently, the Shrapnel developers are working on introducing user-generated content (UGC) to allow the player to publish their work on different social media platforms.
Elsewhere, a capital partner from the Polychain, Josh Rosenthal, applauded the efforts made by the Shrapnel project team in redefining the game sector. The executive noted that the Shrapnel team aims at boosting the player experience.
Rosenthal noted that the Shrapnel leveraged blockchain technology to provide the user with complete ownership of the game. In support of Rosenthal’s argument, Jocy Lin, a founding partner at IOSG Ventures, recognized the remarkable efforts done by Shrapnel in transforming the conventional extraction gameplay through blockchain.
