Twitch co-founder Kevin Lin’s Metatheory Web3 project has just secured $24 million in Series A funding.
Metatheory was founded in November 2021, almost a year after Lin quit Twitch. He revealed in a Medium article at the time that he was working on the said gaming startup. Not to mention he was also working on a blockchain game called DuskBreakers.
Metatheory Web3 project backed by industry greats
According to the announcement, crypto capital venture company Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) headed the round. With it participated Pantera Capital, the venture arm of the FTX cryptocurrency exchange, FTX Ventures, and other venture firms.
“Building immersive digital experiences has always been a passion of mine, and after stepping away from Twitch to explore what’s next in the industry, I truly believe blockchain will open the door to even more possibilities and have a major impact on the gaming, storytelling and community building space,” Lin said.
Twitch’s previous lead illustrator designed the art for DuskBreakers. It was revealed in December 2021. For its first 10,000 nonfungible tokens (NFTs), the Ethereum-based game used a “play-to-mint” mechanism. Those seeking an NFT must first complete an arcade-style game in order to get into a whitelist.
To continue the storyline, the DuskBreakers team aims to produce comics and animations. While the Metatheory Web3 project is working on new NFTs and content. It includes a play-to-earn game slated to premiere in the fourth quarter of 2022.
Gaming industry welcomes NFT
Meanwhile, traditional gaming industry titans are showing interest in blockchain gaming.
Lin is not the only co-founder of Twitch who has an interest in gaming NFTs. Justin Kan, another Twitch co-founder, founded the Fractal NFT marketplace, which focuses on blockchain gaming tokens, in December 2021, claiming that “NFTs are the future of gaming.”
The creation of metaverse platforms, according to Microsoft’s CEO, was a crucial rationale for the $69 billion acquisition of gaming behemoth Activision Blizzard.
Square Enix also recently revealed in its earnings report that it will include NFTs in more of its games in 2022.