In another sign of increasing adoption of blockchain technology in the gaming industry, Forte — a leading provider of blockchain solutions for game publishers — has secured US$725 million in a Series B fundraising round, the firm announced.
Fast facts
- Led by Sea Capital and Kora Management, this follows from the US$185 million it raised in its Series A round in May, where it had a US$1 billion valuation. Forte will use the funds to expand its products and services and accelerate its onboarding of game and content publishers.
- As integration with non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in games and even the metaverse continues to grow, Forte allows game publishers to integrate blockchain technologies such as embeddable token wallets, NFT minting and selling and payment rails. These features are most usually seen in smaller games such as breakthrough blockchain success “Axie Infinity,” but Forte plans to be able to integrate the technology into even leading AAA titles.
- “It’s very obvious to me that every single gaming studio or publisher in the world is looking at NFTs,” Derek Lau, game director of blockchain-based game Guild of Guardians, told Forkast.News in an earlier report on NFTs in the metaverse. “There’s almost too much attention in this space to ignore it. You’d be ignorant to not at least think about whether you should do something … I expect that we’ll see this come to fruition from a user perspective in the next two years.”
- Integrating blockchain into video games allows players to transfer digital items and value between games and systems, creating new opportunities for innovation, growth and collaboration. The gaming community is not universally supportive of the technology, however, as seen with the recent backlash against social media platform Discord when CEO Jason Citron suggested it may support integration with Ethereum in the future. Some users unsubscribed from premium elements of the platform over announcement citing concerns over the environmental impact and scams within the NFT market and causing Citron to later clarify the platform had no intention of going through with the integration at this time.
- The global video game market was worth US$155 billion in 2020, according to data analytics firm Statista, which also projects that total to be worth more than US$260 billion by 2025. North America is expected to remain the leading market for the industry, despite strong growth in Asia.
