CCP Games has been working on a game leveraging blockchain for some time now. This has been known for a while, as both CCP Games and parent company Pearl Abyss have said in the past year. Now, CCP Games has announced it has raised $40 million in funding for its upcoming triple-A blockchain title, Project Awakening.
CCP Games made some capsuleers happy last year when CEO Hilmar Veigar Pétursson said in a statement that NFT's were "Not for Tranquility," a play on the acronym and the name of EVE Online's live server. However, this didn't exactly close the door on blockchain games coming from the studio. Indeed, if the fact that CCP Games took Killmails from the Alliance tournament and turned them into NFTs, the evidence was there that the studio was fascinated with blockchain and its associated technology.
We're excited to announce that we have secured $40M financing, led by @a16z, to create a new AAA game within the EVE Universe utilizing blockchain technology. Learn more here: https://t.co/IZJlPRcZ0z pic.twitter.com/y9cqZKtt2l
— CCP Games (@CCPGames) March 21, 2023
Today, the CCP Games team announced that the upcoming Project Awakening will be set in the EVE Online universe, and CCP plans to use "smart-contract blockchain technology" to help "create a new relationship between virtual worlds and players."
Via the announcement page:
"With key game systems developed on-chain, this new project will also leverage smart-contract blockchain technology, focusing on persistence, composability and truly open third-party development to create a new relationship between virtual worlds and players."
CCP Games' Hilmar Veigar Pétursson states that blockchain will give the studio a new way to power player agency and autonomy within the new title, and that the financing raised to help fund the new triple-A development of the project is an "exciting frontier."
"Since its inception, CCP Games’ vision has been to create virtual worlds more meaningful than real life. Now, with advancements made within blockchain, we can forge a new universe deeply imbued with our expertise in player agency and autonomy, empowering players to engage in new ways. This financing has marked an exciting frontier in our studio history as we begin our third decade of virtual world operations. We are humbled by the confidence from our partners in the development of this new title"
The funding, which CCP states they have secured $40 million in financing for the project, comes from myriad groups, led by Andreesen Horowitz (a16z), as well as the Makers Fund, BITKRAFT Ventures and more.
While no actual game development information was disclosed, CCP Games states that the team will be sharing updates as work on Project Awakening progresses.
This comes after CCP Games announced last year that it was building another FPS set in the EVE universe at its London studio, while it was also working on a 4X strategy title from its Shanghai studio. CCP Games recently felt the sting of layoffs earlier this year, letting go over a dozen employees across its offices.
