Raph Koster and Eric Goldberg’s Playable Worlds is moving along on its upcoming cloud-native sandbox MMO with the announcement of $25 million in Series B funding led by Kakao Games, along with other investors like BITKRAFT Ventures and Galaxy Interactive.
So what does this mean for development on the game and what we know? Not much just yet, as Koster says in a press release marking the funding announcement, “We’ve proven the foundational technology and continue to work on production of our game, with an aim to reveal our IP soon”. Soon being an important word to keep in mind, as reveals, except for some new concept art, are for another day. “While we’re not yet ready to peel back the curtains, this funding round will help accelerate us closer to sharing more with prospective players, with a focus on providing a more meaningful experience consisting of rich simulations, fully persistent online worlds, and deeper social mechanics,” the statement concludes.
Kakao Games led the funding, with $15 million, and in its own press release, said, "Through this investment, Kakao Games plans to secure development capabilities for distinctive Cloud-Native games and a metaverse platform."
Playable Worlds secured series a funding for 10 million dollars in 2020, and this new round is intended to help grow the company and fund ongoing development for the new IP. Building a cloud-native MMO is, naturally, a property that has a lot of potential flexibility. As Eric Goldberg, President and Co-Founder at Playable Worlds says, “Cloud-native online games lead to multiverses of online worlds. And these lead to metaverses when eventually connected to the real world.
We recently had the chance to speak with Raph Koster on just what the promises of the whole metaverse concept mean for the future of gaming and for what it means as a concept itself. Ultimately, connected experiences are a goal from which other things grow. With fresh funding from a major publisher like Kakao Games getting involved, following multiple recent announcements regarding investment in developing “metaverses” (and sometimes with blockchain-fueled elements), it is clear that this direction is an important move, and blending these concepts with MMORPG design, especially with veterans like Koster leading, it’s something to be keeping a close eye on.
You can find out more at Playable Worlds
