Alameda Research and Lightspeed Venture Partners have led a $21 million Series A for gaming studio Faraway, the company announced Thursday.
Other participants in the funding round included a16z, Sequoia Capital, Pantera Capital, Jump Capital and Solana. Faraway raised an $8 million seed round earlier this year which was also led by Lightspeed.
The investment will be used to integrate the Solana blockchain into Faraway’s most popular gaming title “Mini Royale,” a battle royale-based first-person-shooter similar to Counter-Strike.
The browser-based game will utilize an in-game economy compatible with FTXPay and Solana non-fungible tokens (NFTs), becoming the first multiplayer video game to do so, according to a press release.
With Web 3 gaming still in its infancy, investors have clamored to fund up-and-coming studios that specialize in virtual reality and play-to-earn structures.
Read More: Sequoia Games Brings Augmented Reality to Board Games Using Algorand Blockchain
The multiplayer gaming sector has yet to see the same attention from investors, however, despite having a long history of in-game economies centered around digital collectibles.
Investors’ bids to create a new era of gaming centered around blockchains and NFT marketplaces comes at a time filled with tension between multiplayer gaming communities and the centralization of the industry.
“Blockchain technology will unlock the potential for truly player-driven, open economies and will usher in the next wave of gaming and virtual worlds,” Faraway CEO Alex Paley said in a press release. “Our goal for both current and future games is to create extremely fun and social games with open economies, giving players true ownership over their in-game assets and a true voice in how the game evolves over time.”
A representative of Faraway told CoinDesk that Mini Royale is expected to be integrated with Solana’s blockchain in December.
