Metagame Industries, the game studio being the Web3 upcoming ARPG, Abyss World, has completed a strategic funding round that sees the company hit a near $100-million valuation, with some big hitters investing.

There is an unusual race happening in Web3. While many tap their feet and wait for a premier games publisher to announce a blockchain game, or the implementation of the technology in an existing game, VCs are firing money at ambitious projects from new studios. The $100m valuation is a real head-turner, though it’s hard to delineate how much has been invested so far. Typically, we have seen $5m to $15m invested in new studios working on a major game project; AVALON with $13m, Jungle with $6m, Worldwide Webb with $10m, and so on. More established studios have seen higher numbers, however, such as EVE’s CCP with $40m for their blockchain MMO.

The announcement, made yesterday, lists some impressive backers and a lot of familiar names, as well as some absurdly high-profile partners, including Microsoft, Epic Games, and AMD. Not listed on the above graphic, but announced on the official Twitter is a partnership with Google Cloud too.

Exciting news! We're thrilled to partner with @googlecloud and @Portalverse_Net , driving the Web3Gaming forward! Introducing the CloudGaming version of @AbyssWorldHQ, powered by Google's cutting-edge cloud technology and Portalverse's decentralization prowess.🌩️

Immerse in our… https://t.co/TgeFUNLFSi pic.twitter.com/ZYbkmf3v4u

— AbyssWorld | $AWT – AI Colosseum (@AbyssWorldHQ) May 25, 2023

What Is Abyssworld

Abyss World is a third-person, open-world, fantasy ARPG on the Sui network by Metagame Industries. The world is dynamic, as is the quest system, and there will be a focus on AI-driven content.

The above gameplay footage is reminiscent of Dark Souls, a wildly popular ARPG with equally dark content. The combat appears similar in many ways too, with the dodging of large boss attacks and well-time abilities.

Abyss World has already seen some heavy interest from players with just shy of 120,000 having marked it on their Steam wishlist. The Steam page naturally has no mention of Web3 or blockchain, which either indicates that the game was in development already and pivoted to Web3, or that Metagame Industries are carefully navigating Steam’s anti-Web3 policies!

Whatever the case, this looks to be a genuinely AAA project and one I’ll be watching with interest as it develops.