Fenix Games Secures $150 Million to Build a Giant Web3 Gaming Franchise
Armed with a bigger war chest, the company is now looking to acquire and invest in the best Web3 gaming startups.
Fenix Games is preparing for industry consolidation in blockchain gaming
Web3 games publisher Fenix Games has secured $150 million in a funding round backed by Phoenix Group and Cypher Capital. With that, the company is looking to build a giant Web3 gaming franchise by acquiring and investing in the best startups.
According to Fenix, blockchain gaming is heading toward a consolidation phase, where a few dominant players will emerge by acquiring or funding solid startups. The firm is targeting new and existing blockchain games in a bid to spearhead the industry's evolution.
Chris Ko, CEO and co-founder of Fenix Games, described the firm as being more of a VC fund in an interview with GamesBeat. Commenting on the Web3 gaming landscape, Ko stated that "the market is similar to earlier [mobile gaming at the rise of free-to-play games], but it hasn't found its Clash of Clans for blockchain games yet."
Elaborating more on the company's strategy, Ko said: "We're using the VC arm to fund the next generation of games. We're actually going to start off with a huge base of capital to invest in those studios. We're also looking to use our balance sheet to acquire a bunch of existing games in the Web2 space to build a portfolio."
Currently, there are already established markets for both the console and mobile gaming sectors. But the same cannot be said for blockchain gaming. As such, Fenix aims to flip the script by setting itself up as a Web3 gaming conglomerate.
"We plan to acquire, invest, publish, and operate in select cases games and studios," said Ko. "We will have a few hundred million to deploy to execute our strategy."
Notably, Fenix Games is led by a team of industry veterans who previously worked in Mythical Games. Ko was the senior VP of corporate development for Mythical and has nearly 20 years of gaming experience.
Another Fenix co-founder, Rudy Koch, was the CBO and co-founder of Mythical Games, while Matt Nutt, also a co-founder of Fenix, was previously the COO and head of games at Mythical.
