Game Startup Branch raises $12.5M to develop P2E project
Branch, a gaming startup, recently announced that it has successfully raised $12.5 million to create a play-to-earn game. The company is developing a P2E game that incorporates elements of Minecraft, Animal Crossing, and Runescape.
Mechanism Play, TCG Crypto, Dragonfly Capital, Polygon, Coinbase Ventures, Three Arrows Capital, and Polygon Studios CEO Ryan Wyatt were among those who participated in the seed funding round.
The P2E game revolves around islands that users can own as NFTs, with each island containing different resource components. The resources can also be used to create structures and in-game items. Players can earn by paying each other to harvest materials in the game or by reselling in-game items as NFTs on secondary markets.
Branch co-founder Dayton Mills describes the game as :
"Animal Crossing meets Minecraft with a dash of Runescape," combining popular mechanics from the various non-fungible token (NFT) games into a single browser-based, free-to-play experience. I can’t think of anything similar in the play-to-earn space because most play-to-earn games require you to buy an NFT upfront to play them, But in our world, it's very much designed so that you may not ever even know what an NFT is.”
Mills also believes that the game will appeal to a diverse demographic, ranging from US-based players exploring investment options in virtual real estate to Axie Infinity-style gamers earning income by playing games. Furthermore, Branch has chosen to exclude traditional cryptocurrency from its gaming system in order to avoid the criticism that has become synonymous with NFT-based games.
According to the company, the full version of the game will be released this summer.
