Playable Worlds Raises New $25M Funding Round for Its Cloud-Native Sandbox MMO

Raph Koster and Eric Goldberg’s Playable Worlds is fueling its upcoming cloud-native sandbox MMO with the announcement of a $25 million Series B funding led by Kakao Games along with other investors including BITKRAFT Ventures and Galaxy Interactive Ahead.

So what does this mean for game development and what do we know? Not much yet, as Koster says in a press release announcing the funding: “We have demonstrated the basic technology and continue to work on the production of our game with the aim of announcing our intellectual property soon.” Soon is an important word, to keep in mind as the reveals are for another day apart from some new concept art. “While we’re not ready to lift the curtains just yet, this round of funding will help us share more with potential players, with a focus on delivering a more meaningful experience comprised of rich simulation, fully persistent online worlds, and more depth exists social mechanics,” concludes the statement.

Kakao Games led the funding with $15 million and said in its own press release, “Through this investment, Kakao Games plans to secure development capabilities for distinctive cloud-native games and a Metaverse platform.”

Playable Worlds secured $10 million in funding for the series in 2020, and this new round is set to help the company grow and fund ongoing development of the new IP. Of course, building a cloud-native MMO is a feature that offers a lot of potential flexibility. As Eric Goldberg, President and Co-Founder of Playable Worlds says, “Cloud-native online gaming is leading to multiverse of online worlds. And these lead to metaverse when they are finally connected to the real world.

We recently had the chance to chat with Raph Koster about what the promises of the whole Metaverse concept mean for the future of gaming and as a concept itself. Ultimately, connected experiences are a goal where other things grow. With the involvement of new funds from a major publisher like Kakao Games following several recent announcements regarding investments in the development of “metaverse” (and sometimes with blockchain-driven elements), it is clear that this direction is an important step and these concepts with MMORPG design, especially with veterans like Koster at the helm, is something to keep a close eye on.

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