It was in the news recently that Neon Machine, the studio behind the new web3 game “Shrapnel’, raised another $20M in funding for their Series A, led by Polychain Capital. This brings their total fundraising to $37.5 million. It’s a First Person Shooter in a sci-fi theme and game content such as Weapons, Weapon Parts, and other Cosmetics will be offered as NFTs, using an Avalanche (blockchain) subnet. You can see some of the NFTs listed on OpenSea (link at the bottom of the article).

As someone coming from an eSports background and still a gamer to this day, I can say the game looks impressive. Check out the trailer:

It looks AAA quality and is the first web3 game that has “wowed” me. The company is said to have about 70 employees, all coming from impressive game production backgrounds.

I believe Epic Games (maker of Fortnite) will one day acquire Neon Machine / Shrapnel. Here’s why:

• Fortnite growth has been slowing. So much so, Epic Games recently had a deep round of layoffs, reportedly 16% of the employee base, or 830 jobs. The cuts were said to be in other segments and areas of the business, but they’d be able to support growth areas if Fortnite was strong. Side note - the recent Fortnite update brought it back to its “basics” — rolling back many changes to make the game more like its early days. I’m guessing they are trying other lure in folks who used to play Fortnite but have since left with the map and gameplay changes that have happened in the past seasons.

• Shrapnel uses Unreal Engine, which Epic Games owns.

• Shrapnel is being positioned as an exclusive through the Epic Games marketplace/store. By acquiring the game, Epic could keep it this way. For those not super deep into gaming - Valve and the Steam marketplace have tons of titles and dominate. To build a competing marketplace will need quality titles to draw gamers in.

• Fortnite allows gamers to create maps and experiences within Fortnite (think Minecraft, Roblox, etc). Shrapnel is also planning something similar for creators: “Shrapnel is also placing substantial emphasis on its user-generated content (UGC) potential and hopes to offer gamers the ability to generate their own game items using Shrapnel’s tech, which can then be minted as NFTs.”

• Most importantly, Epic Games is an innovative and forward looking company. I’m sure they have already been looking at and devising a strategy around web3 / blockchain based gaming. They are the perfect company for it. If it’s not feasible to roll out some kind of web3 strategy into Fortnite, then acquiring a top tier gaming studio with a hit title (anticipated) in Shrapnel will provide them a great jump start into web3 gaming. They can then learn what works, expand from there, and roll out other web3 based games and strategies.

Shrapnel hasn’t been officially released yet, but it seems to be poised for success. It’s really hard to build an appealing and sustainable game that stands the test of time. If Neon Machine has a hit with Shrapnel, one of the big gaming companies will take notice.

OpenSea:

nft://1/0xFC8a98C22A9E32948aB028414d67C62c49B16864/?showBuying=true&showMeta=true

It was in the news recently that Neon Machine, the studio behind the new web3 game “Shrapnel’, raised another $20M in funding for their Series A, led by Polychain Capital. This brings their total fundraising to $37.5 million. It’s a First Person Shooter in a sci-fi theme and game content such as Weapons, Weapon Parts, and other Cosmetics will be offered as NFTs, using an Avalanche (blockchain) subnet. You can see some of the NFTs listed on OpenSea (link at the bottom of the article).

As someone coming from an eSports background and still a gamer to this day, I can say the game looks impressive. Check out the trailer:

It looks AAA quality and is the first web3 game that has “wowed” me. The company is said to have about 70 employees, all coming from impressive game production backgrounds.

I believe Epic Games (maker of Fortnite) will one day acquire Neon Machine / Shrapnel. Here’s why:

• Fortnite growth has been slowing. So much so, Epic Games recently had a deep round of layoffs, reportedly 16% of the employee base, or 830 jobs. The cuts were said to be in other segments and areas of the business, but they’d be able to support growth areas if Fortnite was strong. Side note - the recent Fortnite update brought it back to its “basics” — rolling back many changes to make the game more like its early days. I’m guessing they are trying other lure in folks who used to play Fortnite but have since left with the map and gameplay changes that have happened in the past seasons.

• Shrapnel uses Unreal Engine, which Epic Games owns.

• Shrapnel is being positioned as an exclusive through the Epic Games marketplace/store. By acquiring the game, Epic could keep it this way. For those not super deep into gaming - Valve and the Steam marketplace have tons of titles and dominate. To build a competing marketplace will need quality titles to draw gamers in.

• Fortnite allows gamers to create maps and experiences within Fortnite (think Minecraft, Roblox, etc). Shrapnel is also planning something similar for creators: “Shrapnel is also placing substantial emphasis on its user-generated content (UGC) potential and hopes to offer gamers the ability to generate their own game items using Shrapnel’s tech, which can then be minted as NFTs.”

• Most importantly, Epic Games is an innovative and forward looking company. I’m sure they have already been looking at and devising a strategy around web3 / blockchain based gaming. They are the perfect company for it. If it’s not feasible to roll out some kind of web3 strategy into Fortnite, then acquiring a top tier gaming studio with a hit title (anticipated) in Shrapnel will provide them a great jump start into web3 gaming. They can then learn what works, expand from there, and roll out other web3 based games and strategies.

Shrapnel hasn’t been officially released yet, but it seems to be poised for success. It’s really hard to build an appealing and sustainable game that stands the test of time. If Neon Machine has a hit with Shrapnel, one of the big gaming companies will take notice.

OpenSea:

nft://1/0xFC8a98C22A9E32948aB028414d67C62c49B16864/?showBuying=true&showMeta=true