While Web3 and blockchain gaming present exciting new avenues for developers and gamers alike, there’s still considerable friction when jumping into many of these titles, it’s not usually a case of download and start playing. Web3 gaming platform LootRush aims to change this, recently securing a $12 million seed round to build out this vision.
The round was led by crypto firm Paradigm, with participation from Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) and support from Y Combinator, and Brex founders. Angel investors involved in the round included the founders of Axie Infinity, Plaid, Wildlife Studios, Dapper Labs, The Chainsmokers, and Vivi Nevo.
LootRush was founded only last year based on the idea of making Web3 gaming as easy to use as mobile or playing a videogame on Steam. “Playing a game on Steam is as easy as installing the Steam client, buying the game you want and then downloading it to play. Usually, within a few clicks, you are enjoying the latest and greatest PC video game,” LootRush explains. “But, to play videogames using web 3 technologies, players experience a high barrier of entry. And, as interest in these types of video games continue to skyrocket, players are looking for ways to go from intent to enjoyment in as little time, with as little cost, as possible.”
So how does LootRush speed up and simplify Web3 gaming? “We believe that it should be easy, natural and inexpensive to try out games and NFTs based on lending at first. We will enable gamers to own NFTs and we help NFT owners find great players.” So after you’ve signed up for the platform you pick which game you want to play and select which NFTs to use from a curated list. “We enable players to play video games with NFTs at 100x lower price, providing more flexibility and a larger portfolio of NFTs to have fun.”
Currently, LootRush doesn’t have a massive selection of titles to choose from. At the time of writing only Axie Infinity seems to be playable – and that’s had a rough ride of late – with plenty of others listed but unavailable. The seed round should eventually help with that.
LootRush is still building up towards an official launch with no indication when this might take place. For continued updates on the latest in Web3 gaming, keep reading gmw3.