In an official announcement, the NFT game Cross the Ages has acquired $12 million dollars in its latest round of seed funding, including significant investments from Montreal based gaming juggernaut Ubisoft and Hong Kong-based game software company Animoca Brands. The money will go into further development of the game and to market to new players.
Cross the Ages is a new mobile collectible card game set in a Cyberpunk/Shadow Run-esque sci-fi world where players can collect digital trading cards that are NFTs in the game. Players can compete individually or in teams to battle other players and earn additional rewards.
The game which is set to be launched later this year is being backed by two big names in gaming, Ubisoft and Animoca Brands. For those who don’t know Ubisoft is a major game publisher responsible for the games such as Rainbow 6 series, Far Cry series, and the Assassin’s Creed series. Meanwhile, Animoca Brands is one of the leading crypto investment firms and crypto game developers with several crypto games under their belt.
Other investors include Polygon, which is also the blockchain platform that Cross the Ages is built on, and Sebastian Borget, co-founder and COO of the game The Sandbox.
The backing by Ubisoft and Animoca Brands is a sign of investor confidence in the game and in blockchain games in general. There has been a huge boost in popularity with blockchain games during the pandemic lockdown and in particular with the game Axie Infinity which had 19% of the NFT market share last year. In fact, this January alone, the number of active blockchain games has nearly doubled from last year to almost 400 active games.
Singapore-based Cross the Ages (CTA) plans to launch the game in late May this year, followed by its physical cards in June. Apart from cryptocurrency, players would actually be able to exchange their NFTs into physical cards should they choose. They also have plans to add metaverse elements by 2023.
In an interview with CoinDesk, CTA co-founder and CEO Sami Chlagou say their game will have a separate DeFi platform as they want to separate the gaming experience from the more commercial aspects of the game. He states the reason behind this is so that the commercial elements “do not distract from what will be a dynamic and unique metaverse gaming experience.”
The team of CTA currently stands at 140 people including their artists and developers and are looking to expand to 200 people as the game takes off. Chlagou himself is the owner of game producer Pixel Heart that have produced over 50 games on consoles such as Playstation, Xbox, and Nintendo. Co-founder and chairman Christophe de Courson on the other hand have experience in blockchain technology and venture capital. Their experiences are key to the growth and success of CTA.
Borget of The Sandbox affirms this as well by saying that the vision that Chlagou has for the game and the company is unique and that he has a top-notch team that is ready to bring the game to success.
Ubisoft and Animoca’s investment in Cross The Ages comes as no surprise. Ubisoft has been no stranger to support NFT technology despite mainstream apprehension and skepticism. Animoca brands is also another staunch supporter of the burgeoning NFT gaming industry and Cross the Ages is only their latest in their moves towards the space
For more information on Cross the Ages, you may visit their website here.