FTX, Lightspeed Lead $21M Funding Round in Gaming Studio Faraway

FTX and Lightspeed Venture Partners have led a $21 million Series A funding round for gaming studio Faraway.

Faraway said in a press release Thursday the other participants in the funding round included a16z, Sequoia Capital, Pantera Capital, Jump Capital and Solana. Faraway raised an $8 million seed round earlier this year, which was also led by Lightspeed.

The investment will be used to integrate the Solana blockchain into Faraway’s most popular gaming title, “Mini Royale,” a battle royale-based first-person-shooter game similar to Counter-Strike.

The browser-based game will utilize an in-game economy compatible with FTXPay and Solana non-fungible tokens (NFT), becoming the first multiplayer video game to do so, according to the press release.

With Web 3 gaming still in its infancy, investors have clamored to fund up-and-coming studios that specialize in virtual reality and play-to-earn structures.

The multiplayer gaming sector has yet to see the same attention from investors, however, despite having a long history of in-game economies centered around digital collectibles.

Investors’ involvement to create a new era of gaming centered around blockchains and NFT marketplaces comes at a time filled with tension between multiplayer gaming communities and the centralization of the industry.

“Blockchain technology will unlock the potential for truly player-driven, open economies and will usher in the next wave of gaming and virtual worlds,” Faraway CEO Alex Paley said in the press release. “Our goal for both current and future games is to create extremely fun and social games with open economies, giving players true ownership over their in-game assets and a true voice in how the game evolves over time.”

A representative of Faraway told CoinDesk that Mini Royale is expected to be integrated with Solana’s blockchain in December.

CORRECTION (Nov. 4, 19:01 UTC): Updated headline and lead paragraph to reflect that it was FTX that was a lead investor, not Alameda Research. The company incorrectly identified Alameda Research as the lead investor in their initial communications with CoinDesk.