decrypt.co
Delabs Games—the blockchain game developer behind Rumble Racing Star and other upcoming games—has announced the completion of a $4.7 million seed investment round.
Hashed Ventures led the round, with Spartan Labs, Polygon Labs, blockchain gaming startup Planetarium, and gaming-centric decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) Merit Circle also participating.
News of the fundraise comes shortly after the invite-only testing event for Rumble Racing Star—a PC game described by Decrypt’s GG as “Mario Kart for NFT degens.” Also in the works from Delabs is space survival game Space Frontier, as well as Meta Bolts, a cartoonish post-apocalyptic survival game.
All funds raised will go into boosting development for these three games, as well as marketing and community initiatives. Delabs Games is focused on building games on Polygon, an Ethereum scaling network.
"Today’s investment news is an important acknowledgment that Web3 technology is not only here to stay, but poised to revolutionize the gaming industry by empowering players with true digital ownership and control over their in-game assets,” said Delabs Games CEO Joonmo Kwon, who was previously CEO of South Korean gaming giant Nexon.
Delabs Games is the crypto gaming arm of South Korean game developer 4:33 Creative Lab, a company with over 13 years experience in the gaming industry and more than 250 million total global downloads to date. The parent company has released such mobile games as Boxing Star, Battle Boom, and Eroica.
Rumble Racing Star is set to be released later this year, while Space Frontier and Meta Bolts do not yet have release targets. Delabs Games previously released an Adventure Pass NFT on Ethereum, which grants holders access to Rumble Racing Star, exclusive in-game items, and more across its growing collection of games.
Note that Delabs Games is not the same as DeLabs, the American startup behind the popular NFT projects DeGods and y00ts. Interestingly, despite being totally separate companies, Rumble Racing Star features a character based on the y00ts project—alongside drivers based on the Bored Ape Yacht Club, Goblintown, and other notable projects.