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The reports of the death of the metaverse have been greatly exaggerated, and venture capital continues to flow into companies developing it—or at least developing what many in Web3 hope will be the next generation of gaming experiences. On Tuesday, “Life Beyond” developer Darewise Entertainment announced that it had raised $3.5 million in token presales.
“For this round, we are thrilled to welcome meaningful investors who not only believe in our project and values but who also come from across the spectrum of gaming and Web3 culture,” Darewise Entertainment CEO Benjamin Charbit said in a statement. “It’s a significant indicator of confidence in building on the Bitcoin ecosystem.”
"Life Beyond" is an open-world sci-fi game where players attempt to build a new civilization powered by NFTs and a tokenized digital economy.
The Darewise token is slated to launch early next year and was developed with Horizon Labs, the team behind the Ethereum-based ApeCoin (APE) token, which launched in March 2022.
Launched in 2018, Darewise Entertainment aims to build its metaverse ecosystem around Bitcoin Ordinals, the NFT-like sensation that took crypto by storm earlier this year. The Ordinals protocol lets users “inscribe” images, text, and even video games on the Bitcoin blockchain and create BRC-20 tokens. Ordinal inscriptions are digital assets digitally recorded to a single satoshi, the smallest denomination of a Bitcoin.
A subsidiary of Animoca Brands, Darewise Entertainment reported that investors in the token sale included Gamefi Ventures, London Real Ventures, Citizen Capital, Blocore, and Animoca Ventures.
Last month, when the token sale was first announced, Darewise Entertainment said plans for its metaverse included gaming and brand integrations, real-world experiences, and more, with the Darewise token acting as the native currency of the universe.
The metaverse refers to a future, persistent version of the internet. The metaverse is envisioned as a shared virtual world where people interact as 3D avatars.
Hong Kong-based software company Animoca Brands launched in 2014, and by September 2022, the company had a valuation of $5.9 billion. Animoca Brand is behind the popular Ethereum-based open-world video game The Sandbox, which has been the virtual home of several high-profile celebrities—including Snoop Dogg and Paris Hilton.
While Bitcoin may not be the first blockchain to come to mind for open-world gaming and digital collectibles, enthusiasts see it as the perfect place to build a connected universe.
"We invested in Darewise and ‘Life Beyond’ because we are drawn by its pioneering integration of the Bitcoin ecosystem and an immersive experience that promises to reshape the landscape of digital exploration and connectivity," Blocore founder James Lim said in a statement.