Fenix Games raises USD 150 million in funding

Fenix Games, a UAE-based gaming platform, will create a publisher and platform for blockchain games and bolster the blockchain gaming ecosystem.

Fenix Games, a UAE-based gaming platform, has raised USD 150 million to create a publisher for blockchain-based gaming. The publisher and platform aim to play a central role in bringing blockchain games to market. Fenix will use the funds to publish existing games and create the games of the future.

Investors include Phoenix Group and Cypher Capital. Fenix Games hopes to be in a position to acquire gaming companies and create a single firm with a large portfolio.

Fenix Games: A “VC fund” for blockchain gaming

“You can think of us as like a VC fund,” said Chris Ko, CEO and co-founder of Fenix Games, in a recent interview with GamesBeat. “The market is similar to earlier [mobile gaming at the rise of free-to-play games] but it hasn’t found its Clash of Clans for blockchain games yet. We’re using the VC arm to fund the next generation of games. We’re actually going to start off with a huge base of capital to invest in those studios. We’re also looking to use our balance sheet to acquire a bunch of existing games in the Web2 space to build a portfolio. And that will be the right base for our portfolio.”

The lack of an ecosystem

Unlike traditional gaming, where large companies provided popular platforms, such as Sony, Microsoft and Nintendo, no such ecosystem exists with blockchain gaming. “We plan to acquire, invest, publish, and operate in select cases games and studios,” said Ko. “We will have a few hundred million to deploy to execute our strategy.”

Ko sees an opportunity in the lack of such an ecosystem, saying, “We believe that this is temporary as the primary apps on chains are going to be gaming. The infrastructure, tools and support just do not exist. We believe there is an opportunity for the role of publishing to elevate its role in the gaming ecosystem.”

The company seeks to combine the skills of its people in game publishing and product management, but to also take disciplines and capabilities from financial services, principally asset management. These tools will help to create the market for a game or games to maximize the potential players for a game, according to Fenix Games. The company refers to this coming together of skillsets and offerings as “game market economies”.

Fenix Games believe that game market economies will play a vital role in the months and years ahead of a game launch. This is required to fill the gap in what used to be filled by the platform owners. The company will focus on the marriage of game market economies and live operations to provide publishing services to all game models – premium, free-to-play, and blockchain gaming across all platforms.

The emergence of blockchain games and their ecosystem

As more developers embrace blockchain technology and design principles, Ko said the company sees an opportunity for the role of publishing to elevate its value in the design, go-to-market and operations of games. “And what that means is that we’re not bound by a single technology, we’re not beholden to a single ecosystem,” Ko said.

Last month, Modus Capital, a New-York based venture platform, acquired Saudi-based startup Agile Ventures. Agile is a Jeddah-based venture builder that was established in 2016 to develop digital platforms in Saudi Arabia. The project will include a strong gaming component.