Investing in Azra Games
The best games make you feel like a kid again.
It’s a special combination of play, immersive storytelling, and compelling narratives that can captivate people for hours (or days, months, not to mention years!), creating emergent behavior and immersive experiences that persist in the memories and lives of players.
The combination of games and crypto bring this to a whole new level: making the players truly become owners of the communities they are a part of. We think the most engaging games of the future will incorporate web3 to empower their users. Teams from world-class gaming studios are beginning to come into the space, dreaming up new and creative storylines and refining and redefining the meaning of games themselves.
Azra Games, which we initially invested in last May, is one of those teams. They are experts in crafting immersive RPG gaming experiences. Today we are thrilled to announce a $10 million extension of that initial seed funding, bringing the company’s total funding to $25 million.
Over the last nine months, we’ve seen Mark Otero and the seasoned games team he’s assembled execute in a world-class way. The team, which has been working together for years on RPG games such as Star Wars: Galaxy of Heroes to deliver the ultimate power fantasy to millions of players, has come back together again to build exciting RPG gaming experiences. Their unique approach focuses on fun: it’s a gameplay-comes-first philosophy, which we believe will appeal deeply to traditional players and game developers, as well as crypto natives.
Their first game, Legions and Legends, will focus first on the gameplay experience and will be an NFT-oriented collectible and combat RPG, and has already begun engaging its community Discord-based quests.
We believe that the unique ownership and economic models web3 provides will revolutionize how people play online games. With the creative minds of Mark and his team, we are incredibly excited to see how they will help define this future. We can’t wait to continue supporting their team, and you can see a preview of what they’re building here: https://www.azragames.com/
***
The views expressed here are those of the individual AH Capital Management, L.L.C. (“a16z”) personnel quoted and are not the views of a16z or its affiliates. Certain information contained in here has been obtained from third-party sources, including from portfolio companies of funds managed by a16z. While taken from sources believed to be reliable, a16z has not independently verified such information and makes no representations about the current or enduring accuracy of the information or its appropriateness for a given situation. In addition, this content may include third-party advertisements; a16z has not reviewed such advertisements and does not endorse any advertising content contained therein.
This content is provided for informational purposes only, and should not be relied upon as legal, business, investment, or tax advice. You should consult your own advisers as to those matters. References to any securities or digital assets are for illustrative purposes only, and do not constitute an investment recommendation or offer to provide investment advisory services. Furthermore, this content is not directed at nor intended for use by any investors or prospective investors, and may not under any circumstances be relied upon when making a decision to invest in any fund managed by a16z. (An offering to invest in an a16z fund will be made only by the private placement memorandum, subscription agreement, and other relevant documentation of any such fund and should be read in their entirety.) Any investments or portfolio companies mentioned, referred to, or described are not representative of all investments in vehicles managed by a16z, and there can be no assurance that the investments will be profitable or that other investments made in the future will have similar characteristics or results. A list of investments made by funds managed by Andreessen Horowitz (excluding investments for which the issuer has not provided permission for a16z to disclose publicly as well as unannounced investments in publicly traded digital assets) is available at https://a16z.com/investments/.
Charts and graphs provided within are for informational purposes solely and should not be relied upon when making any investment decision. Past performance is not indicative of future results. The content speaks only as of the date indicated. Any projections, estimates, forecasts, targets, prospects, and/or opinions expressed in these materials are subject to change without notice and may differ or be contrary to opinions expressed by others. Please see https://a16z.com/disclosures for additional important information.