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Digital Insight Games has raised $7.5 million to make original blockchain games. It is being led by Jon Van Caneghem, the creator of Might & Magic and the Heroes of Might & Magic.
Hivemind Capital and Griffin Gaming Partners led the investment in the Los Angeles company, which was cofounded by former Tencent exec Jack Sheng. Sheng and Van Caneghem are serving as co-CEOs.
They aren’t saying what they’re making yet, but Van Caneghem said that they hope to be a pioneer of web 3 and blockchain technology used in fun and original games.
Other investors include The Hunt Technology Ventures, RSE Ventures, and Signum Growth Investments.
In an interview, Van Caneghem said he was pleased that DIG is partnering with experienced investors who believe the web 3 vision will be key for the next generation of gaming. I asked him what he thought of the hardcore gamer resistance in the West to blockchain games, which players view as crappy, scammy, and environmentally wasteful.
Van Caneghem acknowledges that many people are upset about NFTs because the initial games were “financially focused, where it was all about how you make money on a per hour basis.”
Rather than promise you’ll make a lot of money, he thinks that more down-to-earth pitches are in order, like comparing digital item ownership to selling your used games back to GameStop when you were done playing them so you could have money for the next game.
“In the World of Warcraft days, players had to do that under the table,” he said. “I think blockchain is a positive for the player community and the consumers in the long run, as opposed to it being you have to spend $50,000 to play this game. Back with mobile games, things were terrible. It took a while for the game community to figure out a good mechanic. And today, people put thousands of dollars into Fortnite…
