LOS ANGELES – Feb. 14, 2024 – Game studio Overworld, building high-quality, cross-platform multiplayer RPGs, has closed a seed round of $10M, led by Hashed alongside The Spartan Group, Sanctor Capital and Galaxy Interactive, with notable participation from Hashkey, Big Brain Holdings and Foresight Ventures, to accelerate development on a multiplayer role-playing experience enhanced with digital collectibles. Codenamed Overworld, the rich, cross-platform fantasy universe has been in development for nearly a year at its namesake studio. The Xterio ecosystem incubated the project by providing initial funding and tech contributions and is committed to supporting the project through its development, notably as it leverages digital ownership to fuel its growth and expand its community further.
Overworld, a third-person 3D action role-playing game developed with Unreal Engine 5, brings players together in a universe that blends high fantasy lore with anime-inspired characters and designs in a compelling storyline that focuses on mixing epic-scale stakes with day-to-day relatable stories. The team is currently focused on developing an alpha build for current-gen consoles, PCs and mobile devices.
Overworld aims at delivering an experience that competes with best-in-class RPGs with compelling game design and world-class visual quality, while implementing player ownership in a frictionless and optional way that adds to the experience – rather than rely on it as the primary feature to build the game on top of.
Overseeing Overworld’s development is Jeremy Horn, Xterio’s COO, who has an extensive career in games, technology, and entertainment. Formerly Vice President of Strategy at Jam City, Horn is a games industry veteran with deep expertise in developing and sustaining top-grossing social games spanning new and existing IP. The team comprises proven hit-makers who worked with Epic, EA, Sony, Bioware, Jam City and Ubisoft.
“At Overworld, we are focused on building an incredible, dynamic game world driven by the player community,” said Horn. “The massive scale of Overworld represents the scale of our ambitions as a game studio. In just one year, we’ve seen our player community embrace our first collection of digital collectibles, and we are excited to build out even more of this novel world.”
Overworld will be published by Xterio, based on the games platform tech of the Xterio Foundation, which is backed by top-grossing mobile developers, including FunPlus. Xterio focuses on infusing F2P and cross-platform games with digital collectibles.
Overworld’s recent NFT collection, “Overworld Incarna,” is one of the most successful collections of 2023 in revenue, volume, market value, and marketing reach. Overworld Incarna has been in the top ten traded collections for over five weeks and remains one of the most traded game-themed collections.
“Overworld, the flagship social RPG from the established Xterio platform, is poised to redefine online multiplayer RPGs in the crypto space by targeting the masses. With a strong leader who understands the dynamics of web3 and backed by an experienced team with a strong track record, Overworld is poised for success in the web3 gaming space,” said Ryan Kim, Founding Partner, Hashed. “With a user-driven economy and unparalleled industry expertise at the right time, Overworld is poised for innovation and resilience.”
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About Overworld
Overworld is a world-class game development studio building cross-platform free-to-play games built around player ownership. A proven team of free-to-play hit-makers leads the team. To learn more about Overworld, please follow along @OverworldPlay and at overworld.games.
About Xterio
Xterio Foundation in Switzerland was founded with a Council and a team of technology and entertainment leaders with deep free-to-play games experience, on a mission to provide the platform technology and ecosystem enabling the development, publishing, and distribution of high-quality Web2 and Web3 games and interactive entertainment. Xterio Labs Limited in Hong Kong has a team of technology and entertainment leaders with deep free-to-play games experience operating the Xterio Platform including various services relating to the publishing and distribution of high-quality Web2 and Web3 games and interactive entertainment. To learn more, please visit xter.io, and follow along at Discord and @XterioGames.