Scotland Enters the Metaverse: Carbon Based Lifeforms Launches with $1.7m Funding
Scottish studio announces Project Gateway, a MMO/RPG underpinned by a Bitcoin and NFT asset-based play-to-earn, player-owned market economy.
As DIGIT reports the games studio Carbon Based Lifeforms has announced $1.7m in funding from Cluster Capital and Shima Capital to begin work on their first title, a space-themed massively multiplayer online (MMO) game: Project Gateway.
As they describe:
“Gateway (working title) is a brand-new, AA science-fiction MMO/RPG underpinned by a Bitcoin and NFT asset-based play-to-earn, player-owned market economy.
This fresh IP set in a unique galactic backdrop will allow players to build their own life among the stars, with endless opportunities to discover and create.
Trade and gather resources, craft unique in-game items, explore the depths of the galaxy, create friendships, alliances and factions.”
Led by Scottish author, futurist and tech evangelist Theo Priestley, the venture is setting out to combine elements from traditional MMOs with original IP and storytelling.
Theo believes the key dynamic will be a marketplace approach enabling ‘Play to Earn’ – Gamers will be able to create new in-game assets and give them real-world value as an NFT, then sell them to other players to use in-game using Bitcoin.
Building on the ‘Dundee Effect’
It might seem overly ambitious to believe a small country like Scotland could build a significant presence in such a vast global market, however a concentrated specialism and market timing means it is as open to us as any one else, and we only need to consider the success Dundee has had in the gaming sector already to imagine what is further possible.
Given ventures like Project Gateway represent the future evolution of gaming then it’s very easy to imagine building upon this success, leveraging the already present large industry of developers to specialize in this sector in a unique way.
Indeed Minecraft could be considered one of the first Metaverse environments and the success enjoyed by 4J Studios, who developed the Minecraft Console Edition, and the growth it brought is a preceding exemplar that can be emulated.
Whilst it is a gargantuan environment and user base, Minecraft is only a fraction of the size of what the Metaverse will become, so the economic growth opportunity for Scotland is limited only by the vastness of our imaginations.
