On February 26, 2024, PlayMakers achieved a significant milestone by securing $1.5 million in pre-seed funding, elevating its mission to revolutionize user-generated content (UGC) across a diverse spectrum of games. Founded merely a year ago by visionaries Ilan Nabeth, Maxime Niankouri, and Costantino Carrega, the PlayMakers team, comprising former Homa employees, boasts an impressive track record with a collective 600 million game downloads in their previous roles.
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Unveiling PlayMakers’ Vision
The pre-seed funding round garnered substantial interest from noteworthy investors, with RockawayX leading the charge. Key business angels such as Sébastien Borget, Vincent Hart de Keating, and Hugues Ouvard also joined forces, aligning with PlayMakers’ vision of transforming gamers into creators.
PlayMakers envisions empowering players to become content creators through a groundbreaking platform that enables game studios to harness the passion and skills of their community. Users can craft new game assets, including 3D characters, animations, and music, fostering a creative community. This white-label platform, tailored to each game community’s unique characteristics, seamlessly integrates player-made creations into the game with a single click.
Developers, thus, gain the ability to rejuvenate gaming experiences with fresh content and explore monetization avenues for these creations, unlocking new revenue streams.
PlayMakers: Pioneering the UGC Movement
In an era where the gaming industry embraces user-generated content, PlayMakers positions itself as a trailblazer. Notable industry giants like Epic Games and Krafton have heavily invested in UGC, with Fortnite dedicating 40% of its net profits to creators and Krafton allocating a $100 million fund for their creative minds.
The funds raised by PlayMakers will strategically bolster the toolset and expand the team, positioning the company as the go-to platform for fostering gaming community involvement. Martin Kupka of RockawayX emphasizes, “We are convinced that the upcoming wave of web3 games will focus on turning players into creators, and PlayMakers offers the perfect, easy-to-implement solution for developers to collect, curate, and integrate player creations.”
Origins and Ambitions
PlayMakers’ origins trace back to Ilan Nabeth’s experience as one of the first 10 employees at Homa, a venture that raised $150 million for mobile games. Building on his background in a blockchain gaming venture fund, Nabeth recognized the opportunity in the gaming ecosystem, particularly in LiveOps and user-generated content.
With a pipeline of 15 game developers onboarded for its UGC platform, aims to involve players in the game creation process. Nabeth envisions a seamless integration where players contribute new game assets, renewing the gaming experience and unlocking monetization options.
Embracing Generative AI and Global Expansion
As generative AI gains prominence, anticipates its long-term role in enhancing the creation of UGC. The company is strategically focused on the U.S. and Eastern European markets initially, aiming to allocate 70% of UGC revenues to the studio, demonstrating a commitment to fair and lucrative partnerships.
Investors, including Borget at The Sandbox, encourage to expand its reach to different platforms, differentiating itself from larger UGC platforms like Minecraft, Fortnite, and Roblox. PlayMakers aims to enable anyone to contribute to a game with a tool of their choosing, fostering collaboration with smaller developers and niche games.
The Revenue Split and Market Focus
PlayMakers adopts a revenue split model where approximately 70% of UGC revenues go to the studio, emphasizing a fair business approach. The company is currently onboarding three companies with three games to leverage the platform, with a strategic focus on Eastern Europe and the U.S. markets.
PlayMakers stands poised at the forefront of the gaming industry’s UGC movement, driven by a vision to democratize content creation and foster community involvement. With a robust financial foundation and a visionary leadership team, is set to redefine the future of gaming through unparalleled user-generated content experiences. The gaming community, developers, and investors alike anticipate the transformative journey ahead with leading the way.
