Gaming startup Manticore Games has closed another round of investments. The company has raised $100 million to develop its Core platform, which is positioned as “Roblox for adults”. Games created by users should become part of a single multiverse.
Now the total amount of funds raised by Manticore Games has reached $160 million. The new round was led by hedge fund XN, and other investors were SoftBank Vision Fund 2, London Venture Partners and Benchmark.
What is Core and the Multiverse?
Manticore Games does not develop its own games, but only provides users with a platform for their creation. Core develops the concept of a single gaming multiverse (or metaverse) — a set of virtual worlds, each of which is somehow connected to the others.
With the help of available tools, players create their own projects, which are available in a special hub. From there, users can freely move between games, as well as connect them to each other using special portals.
From April 15, Core will be available in early access exclusively in the Epic Games Store (last year, the creators of Fortnite invested $ 15 million in Manticore Games). Before that, the platform was in alpha for several months, and during this period, users have already made over 20 thousand free games with its help.
Prospects of Manticore Games and comparisons with Roblox
Despite the obvious parallels, the company positions Core as “Roblox for adults” and deliberately targets an audience of 13+. At the same time, the platform is based on the power of Unreal Engine, which allows you to create games with the best graphics and quality level.
Now the genre of projects made on Core varies from simple Sudoku to first-person shooters.
The Manticore Games team also hopes to give the authors the opportunity to earn well with the help of the games they have created. At the moment, developers receive 50% of the revenue, which is already significantly higher than the share that goes to the creators of games on Roblox (24.5%). And last year, the company held a competition, distributing $ 150,000 to the 50 best developers.
“Content authors can add their own types of in-game purchases to their games. We also hope that as a result it will lead to the creation of an innovative concept that will become an analogue of combat passes,“ says co—founder of the company Jordan Maynard (Jordan Maynard).
Now investors are paying increased attention to UGC platforms for creating games. For example, this year, the authors of the Rec Room VR platform were valued at $1.2 billion during the last round, and Roblox’s valuation after entering the stock market was $45.2 billion. Investors hope that Manticore Games will also be able to grow significantly in the future.