Additionally, Rob Pardo, Former Lead Designer of World of Warcraft and Dennis Fong, the first pro gamer and founder of Xfire, Lithium, and GGWP, Join as Advisors
December 7, 2021
[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Game Developer and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource Games Press]
Author: Bright Star Studios
7:00am PST Embargo Lift
Aarhus, Denmark, and San Francisco, CA - December 6, 2021-- Bright Star Studios, the creators of Play-to-Earn (P2E) massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), Ember Sword, announced an investment deal structured and led by BITKRAFT Ventures, which includes bringing on board twenty gaming executives and influencers. Ember Sword's goal is to create an engaging, frictionless player-centric game, which gives players true ownership of digital gaming assets via blockchain technology. Additional key investors joining Bright Star Studios include:
Rob Pardo, Lead Designer of WoW, Former Chief Creative Officer at Blizzard Entertainment
Dennis “Thresh” Fong, the first pro gamer and founder of Xfire, Lithium, and GGWP
Ryan Wyatt, Head of YouTube Gaming (Google)
Dr DisRespect, YouTube Influencer
Kevin Lin, Co-Founder of Twitch
Night Ventures
John Robinson, President & COO at 100 Thieves
Sebastian Borgen, Co-founder and COO at the Sandbox
Carlos Rodriguez, Founder and CEO at G2 Esports
Rob Pardo and Dennis Fong will also serve as key advisors to the Bright Star team. Their role will be to lend expertise in terms of growth, game development and design.
“We are very excited to have been able to team up with this outstanding group of industry leaders and influencers to support Bright Star Studios in their mission to create Ember Sword: a highly accessible, next-generation MMORPG. Ember Sword is leveraging blockchain technology smartly to provide true ownership and governance to its digital citizens in ways we have not seen before,” commented Jens Hilgers, Founding General Partner of BITKRAFT Ventures.
With the rapid adoption of blockchain technology throughout the world, new game economic models are beginning to emerge including the “play-to-earn” movement, a phenomenon in gaming that is giving power back to players by facilitating the true ownership of in-game assets they’ve purchased or earned. MMORPG worlds are traditionally still inaccessible as they require significant downloads, have moments of low engagement, and are in a closed market, meaning there is no way for the players to generate real-world value.
“MMORPGs have always been about the power of a shared community. With Ember Sword, Bright Star has found a new way to give their players true ownership within their virtual world. This has the potential to revolutionize the MMORPG genre,” commented Rob Pardo, Former Lead Designer of WoW and Chief Creative Officer at Blizzard Entertainment.
While still in Alpha mode, the Ember Sword community is 200,000 strong, with a growth rate of 1981% this year. In August, 35,000 gamers collectively pledged more than $203 million to purchase virtual plots of land in the Ember Sword’s world. Owning in-game land gives gamers the opportunity to share in trading fees and earn Ember, the game’s ERC-20 token, from economic activity on and around their virtual plots.
“We love the idea of rewarding gamers for the value that they bring to the game and the community. We were blown away by the community’s interest in our land sale and look forward to creating a game that introduces new audiences to MMORPG and enables gamers to earn rewards and make money through in-game activities, including the creation of unique, tradable NFT (non-fungible token) items. With the addition of our incredible team of investors and advisors, we have no doubt that we can continue to re-think what an MMORPG can be by leveraging game-design principles that cultivate player-driven economies and communities,” Mark Laursen, CEO of Bright Star Studios, said in a statement.
About Bright Star Studio
Bright Star Studios is a passionate team of Award-Winning Venture Founders, former Pro-Players, World Champions, Game Industry Veterans and MMO fanatics carving a new path forward for MMORPGs across PC, Browser, and Mobile through a modern rewrite of the games industry business models in favour of the user, exciting competitive gameplay, and instant playability. Ember Sword is our love letter to MMORPG gamers across the world.
About Ember Sword
Ember Sword has the fast-paced combat of aRPGs, combined with the isometric view and skill-based abilities of MOBAs, set in a persistent MMORPG fantasy universe. Ember Sword has pioneered a new MMORPG ecosystem for ownership of in-game items and trust-based Player-to-Player trading, built on three core principles:
Decentralised ownership of cosmetic items and the premium currency
A distributed trustless system that prohibits fraud when trading cosmetic items
No limits, which means cosmetics can freely be traded in-game as well as on third-party marketplaces
About BITKRAFT Ventures
BITKRAFT Ventures is a global early- and mid-stage investment platform for gaming, esports, and interactive media. Founded by Jens Hilgers, BITKRAFT serves a worldwide network that spans some of the industry’s more forward-thinking startups and founders working to build and operate the virtual worlds and economies of the future. BITKRAFT operates four venture funds with a total of over $600M USD in assets under management and has over 60 companies in its global portfolio as of October 2021.
BITKRAFT’s experienced international team seeks to create significant value through early candid partnerships, unique domain experience, entrepreneurial history, and a global ecosystem of strategic partners.
Find out more about how BITKRAFT and its portfolio companies are pushing the boundaries of Synthetic Reality® by visiting https://www.bitkraft.vc/vision.
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