Mobile gaming firm Limit Break raises $200 million across two rounds

Limit Break, a startup building web3 massively multiplayer online (MMO) games, raised $200 million over two rounds of venture funding.  

The chair of mobile gaming firm Mino Games, Josh Buckley and investment firms Paradigm and Standard Crypto led the rounds, Limit Break wrote in a Twitter thread. Additional participants include FTX, Coinbase and Positive Sum.  

Limit Break intends to incorporate web3 elements into the “free-to-play” gaming model. Free-to-play games are free upfront to play, and developers make money through ads or selling additional features for the game. The firm’s take on free-to-play is what they call “free-to-own,” in which users mint genesis non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for free. “These Genesis NFTs lead to other NFTs through airdrops and more, none of which involve gimmicky fundraising tactics,” Limit Break wrote. 

Limit Break’s financing comes amid the broader crypto bear market and illustrate the growing interest in blockchain-based mobile games. In July, NFTs/gaming were the most favored deal types for the twelfth consecutive month, getting about $500 million in funding, the second most in the sector after infrastructure, according to The Block Research.

The startup was founded by Gabriel Leydon and Halbert Nakagawa, former CEO and CTO, respectively, of the mobile gaming firm Machine Zone, which built mobile free-to-play games including Game of War, Mobile Strike and Final Fantasy: XV.  

Other blockchain-based mobile gaming firms to raise money this year include MetaverseGo and N3TWORK Studios, InfiniGods and others, The Block previously reported.