Electronic Arts Founder Joins Web 3.0 Gaming Industry

Trip Hawkins, founder of American video game Electronic Arts (EA) has now transitioned from Web2 to Web3 as he joins web3 studios Games For a Living (GFAL).

According to a Reuters report, the former Apple executive will join the Barcelona-based Web3 startup as a co-founder and Head of Strategy at Games For A Living.

With the addition of the veteran, GFAL will further its goal of mass adoption of web3 games. It plans to deploy blockchain to create a new gaming paradigm and enhance gaming performance and value for players.

Prior to joining the web3 gaming platform, Hawkins had previously worked with Mabel Sort, the CEO of GFAL. The duo worked at Digital Chocolate, a video game platform founded by Hawkins in 2003.

Meanwhile, the startup completed its pre-seed round earlier in 2020 to develop games based around non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and blockchain-based tokens.

Founded in 2020, GFAL’s first release is a free-to-play role-playing game with tokens and NFT-based features dubbed Elemental Raiders. The gaming platform also plans to launch two additional games, Diamond Dreams and Elemental Raiders MOBA during the course of 2023 according to its website.

Web 3.0 Gaming Industry Secures Funds from Investors

Although Web 3.0 and especially the Web3 gaming subsector is still in its infant stages, the industry has enjoyed increased interest from users and has been touted as a major route to onboard more users and increase blockchain adoption. As such investments and recruitment in the subsector have been on the rise despite the general market downturn.

Earlier in the year, Polygon-backed Web 3.0 gaming platform Intella X secured $12 million in a financing round that had several financial technology investors in participation to create a hub where all game developers and gamers can take charge of all their blockchain gaming needs.

Another Web3.0 gaming platform Heroic Story also recently secured $6 million in a financing round to reach a $7.4 million valuation. The platform planned to hire experienced workers to develop the on-chain technology for a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG) environment and also reimagine traditional tabletop role-playing games (RPGs) for users of Web 3.0 technology.