Metaverse gaming studio Block Tackle has raised $5 million in seed funding to create games that leverage blockchain technology and allow players to own non-fungible tokens (NFTs).

The funding round was led by Play Ventures, an early stage gaming venture capital firm, and Cadenza Ventures. Seed investors included Hong Kong-based Animoca Brands along with Coinbase Ventures and Solana Ventures.

Members of the San-Francisco-based Block Tackle team – including co-founders Rob Oshima and Ben Topkins – have helped to create well-known games such as “Hobbit: Kingdoms of Middle-earth,” “Fast & Furious: Legacy,” “Marvel Strike Force” and “Avatar: Pandora Rising.”

“What we heard when we started talking to investors was ‘the space is hungry for folks like you,’” Ben Topkins, co-founder of Block Tackle, told CoinDesk. Topkins explained that investors were looking for experienced game developers who could successfully build out Web 3 games.

The Studio’s first release will be SkateX, in which players can buy their own skateboard NFTs and doing so means players will be able to vote on gaming decisions, Topkins said.

SkateX will debut in April after the drop of a collection of 3D-animated skateboard NFTs, the company said.

Players will also be able to make money from reselling their boards, which might change in value based on demand and what level they have reached, Topkins said.

Money has been pouring into the metaverse space recently. Metaverse darling The Sandbox closed a $93 million series B funding round led by SoftBank in November last year, while KuCoin Labs, the investment and research firm of crypto exchange KuCoin, launched a $100 million fund to invest in metaverse projects in November.

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