French unicorn Voodoo to invest $200 mln in blockchain mobile games

PARIS, Dec 16 (Reuters) – French mobile game maker Voodoo, which is backed by Goldman Sachs (GS.N) and Chinese tech giant Tencent (0700.HK), said on Thursday it will invest $200 million in 2022 on studios that develop blockchain-based mobile video games.

The blockchain technology, which has underpinned the recent rise of digital assets such as cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs), is now drawing the interest of the booming video game industry.

“Blockchain will especially disrupt gaming, as players are already used to buying digital assets,” said Voodoo’s chief executive, Alex Yazdi.

“This technology will give players true ownership of their digital assets, creating deeper interactions between players – collecting, trading, selling in-game digital currencies and game assets – which will increase fun and engagement.”

A blockchain is a digital platform for recording and verifying transactions. It traces its roots to bitcoin, the best-known digital cryptocurrency.

It can also be defined as a database that is shared across a network of computers. Once a record has been added to the chain it is very difficult to change. To ensure all the copies of the database are the same, the network makes constant checks.

Voodoo, whose mobile games include Helix Jump and Balls VS Blocks, said the $200 million will be used to fund early-stage gaming studios and create 20 internal studios.

The Paris-based company reached unicorn status — startups valued more than $1 billion — last year and bought Israeli peer Beach Bum in September. read more

Reporting by Mathieu Rosemain; Editing by Leslie Adler

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