M10 raises $3M for Web3 competitive multiplayer games

M10, a Web3 game developer and publisher creating competitive multiplayer games, has raised $3 million in funding.

Investors in the seed round include the Sui Foundation, GSR, Big Brain Holdings, Monoceros, Blockchain Founders Fund and Presto Labs, among others.

M10 was founded by a group of game industry veterans who want to go beyond free-to-play gaming. They include CEO Maitham Mohamed (Forbes 30 Under 30, Semi-Pro FIFA player), President Lars Buttler (cofounder of Trion Worlds), and chief creative officer Martin Capel (game director at Ubisoft on Assassin’s Creed).

Together, they have assembled a development team for the studio’s unannounced debut title. The team includes veterans of triple-A titles such as Assassin’s Creed, Ghost Recon, Rainbow Six, Watch Dogs, Red Dead Redemption 2, Star Wars Outlaws and GTA V.

A strategic partnership alongside the Sui Foundation will enable M10 to create a new gaming business model that goes beyond F2P.

“Our mission at M10 is to solve the core problems in F2P and scale the entire category further.” said Mohamed, in a statement. “We are willing to go much further than other studios to create a truly fun novel shooter experience whilst taking a swing at changing the future of F2P games.”

Mohamed grew up being a massive gamer and was accustomed to the gray market around FIFA Ultimate Team. He made some money that way when he was 12. He saw a structural change happening in gaming that has created opportunity for new game experiences, business models and distribution to happen. He hopes players will be able to create their own value and monetize it.

The goal is to solve the core problems in F2P, namely hyper-aggressive monetization. By using the new model to end the market stagnation in PC and Console F2P gaming, M10 aims to scale the market significantly further with a new era of games. They are packaging this all in what is a fresh take on the competitive multiplayer shooter, and creating a true F2P model that is accessible to all.

“Sui is committed to growing the gaming space with innovative blockchain technology geared towards providing players distinctive and immersive experiences,” said Christian Thompson, managing director at Sui Foundation, in a statement. “The M10 team’s impressive backgrounds and the exciting project they’re developing make them a perfect fit for us as long-term partners.”

Sui is a Layer 1 blockchain and smart contract platform designed from the ground up to make digital asset ownership fast, private, secure, and accessible to everyone. Its object-centric model, based on the Move programming language, enables parallel execution, sub-second finality, and rich on-chain assets.

With horizontally scalable processing and storage, Sui supports a wide range of applications with unrivaled speed at low cost. Sui is a step-function advancement in blockchain and a platform on which creators and developers can build amazing user-friendly experiences.