Farcana Raises $10 Million for NFT Esports Shooter That Pays Out Bitcoin

The Farcana team has raised $10 million in seed funding from Animoca Brands, Polygon Ventures, Fenbushi Capital, Merit Circle, and others to further develop its third-person multiplayer shooter game, Farcana has shared exclusively with Decrypt.

Rarestone Capital, MMPro Trust, Unpopular Ventures, Kapo Capital, Emchain, Hasu Capital, and Dravus Investment also participated in the round.

“We believe Farcana has the potential to be the next iconic blockchain game and continuously bring new users to Web3,” Fenbushi Capital Investment Director Clarence Zhou said in a statement.

“We have been working with Farcana over the past year and we’ve been impressed with the development and traction it’s received so far,” said Animoca Brands co-founder and chairman Yat Siu.

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Farcana shares some similarities to a game like Blizzard’s Overwatch, but with smaller, walled maps and game modes that are reminiscent of Riot Games’ Valorant. The story of Farcana takes place in a near-future world where humanity has left Earth for Mars and discovers a superpower-granting substance called Axelar. Within the game’s lore, Farcana is an ongoing tournament trial of sorts where players with Axelar-induced powers compete for glory.

An early Farcana gameplay screenshot. Image: Farcana.

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The Farcana team, which includes G2 Esports founder and former CEO Carlos “Ocelote” Rodriguez as an advisor, is based in the MENA region and previously worked with Dubai’s Economy and Tourism department to host a Farcana pre-alpha game playtest at the Dubai Esports Festival back in June 2023.

“Our strategic investment into Farcana is part of the vision of Animoca Brands to drive Web3 development in MENA,” Siu said. “The region is rapidly modernizing and adopting emerging technologies, and we’re excited to support partners such as Farcana as they actively lead the sector and bring exciting products to market.”

An early gameplay screenshot. Image: Farcana.

Animoca first announced that it had invested in Farcana last month, citing a desire to support the game’s continued development and planned free Bitcoin Ordinals mint as Farcana works toward a beta launch. The game will also utilize Ethereum scaling network Polygon, with a free mint for “Mars Enigma Vault” NFTs coming on December 19.

Farcana aims to offer blockchain elements like a play-to-earn tournament feature that rewards the top 10% of its players with Bitcoin, according to a statement. The game plans to operate under a free-to-play model with an optional battle pass, NFTs, and crafting features.

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Every in-game item will exist as an NFT, from character and weapon skins to pets, graffiti, voicelines, and charms, and Farcana will use the FAR token for all transactions, according to the game’s deck.

Edited by Andrew Hayward