Crypto underwriters Lamb&Cooper are exploring a new era of game development and funding.
Motivated to explore the benefits cryptocurrencies can offer to both game developers crowdfunding their projects, and the backers who support them, the Lamb&Cooper team has created a new altcoin ProsperityCoin to both fund the game development, and act as an in-game token.
The project itself is Full Metal Wars, a turn-based battle game being created by Prosperity Games and that has already picked up top prize on Demo Night at Big Festival. Originating in Campina Grande, Brazil, the area often dubbed the “Silicon Valley of South America”, the game development team members are professors at the local university.
Artwork for the game is also locally sourced, coming from Mike Deodato, a Marvel Comics artist who heard about the project originating in his home-city.
Game crowdfunding
The idea of crowdfunding computer game development itself is not new, with success stories like Star Citizen's US$75 million funding demonstrating a clear willingness and interest from gamers to fund new titles.
These conventional crowdfunding platforms offer the backers benefits such as expansion packs, beta access, and special in-game assets. What they often lack though is the ability to translate the strong sense of involvement many backers feel for the success of a project into a comparable reward.
By backing the development of Full Metal Wars through purchasing the prosperity coins (Ripple asset ID: PRO.lamb-cooper), users are not only receiving the in-game tokens, but also placing themselves in line to benefit financially from the success of the game itself.
The coins come with a dividend right to the profits/revenues being made on the gaming title, bringing this extra benefit for a backer who supports the development of the project through this early crowdfunding round. The backers are rewarded for their loyalty, and get to share a sense of communal success between themselves and the developers as the project takes off.
Cointelegraph spoke to Miklos Kadar, Chief Advisor at Lamb&Cooper, about how he sees ProsperityCoin changing the landscape of crypto crowdfunding. Kadar explained:
“ProsperityCoin is a debut project for Lamb&Cooper and I believe this tells everything about our attitude. We have been looking for a crypto-asset project that would tell the world loud enough that nothing will be the same since Bitcoin, the blockchain technology and Ripple.
We believe ProsperityCoin is the online gaming 2.0 - the first ever opportunity for the gamers to be able to share the success of the very game they are making successful by playing with it.
And it is also the safest investment opportunity a gamer can ever have. Look, it is very easy for a Wall Street broker to assess any asset or security and make an investment decision. It is easy because this is his trade, this is what he does for a living.
But look at an online gamer, he is very good at assessing games and telling if a game is worth his time, his money or to be shared with his friends on social media.
With ProsperityCoin he will also be able to make an investment decision without all the stock-exchange mambo-jumbo: if he likes the game, he can play with it if he likes it more he can use its game-tokens and if he likes it even more and believes in the future success of the game he can come to Ripple Trade or directly to us and purchase some crypto-loyalty-tokens and have a financial part of that success. The reward feature is: 10% of all revenues will be distributed proportionally among all the holders of the crypto-loyalty-tokens.
Now some say that there is only 200k coins available from the overall 1 million, but it is still 2% of all revenues (not profits!) so if the game gets moderately successful it is a ‘prosperous’ investment, isn’t it?
There is also a value guarantee for all holders of ProsperityCoin because ProsperityCoins are exchangeable in the game (Full Metal Wars) at a fixed 2 USD price for game tokens so as long as there are gamers playing with the game, there will be some demand = liquidity. And of course as any other crypto-asset it is trade-able on the Ripple network at any time to other gamers or investors.”
The advantages for the developers themselves are also clear. By building a strong community following around their new gaming title before launch, the producers are able to better predict the success of the game.
Having the involvement of an underwriting service such as Lamb&Cooper also benefits the developers through the firm’s ability to attract larger investors to the funding round. Kadar explains how Lamb&Cooper are able to handle these larger investors better than is normally seen in a crowdfunding initiative:
“I often get the question where that other 800k ProsperityCoins of the overall 1 million are. During the underwriting project we had a Book Building process that explains the ownership structure. It is also available online. https://www.lamb-cooper.com/prosperitycoin/#book-building-process
But the summary of it is that currently a big portion of the coins are with Qualified Institutional Buyers meaning whales or larger investors if you like. (We have some investor testimonials online on our YouTube channel to check:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCo068kDzAr9VrWiCKkVdbCQ)
Now I have to tell you that I am much more happy to see ProsperityCoins being bought on RippleTrade by micro investors and gamers instead of being hoarded by whales and angels. The reason is obvious: the ProsperityCoin project must stay the project of the people not another privilege for the affluent to multiply their investments.
Don’t you get me wrong we are happy to see any funding but currently it is relatively easy to find angels for this project because according to them the package is strong. The team is senior, the online gaming industry is stable, the crypto industry is emerging and legally the crypto-based reward system is very flexible for tax-optimization for international businesses. And right now the closed beta of the game is out so anybody can apply to participate the testing and experience the quality of the game:
www.prosperitygames.net/news/full-metal-wars-closed-beta-is-here/
So for us it is a balance-game to get enough funding for the development and at the same time reserve enough for the micro investors and the interested gamers to be part of the opportunity.”
Regardless of larger investors getting involved however, regular gamers and individuals looking for a crypto investment (or users blending those two together) are now also able to invest in ProsperityCoin and benefit. Those benefits can also be tailored by using the coins as in-game tokens or holding them for the dividend profit, and eventually trading them.
Exploring the benefits crypto can offer the crowdfunding world a particularly useful application of the technology and could usher in a new style of game development, involvement, and funding, all in one.
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