John Smedley, a gaming industry veteran and former CEO of Daybreak Game Company (formerly Sony Online Entertainment), is making his first foray into Web3 gaming with a new AAA shooter featuring Tezos layer-2 (L2) blockchain Etherlink.
The Smedley-led Distinct Possibility Studios (DPS) has raised $30.5 million in a funding round led by the gaming-focused venture capital firm Bitkraft and the European hedge fund management company Brevan Howard, according to a statement shared with Cointelegraph on Thursday.
The funds will be used to develop its new open-world massively multiplayer online first-person shooter (MMOFPS), Reaper Actual, which it says will integrate Etherlink to enable tradeable Web3 components like characters, bases, skins and more.
“The Tezos Foundation and the development team behind Etherlink share our vision about the game being the most important thing,” Smedley told Cointelegraph. “The developers have prioritized building a chain that reflects this; it’s right there in their tagline: Play, Own, Trade.”
Big Smedley’s games: EverQuest and Planetside 2
Smedley is most famous in the gaming industry for co-creating EverQuest, a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released by Sony Online Entertainment in March 1999.
He also co-developed a free-to-play MMOFPS, PlanetSide 2, which featured large-scale battles supporting up to 2,000 concurrent players across massive areas of continents.
The latest funding round supports the accelerated development of Reaper Actual, a new AAA shooter that will be available on Steam, the Epic Games Store and via reaperactual.com upon launch.
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Smedley teased the new game in an X post in March, showing a photo next to Planetside 2 creative director Matt Higby and Fallout artist Tramell Ray Isaac.
The DPS team will be announcing its “Foundation” Alpha release in the coming weeks, which will include access to the game and onchain tradeable assets.
Why Tezos and Etherlink?
Smedley’s choice of Tezos and Etherlink for his latest MMOFPS game aims to support substantial transaction volumes, energy-efficient protocols and secure smart contracts, DPS said in the announcement.
Tezos and Etherlink’s vision also aligns with Smedley’s strategy of bringing traditional gamers into Web3 by making it optional, focusing on making it easy to access, he said.
“Certainly, the low fees are really good for our players, but it’s also the general approach to community first development,” Smedley said, adding:
“It’s also super important that they continue to make dramatic improvements to the L1 that serve to make the overall experience for our players a better one. Lower and lower transaction times. More emphasis on extensibility in things like what languages can be used. We view Etherlink and Tezos as a very forward leaning blockchain ecosystem.”
According to Alex Chong, chief operating officer of GameFi at Everest Ventures Group, the DPS’ Etherlink announcement “might mark a renewed ambition, but also brings déjà vu.”
Web3 gaming players “yet to mature”
“Had this news dropped during the 2021-2022 cycle, I wouldn’t have batted an eye,” Chong told Cointelegraph, referring to repeated headlines of major gaming firms moving into non-fungible tokens (NFTs) or Web3.
“But we’ve seen a two-year drought since then — less fanfare, more fallout,” he said, adding:
“Many AAA-style Web3 games like Illuvium or Shrapnel once boasted long waitlists and active betas, yet have quietly faded as their tokens and NFT values declined.”
According to Chong, the drop in NFT and Web3 adoption in gaming in the past few years highlights the core issue, which is that Web3 gaming “hasn’t yet matured its player base.”
In traditional gaming, players invest time because the game is fun, competitive, or emotionally resonant, while in Web3, too many players are just chasing the next airdrop, Chong observed.
“The second token prices dip or NFT floors fall, they’re gone. This pattern — purely profit-driven engagement — makes it difficult for even AAA titles to sustain daily active users or meaningful retention,” he said.
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