Forge – the first video game platform that connects and rewards gamers for their gaming achievements and ongoing play – recently opened to players in beta, and the company also announced a $11 million seed funding round, led by Makers Fund, BITKRAFT Ventures, and Animoca Brands, with participation from Hashkey Capital, Polygon Ventures, Formless Capital and Adaverse. And Forge’s existing investors include industry-leading strategics like Griffin Gaming Partners, Riot Games, and Sony Innovation Fund. Forge’s angel investors include gaming industry leaders such as Riot Games founder Marc Merrill, Twitch founders Emmett Shear and Kevin Lin, TSM founder Dan Dinh, Kabam founders Kevin Chou and Holly Liu, YouTube founder Steve Chen, Krafton CEO CH Kim, former Discord CMO Eros Resmini (The Mini Fund), and ESL founder Ralf Reichart.
Launched by gaming pioneer Dennis “Thresh” Fong, Crunchyroll founder Kun Gao, and Cyence founder George Ng, Forge originated as a project within GGWP, an AI-powered game moderation platform that the team launched in 2020, and has since been spun off as a new company. And Forge’s mission is to help gamers unlock the value of gaming profiles and be rewarded for their contributions to gaming communities.
With the launch, users can link their disparate online gaming and social accounts to create a Forge profile that represents their unique passion and experiences across games. And players will then be able to access a seasonal Season Pass containing quests that enable them to earn XP to level up their Season Pass and unlock game content and access rewards, including in-game content from Forge’s partner games such as cosmetics, item/character unlocks, virtual currency, and early beta access. All the participating beta users will also be eligible to win additional rewards via Forge weekly bonus rewards, including everything from Amazon gift cards to a brand-new gaming PC.
Forge is partnering with games like Genopets, Mojo Melee, Pixelmon, Portal Fantasy, Rushdown Revolt and The Sandbox for launch week, with new games added each week during the beta period, to help them reach the Forge community and reward their most passionate players and community members. And developers interested in joining the Forge platform can sign up at: https://forge.gg/developer.
Forge is now open to the public in beta and users can sign up at forge.gg. And players who join Forge and participate in the community will have a chance to receive a limited edition founders badge, which will unlock special features in the Forge community and on the Forge service.
KEY QUOTES:
“We wanted to create a platform that finally rewards gamers for being who they are, through their profile and history as a gamer, through their passion, engagement, and community participation. We feel very strongly that players should be able to control their gaming life. While Forge is just now entering beta, we already have an incredible lineup of dozens of games and partners who are looking to grow with us by giving gamers something special for joining their community.”
— Kun Gao, co-founder of Forge
“We’re thrilled to support Dennis, Kun, and George – I am inspired by their passion, impact-orientation, and deep player, and extraordinary track-record. We expect Forge to become a critical part of the gaming ecosystem for players and developers alike. Developers can offer deeper engagement around their games, and provide rewards systems that benefit gamers and strengthen their relationships with the games they love.”
— Andrew Willson, Partner at Makers Fund
“At BITKRAFT, we are firm believers in Dennis Fong, Kun Gao, George Ng, and their vision to allow gamers to aggregate their gaming life and achievements into a single profile, and earn rewards based on their participation. What sets Forge apart is its unique flywheel approach, starting with carefully curated games and questing incentives to support community growth. This strategy creates an enriched user experience, driving more traffic to the platform and attracting games, studios, and publishers to join, resulting in a diverse selection of high-quality games expertly curated by Forge. Forge is not just a platform; it’s a catalyst for the next generation of player engagement and community growth.”
— Carlos Pereira, Partner at BITKRAFT Ventures
“We like Forge because it provides game developers with an authentic way to reach real gamers with an interest in their products. Forge aligns well with the community-centric ethos of Animoca Brands, and we’re excited to be a part of its development.”
— Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands
