Neon Machine, the developer and publisher of the highly-anticipated extraction shooter game, Shrapnel, has successfully secured $20 million in funding. Polychain Capital led the funding round, with contributions from Griffin Gaming Partners, Brevan Howard Digital, Franklin Templeton, IOSG Ventures, and Tess Ventures. This financial support comes on the heels of their earlier $10.5 million seed funding round in late 2021.

Mark Long, CEO of Neon Machine, expressed the challenges of raising funds in the current environment but looks forward to the opportunities this investment provides.

I’ve had a couple of colleagues who have not been able to raise their next round, or they’ve had to make a significant change in their valuation. But we’re very fortunate. We benefit from the perception that we’re one of the top projects in blockchain games.

Mark Long, CEO of Neon Machine

Shrapnel is under development by a team of industry veterans, bringing with them experience in gaming-as-a-service, transmedia, virtual production, and blockchain technology. With backgrounds at HBO Interactive and involvement in titles like Halo, Call of Duty, Star Wars, Ghost of Tsushima, and more, the team aims to create a unique first-person shooter game.

Neon Machine, based in Seattle, plans to release an early access version of Shrapnel to paid users in December, with a full free-to-play launch slated for 2024. The new funding will support the development of the game in the lead-up to these milestones.

Upcoming features include the launch of the Shrapnel Marketplace, where in-game items can be bought and traded, and improvements to the creator tools, allowing players to design skins, maps, and in-game items.

Since their $10.5 million seed round, the team has released two whitepapers, a comic book series, unveiled a cinematic trailer, shown gameplay in development, sold out a 10k PFP collection, and won several industry awards, further bolstering the anticipation and excitement around the release of Shrapnel.

They also recently unveiled GameBridge, an advanced and versatile web3 game development platform, which empowers game developers to easily integrate advanced content creation capabilities while enabling players to truly own their in-game content.

In Shrapnel's world, a massive asteroid has led to meteorite bombardments in the Sacrifice Zone, revealing a mysterious material called Sigma. This has prompted nations and corporations to assemble extraction forces, leading to intense battles. The game is currently undergoing tests with 10 to 20 players engaged in multiplayer combat within the same match. 

We’re building a really massive map, set in a devastated Tokyo that’s been ruined by these meteor storms. And so, when we’re in early access only one area of the map is going to be fully hardened out and the rest will be a gray box. But we’ll continue to iron it out until we release open data. It makes sense initially to have a small number of players and grow.

Mark Long, CEO of Neon Machine

With the new $20 million funding, Neon Machine is poised to advance Shrapnel's development and introduce new gameplay while pushing the boundaries of player experience and ownership through web3 technology.