AI game creation platform 'Verse8' raises seed funding…$5 million round

Verse8, an artificial intelligence (AI)-based game creation platform, said on the 26th that it has raised $5 million (about 7.5 billion won) in seed funding.

Participants in the round included the IP blockchain project Story Foundation, NEXPACE, Nexon’s blockchain subsidiary, Neowiz, MARBLEX, Netmarble’s Web3 subsidiary, Solarium Labs, and NEXUS, among others.

Verse8 was co-founded by lead Jaeseok Kim, who previously led LINE’s blockchain business, and Kevin Lee, who has deployed more than $200 million in game investments. Jaekyung Song, a Lineage developer and co-founder of Nexon, is serving as an advisor to Verse8.

Specifically, Verse8 combines generative AI, an integrated game engine, and blockchain-based ownership-proof technology to enable users to create and distribute multiplayer games using only natural-language prompts. A key feature is that games can be produced within minutes without any coding knowledge.

After launching a stealth version in July 2024, Verse8 has attracted participation from more than 5,000 creators and produced more than 25,000 games to date. Its monthly active users (MAU) recently reached about 3.5 million.

Verse8 plans to deploy the new funding to upgrade its AI system, expand creator support programs, and scale its global publishing infrastructure.

"Globally, there are only about 3 million game creators, and the top 20 large studios dominate the market by controlling 70% of total game output," said Kevin Lee, CEO of Verse8. "Verse8 will compress the capabilities of major game studios into a single prompt and provide creative opportunities to all creators."

"AI is lowering creation costs across all media, but games have still faced high barriers," said Seungyoon Lee, CEO of Story Foundation. "Verse8 is setting a new standard for interactive media by shortening a development process that used to take months to just minutes," he said.