Las Vegas, Nevada-based startup Midnight announced its emergence from stealth mode with a $7.5 million investment round led by Shima Capital. The company, founded in 2021, is scaling quickly and has more than 60 employees currently working on its team.
The studio’s management is made of industry veterans with prior experience in companies such as NBCUniversal, Disney Mobile Games, Disney Interactive Central Creative, and Improbable. The two founding members of the company are Steve Wade and Steven Spagnolo.
Midnight offers both free-to-play and premium games, supported by a Web3-based system that allows users to participate in economic activities and experience never-ending stories. The company acts with a “players-first” mentality and principle.
CEO and Founder of Midnight, Steve Wade, shared thoughts and feelings about the direction of the company:
“While others are betting that fake ‘ownership’ and its associated economics will bring the masses to boring NFT-driven games, we firmly believe that participation and a secondary market need to be both meaningful and additive to players’ stories. Our games are designed to be fun without the NFT layer, and we are targeting the broadest swath of gamers. It shouldn’t matter whether someone is crypto-native or not; they’ll find something for them at Midnight.”
Shima Capital’s Yida Gao also made some comments:
“Midnight stands out from the crowd. Their pitch – to focus on building great and accessible games for diverse audiences, to use blockchain technology as a layer that creates real value and utility for players rather than a crutch, and to meaningfully weave connections through the games to create a universe of IP – is unique in the space. Shima thoroughly believes in Midnight’s team of industry heavy-hitters to make this vision a reality.”
The company is currently in the mid-development stage of three titles: Legion, Next Protectors, and At Your Service. Midnight is looking to fill some vacant positions in the team, such as Executive Producer, Technical Director, Product Manager, and Senior Backend Developer.
