Seattle-based blockchain company Irreverent Labs has raised $40 million to further develop its robot cockfighting game, MechaFightClub. The game uses non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Created by Voodoo PC founder Rahul Sood, MechaFightClub is the company’s first game.
The $40 million funding was disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Previously, the company raised $5 million to create the game. In MechaFightClub, the characters are mechanical-looking roosters that resemble cockerels used in cockfighting. The mechabot roosters have NFTs that use the blockchain to verify how unique each chicken is. Players can own the characters that they buy and then profit if they can resell them to someone else once leveled up.
A play-to-earn game, MechaFightClub is set in a dystopian future dominated by extraterrestrial mechabots. A global resistance hacks the 41,000 remaining chicken-shaped mechabots and ends up being redistributed to the public as “weapons of mass entertainment.” MFC players can collect, train, and battle the robots in futuristic mixed martial arts-inspired experiences. Each NFT mechabot utilizes machine learning to gain a lifelike personality on and off the battlefield.
“To me, artificially intelligent entertainment being created is super interesting. I think this is where gaming is going, and no one else has done this yet. We’re going to be the first to do it,” Sood said. “There’s a reason why we call ourselves Irreverent Labs. We don’t want people to take us seriously and take offense to what we’re doing. We want people to have a sense of humor.”
Sood also added that the game is built on the blockchain as it is a collectibles game at its core. However, unlike traditional collectibles games, MFC collectibles are unique due to the individual artificial intelligence that houses millions of personal experiences from its owner. Each mechabot also learns from those experiences and has its own simulated genetic code.
Irreverent Labs is working with the Solana blockchain which has an ecosystem popular with games. Sood aims to make MechaFightClub the largest fight club in the metaverse.
