One Article to Understand Champions Ascension, Backed by a16z and Set to Launch on Major Platforms
TechFlow Selected TechFlow Selected
One Article to Understand Champions Ascension, Backed by a16z and Set to Launch on Major Platforms
Jam City co-founders part ways due to differing directions, Champions Ascension becomes independent.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsText: Zen, PANews
Champions: Ascension was launched by Jam City, a well-known mobile game company, after securing $350 million in funding. After spinning out from the parent company, Jam City's co-founders took this game and raised a $32 million seed round from a16z.
This month, Champions: Ascension, a Web3 massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), announced its release on Amazon Prime Gaming, achieving simultaneous availability on Steam, Epic Games, and Amazon Prime Gaming—three major gaming platforms.
Unlike most blockchain games, Champions: Ascension originated from an established developer. It was launched by renowned mobile game company Jam City following a $350 million financing round. After separating from the original company, Jam City’s co-founders brought the game to secure a $32 million seed investment from a16z. This has ensured Champions: Ascension remains well-funded throughout development and is still in testing and continuous development phases.
Jam City Co-Founders Part Ways Over Strategic Differences; Champions: Ascension Goes Independent
Mobile game company Jam City was founded in 2010 by former 20th Century Fox executive Josh Yguado, MySpace founder Chris DeWolfe, along with Aber Whitcomb and Colin Digiaro. Amid fierce competition in the mobile gaming space, Jam City rapidly grew into one of the most successful mobile game companies thanks to popular casual titles like Cookie Jam, Panda Pop, and Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery. In mid-2021, Jam City abandoned plans for a SPAC listing and instead announced $350 million in new funding, later acquiring South Korean studio Ludia for $165 million, expanding its team to over 1,300 employees. At that time, Jam City had surpassed 1.3 billion total game downloads, achieved 31 million monthly active users, and generated over $2.5 billion in cumulative revenue.
At the end of 2021, Jam City announced the launch of Champions: Ascension, a next-generation AAA blockchain game developed specifically for Web3, establishing a dedicated blockchain division for it. Aber Whitcomb, Chief Technology Officer at Jam City, stated in a press release: "We're using blockchain as a tool to create value for players, directly influencing game design and opportunities for digital ownership." "As players seek more freedom in their digital experiences, our history of creating high-quality, accessible games positions us to confidently bring the next generation of Web3 products to everyone."
Due to a weakening global gaming market and increasing internal competition, in August 2022, Jam City decided to restructure through layoffs, dismissing about 17% of its workforce. Josh Yguado, who oversaw core operations including marketing, product management, and business development, believed Jam City could no longer afford significant investments in blockchain gaming and advocated taking a wait-and-see approach toward Web3 games. In contrast, Chris DeWolfe and others were enthusiastic about blockchain gaming and wanted to fully transition into the Web3 space. When launching the Champions: Ascension project, DeWolfe expressed strong optimism about blockchain technology: "We've always stood at the forefront of mobile technology because we believed mobile computing would be the next big shift. But now we believe blockchain will have an even deeper and larger impact."
In January 2023, co-founders DeWolfe and Whitcomb, along with lead designer Johnny Casamassina and a 50-member development team, officially left Jam City to form Plai Labs—a company focused on building next-generation social platforms leveraging AI and Web3. Their first entertainment product, naturally, was Champions: Ascension. The launch of this new venture brought further good news to its gaming community: drawing on their extensive experience in social media, game design, and technology, Plai Labs gained strong backing from top-tier crypto venture capital firm a16z. Despite launching during a deep market bear cycle, the startup successfully closed a $32 million seed round, led by both a16z Games and a16z Crypto.
Gameplay Overview of Champions: Ascension
Champions: Ascension aims to build its game world "Massina" into a virtual universe where every player can play, level up, socialize, and create new content through arenas and expansive cities. The PC game is currently in Pre-Alpha stage. To reach a broader audience, Champions: Ascension is designed as a completely free-to-play title—players can download and access the game without any upfront or subscription costs. Additionally, Champions: Ascension lowers barriers for Web2 players by offering a wallet-free connection option, allowing players to link their game account directly to an email address without needing to set up a separate wallet. The game currently supports multiple languages including English, French, German, and Italian, but does not yet support Chinese.
Like many MMORPGs, Champions: Ascension features rich 3D gameplay with various modes. In "Massina," players can participate in high-stakes gladiator battles, own real estate and upgrade their homes, exchange secrets with back-alley thugs and scammers, or relax with friends in taverns. Its core gameplay revolves around players using their owned "Champions" characters to explore the world, complete quests, craft gear, and engage in intense combat against opponents. The game supports multiple battle formats, including 1v1 and 3v3 duels, 10-player brawls, and team-based PvE challenges.
The "Massina" world consists of 12 "Champion" families divided into 6 classes, with two families per class. Each "Champion" belongs to one family and draws core power from one of seven Essences. They can also equip six types of functional and decorative "Parts," each with unique stats that enhance the Champion's overall abilities in different ways. As such, every Champion is unique and offers distinct advantages in gameplay. Through various game modes and activities, players can earn in-game resources such as Essence, Bones, and Gold, enabling them to unlock and strengthen Champions without spending money. Players seeking faster progression may choose to purchase in-game items and resources with real currency.
Additionally, Champions are categorized into five tiers—from lowest to highest: Challengers, Gladiators, Eternals, Elemental Eternals, and Prime Eternals—with higher tiers unlocking greater benefits and functionalities. Players can upgrade their Champions from Challengers all the way to Eternals, while the top two tiers are reserved for limited-edition NFT holders. Only 7,622 Prime Eternals exist, released in early 2022, offering exclusive perks such as special breeding options, early access, free minting, and airdrops.
Moving Away from Game Tokens, Focusing on NFT-Based Game Assets
In May 2022, Champions: Ascension released its first whitepaper, in which game designers provided minimal details about in-game tokens, only announcing three uncapped token types. Jam City also stated its intention for the game to eventually be operated by a DAO.
-
$ESSENCE: The most important in-game token, used across all gameplay mechanics including crafting and breeding. ESSENCE can be earned through daily tasks, exploration, PvP and PvE battles, and numerous secondary game modes;
-
$MASSINA: Used to manage certain land plots within the game world, obtainable through staking Prime Eternals;
-
$DIAMOND: Grants access to diamond-tier equipment and items, available exclusively through staking Prime Eternals.
In the first quarter of this year, Champions: Ascension—the flagship title of Plai Labs—updated its whitepaper to version 2.0. This new version discarded the initial crude token economy model and removed all references to token-based economic systems. The project now defines Champions: Ascension as a Play-to-Own game, offering players a way to mint and own NFTs through gameplay. The V2.0 whitepaper states: "Play-to-Earn games focus on generating or distributing ERC-20 tokens as the primary method for players to create and exchange value, whereas Play-to-Own games emphasize creating assets with specific in-game utility."
However, Plai Labs noted that it will leverage Forte’s compliant blockchain gaming platform to introduce a new currency convertible into fiat and usable within the marketplace. According to a Champions: Ascension announcement in October, the core economic elements in Massina currently include Gold, Chrono XP, Raw Essence, and Essence Crystals. Among these, Gold serves as the primary currency, used for recruiting or training new soldiers, crafting Essence Crystals, and purchasing goods and services.
To expand its player base and optimize digital asset performance, in June this year, Champions: Ascension announced migrating all related digital assets from Ethereum to Polygon. This move ensures smoother gameplay experiences through higher throughput and lower latency while significantly reducing gas fees associated with digital asset transactions. The migration is scheduled to be completed by the end of this year.
Over the coming months, the development team will continue enhancing and releasing new content centered around the Alpha experience, optimizing existing game systems, launching additional features, and removing outdated components. As a Web3 game capable of launching simultaneously across multiple mainstream gaming platforms, the future progress of Champions: Ascension warrants ongoing attention.
Join TechFlow official community to stay tuned
Telegram:https://t.me/TechFlowDaily
X (Twitter):https://x.com/TechFlowPost
X (Twitter) EN:https://x.com/BlockFlow_News
PANews
