Indie virtual reality (VR) studio Ramen VR began work on its MMORPG Zenith: The Last City back in 2019, launching a successful Kickstarter that same year to help fund the project. Resources shouldn’t be much of an issue now because the studio has announced the successful completion of a $10 million Series A investment round.
The round was led by Makers Fund, Anthos Capital and Dune Ventures, with Ramen VR founders Andy Tsen and Lauren Frazier using the funds to expand the development team. This is in addition to the funding partnership they have in place with Oculus.
“With Ramen VR, our goal is to create a digital reality that is as significant and memorable as the physical one, expanding on what makes a captivating and immersive social game. Zenith is the first step in that direction,” said Andy Tsen, CEO and co-founder, Ramen VR in a statement. “Lauren and I set out to design a world that married the positive social features of MMOs with the power of VR, and with the rising popularity of VR hardware and growing interest in the metaverse, we’re seeing so many ways for our players to make meaningful connections in Zenith. We’ve already had incredibly positive feedback from our community about the social interactions in our game and the promise of the future. Our partners at Makers Fund, Anthos, and Dune have been so supportive of our vision, and we are thrilled to have them aboard our journey.”
Zenith: The Last City has gained a lot of interest from the VR community over the past couple of years thanks to the pure scope of the project. A fully cross-platform VR MMO that will support all major platforms including Oculus Quest, PlayStation VR, and PC VR devices, the videogame offers an open world for players to explore with gameplay focused on multiplayer collaboration.
To date, Ramen VR has completed two closed alphas that saw thousands of players participate, with the studio claiming that most users spent: “an average of two hours per day with some players spending as much as 40 hours a week.” Inspired by anime, JRPG classics, World of Warcraft, and Ultima Online, Zenith: The Last City could offer some of the most expansive gaming seen in VR, a massively rich fantasy universe where players craft their own path by selecting various character classes depending on whether they prefer wielding magic or diving into melee combat.
While the last Alpha was completed in early August the studio has yet to confirm when the beta testing is likely to start. With the new investment to bring more people on board, there might not be too long to wait.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of Zenith: The Last City, reporting back with further updates.
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Source: https://www.vrfocus.com/2021/09/vr-mmorpg-zenith-the-last-city-completes-10m-funding-round/
