South Korean mobile publisher Kakao Games has announced that it has invested $15 million into the American indie developer Playable Worlds.

This investment was made as part of Playable Worlds’ Series B funding round, wherein it raised more than $25 million. Kakao Games led the round, with the remainder of the funds coming from other investors.

Founded in 2018 by Ultima Online and Metaplace developers, Playable Worlds is currently developing its first cloud-native sandbox MMO. It also has a metaverse platform in development, expected to be officially announced in 2023.

The funding provided by Kakao Games Europe B.V. follows a $20 million investment by the company in Frost Giant Studios in January.

Millions for metaverse

Commenting on the investment in Playable Worlds, Kakao Games CEO Kyehyun Cho said: "Through this close partnership, we will do our best to successfully lead the ‘Beyond Korea’ Project and build a distinctive game field based on next-gen technology."

Playable Worlds CEO Ralph Koster added: "We are very pleased to be working with Kakao Games, a publisher well received in both the Korean and global markets."

Investments in companies creating metaverses and using blockchain technologies have been a growing trend, from Joyride Games recently revealing the raising of $14 million to launch its Web3 platform with crypto management to Yomi Games raising $2 million to become the "Zynga of crypto".

BlueStacks CEO Rosen Sharma spoke with us about the future of cloud gaming and integrating blockchain into it.

Blockchain-based esports firm Mokens League has also acquired funds in a Seed Round, raising $2 million for its "win-to-earn" NFT gaming platform.