John Smedley’s studio raises $30.5M for new shooter built on Etherlink

John Smedley, a gaming industry veteran and former CEO of Daybreak Game Company (formerly Sony Online Entertainment), is making his first foray into Web3 gaming with a new AAA shooter featuring Tezos layer-2 (L2) blockchain Etherlink.

The Smedley-led Distinct Possibility Studios (DPS) has raised $30.5 million in a funding round led by the gaming-focused venture capital firm Bitkraft and the European hedge fund management company Brevan Howard, according to a statement shared with Cointelegraph on Thursday.

The funds will be used to develop its new open-world massively multiplayer online first-person shooter (MMOFPS), Reaper Actual, which it says will integrate Etherlink to enable tradeable Web3 components like characters, bases, skins and more.

“The Tezos Foundation and the development team behind Etherlink share our vision about the game being the most important thing,” Smedley told Cointelegraph. “The developers have prioritized building a chain that reflects this; it’s right there in their tagline: Play, Own, Trade.”

Big Smedley’s games: EverQuest and Planetside 2

Smedleyis most famous in the gaming industry for co-creating EverQuest, a 3D fantasy-themed massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) released by Sony Online Entertainment in March 1999.

He also co-developed a free-to-play MMOFPS, PlanetSide 2, which features large-scale battles supporting up to 2,000 concurrent players across massive areas of continents.

The latest funding round supports the accelerated development of Reaper Actual, a new AAA shooter that will be available on Steam, the Epic Games Store and via reaperactual.com upon launch.

Smedley teased the new game in an X post in March, showing a photo next to Planetside 2 creative director Matt Higby and Fallout artist Tramell Ray Isaac.

John Smedley (left) next to Matt Higby and Tramell Isaac teasing a new DPS game in March 2025. Source: John SmedleyThe DPS team will be announcing its “Foundation” Alpha release in the coming weeks, which will include access to the game and onchain tradeable assets.

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