Mobile gaming and sports media emerging platform Nazara Technologies, supported by veteran investor Rakesh Jhunjhunwala, plans a foray into the Web3 space using its freemium gaming business.

Web3 is the subsequent version of the internet, which will be decentralized and run on the blockchain.

On May 16, Nazara Technologies chief executive Manish Agarwal said the company was working on creating a cricket offering in Web3 “leveraging its strengths” from its subsidiary Next Wave Multimedia. The CEO, Manish Agarwal, said that the massive community cult-following that this IP has with the proven game engine model into Web3 can be highly prominent.

Given that some of the new crypto native developers do not have a proven game engine or proven communities, it puts us in a pole position to capture the industry.

Next Wave Multimedia’s flagship title is World Cricket Championship (WCC), which claims to be the biggest mobile-based cricket simulation game. It already has two sequels so far – WCC2 and WCC3.

Among others eyeing the Web3 gaming space include Dream11 parent Dream Sports, which led $120 million funding into Cricket NFT platform Ratio through its corporate venture and M&A arm of Dream Sports.

nCore Games recently raised $10 million in funding to extend its properties into metaverse and NFTs as well as takeoff new games in the Web3 and play-to-earn space.

Lastly, in February, WazirX cofounder Siddharth Menon teamed up with Pune-based game development firm SuperGaming to launch Tegro, a Web3 game ecosystem marketplace.