The new funds will be used to advance Verse8's core AI systems, expand creator onboarding and incentive programs, and enhance its publishing and distribution infrastructure.
This funding round comes at a critical inflection point for interactive media development. Generative AI is significantly reducing the cost and complexity of content creation; however, the creation of interactive experiences remains constrained by lengthy development cycles, large teams, and centralized studios. While billions of people worldwide create videos, music, and images, only a tiny fraction possess the skills and tools to make games. Verse8 was built to meet this inflection point, aiming to enable anyone to create real-time, multiplayer games.
Verse8 allows creators to use natural language prompts to generate fully playable multiplayer games within minutes, with no need for coding, installing engines, or assembling large production teams. A simple idea can become a real-time interactive experience, instantly deployed and accessible to players globally.
Since its launch in July 2024, the platform has attracted over 3.5 million monthly active users for game creation and play, with more than 5,000 active creators who have generated 25,000 games.
Verse8 was co-founded by JC Kim and Kevin Lee, seasoned entrepreneurs with deep experience in blockchain gaming, platform building, and strategic investment. Their backgrounds include pioneering blockchain business at LINE, successfully founding and exiting startups, and deploying over $200 million in game investments, which has positioned Verse8 to focus on speed, accessibility, and creative iteration from the outset.
Jake Song, renowned creator of Korea's iconic "Lineage" series and co-founder of Nexon, will serve as a core advisor, providing strategic guidance for Verse8's AI-driven gaming platform.
Reimagining the Creation of Interactive Media
Today's game development is capital- and labor-intensive. Production often requires lengthy cycles, multidisciplinary teams, and budgets reaching tens of millions of dollars, concentrating creative and economic power in the hands of a few studios. Verse8 dramatically lowers these barriers by enabling creators to turn text prompts into real-time, shared game worlds within minutes, facilitating large-scale experimentation and creativity.
"Globally, only about 3 million creators are making interactive content, with the top 20 studios controlling 70% of the output," said Kevin Lee, CEO of Verse8. "Verse8 is changing this landscape. By compressing the tools of a full game studio into a single prompt, we empower all creators to engage in interactive creation. This funding allows us to deepen our technology and expand an ecosystem where creativity builds cumulatively rather than starting from scratch."
S.Y. Lee, Co-founder and CEO of Story, stated: "AI is reducing the cost of creation for all media formats, but games have been the final frontier. Verse8 is tackling the hardest part of this problem—compressing months of development and millions of dollars in funding into minutes of natural language prompts, and doing so from day one in a way that coordinates creators, IP holders, and distribution channels. We believe this marks the beginning of a new creative stack for interactive media, with Verse8 at its center."
Verse8 automates art, code, design, and quality assurance while supporting continuous iteration and deployment. Through integration with Story, it provides on-chain ownership, licensing, and distribution, enabling creators to retain attribution, earn revenue, and safely remix existing IP.
Verse8 believes this approach lays the foundation for a new category of creator-led, AI-native interactive media, with games representing the first scalable application in a broader shift in how digital content is created, owned, and distributed.
About Verse8
Verse8 is an AI-native creation and publishing platform that allows anyone to turn ideas into interactive games and stories. By combining generative AI, integrated game engines, and on-chain ownership, Verse8 lowers the barrier to interactive creation and supports a new generation of creator-led digital worlds. The platform was developed by Planetarium Labs in collaboration with Jake Song, leveraging deep gaming expertise and strategic partnerships to deliver high-fidelity interactive experiences at scale.
