gaming
Pixaera raises $5.7 million to empower people through play with its metaverse for professional learning and collaboration
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Pixaera’s app is built to the highest gaming standards with a focus on the global needs of enterprise businesses
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A gaming studio, creating content to the standards of a AAA studio, Pixaera is helping enterprises move from traditional e-learning to highly-engaging 3D game-based learning
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Businesses can access a library of learning experiences, allowing them to use Pixaera’s platform as a one-stop shop to build, deploy and measure immersive experiences at a global scale
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The Seed funding round was led by LocalGlobe, and will be used to expand Pixaera’s team and further develop its platform to address even more learning needs worldwide
Pixaera – the immersive game-based learning platform dubbed ‘Roblox for Enterprise’ – has raised $5.7million in early-stage funding to bring the standard and engagement of high quality games from the world’s best studios to the professional world.
This funding consists of two rounds – $1.2 million of pre-seeding and $4.5 million led by early-stage EMEA investor, LocalGlobe. The founders of FACEIT, the leading competitive gaming platform for online multiplayer games, also participated; as did ERM, a leader in the renewable energy services sector, and York IE.
Built to bring the power, fun and emotion of online games like Roblox and Minecraft to the professional world, Pixaera is helping some of the world’s largest businesses upskill their workforce more effectively and efficiently. By leveraging the growing evidence that shows immersive training and VR are more effective than traditional methods, Pixaera’s highly-engaging immersive experiences bring a new paradigm to professional development in the workplace.
Closing the learning gap
Pixaera was founded in 2020 by avid gamer and industry veteran Mousa Yassin. Through his time playing the likes of Final Fantasy, World of Warcraft and more, he saw how gaming teaches players vital skills – from problem-solving, to creative thinking, teamwork, and goal-setting- whilst also being incredibly engaging.
“I started to wonder why the gaming industry, being so sophisticated and technologically mature, had not considered building for the corporate and professional world. There was such a gap between how players learn and collaborate organically and fluently in successful games, with the more old-school, unengaging learning experiences we have all been through as employees – even in roles where the stakes are high,” says CEO Mousa. “Gamers willingly spend hundreds of hours developing their skills while in contrast, companies pay vast sums for online content that has to be forced onto their workforce and fails to truly deliver value.”
Instead of making employees watch long training videos, or attend real-word, often expensive training exercises, Pixaera offers a growing catalogue of experiential VR and PC-based games. Each module is built using Pixaera’s development tools to address global training needs in safety, leadership, mental health and technical topics in a highly scalable way.
Pixaera has begun by addressing large industry standards that apply to millions of employees yearly. The product is being used by companies including Shell, GE, BP and more. To date, thousands of employees have used Pixaera’s immersive learning games to hone their skills, and 98% of these participants said they prefer Pixaera to any other training in their field.
However, the ambition of founder Mousa Yassin is to provide intuitive and simple tools for all experts, in any field, to build and deploy high-quality immersive 3D experiences as familiar and effective as the worlds of Minecraft and Roblox to a large ecosystem of professionals .
“There is no reason why VR/MR and gaming cannot be the leading tools for professional learning and collaboration across any industry, world-wide; as the technology develops, the applications are endless,” continues Mousa.
Bringing learning into the 21st century
Pixaera is a gaming platform for the professional world. The platform provides a single place to integrate, build, deploy, report and manage a growing list of next-level training simulations from safety to leadership, mental health and more. Once immersed in Pixaera games, via VR or PC, employees learn and hone their skills, and put theoretical training into practice in highly realistic environments. They can rehearse and repeat procedures to perfection.
By mirroring situations they find in their day-to-day job in a highly realistic way, trainees playing Pixaera’s games are also able to trigger real-world emotions. For example, the stressful feeling of being peer-pressured to cut corners, or the anxiety caused by seeing someone in danger because of your actions. It’s the sense of presence and the emotional connection that makes the games so impactful, while the immersive nature lends itself to the way humans interpret and retain information.
Pixaera’s learning platform can be integrated within each client’s learning management system, making it simple for learners to join training sessions and schedule development time. Clients can also cascade training through to a global workforce through a single app experience.
Pixaera’s fundraise comes as there is mounting evidence that learners absorb information and skills more effectively from immersive environments. Research from PWC found learners in immersive environments (such as VR) are 275% more confident in applying their skills. While a separate study by The University of Warwick found that not only does VR learning help people perform better in tests, but it has a positive impact on mood.
A collaborative platform for professionals
Pixaera’s ultimate aim is to to build an ecosystem of high-quality learning games created with the best global experts. Eventually, companies, topic experts and third party developers will be able to use Pixaera’s platform to develop their own, highly unique experiences. In the same way Roblox and Minecraft empower users to generate and share their own games, which in turn enhances the experiences of all users on these platforms, Pixaera is building a collaborative platform for professionals.
The funding will be used to expand Pixaera’s leading team of gaming and software developers, and to further advance the product.
Mousa Yassin, founder and CEO said: “We’re going through a transition. Video content is losing market share to interactive 3D worlds . A younger generation has grown up online, as familiar with gaming as with a classroom setting and they know which they prefer. By replicating the fun and absorbing nature of gaming, we can transform how professionals learn and connect with one another across all sectors and industries, with huge implications for productivity and business success.”
Ziv Reichert, partner at LocalGlobe said: “Our belief is that learning through ‘play’ is vastly more effective than learning through traditional educational formats. Playing is doing, playing is experiencing. The immersiveness of the medium creates real-lasting memories, which, in an educational context, translates directly to knowledge retention, retention that far outweighs that of video or text based learning. It is also fair to say that learning through gaming is significantly more enjoyable and that is not to be underestimated. There is now a whole generation of gamers entering the workforce who have grown up immersed in ‘play’ and will certainly opt to learn that way.”
Flexion, the games marketing company, and Kabam, one of the world’s leading game developers, announced a new partnership to bring Marvel Contest of Champions to alternative app stores. Flexion will distribute the game on the Amazon Appstore, Aptoide, ONE store, Samsung Galaxy Store, and Digital Turbine Hubs in 2024.
“We are excited to partner with Flexion to bring Marvel Contest of Champions to even more players. Flexion’s expertise, experience and technology make them the ideal partner for us. This collaboration will help us reach new audiences by making Marvel Contest of Champions available on even more app stores. This is especially exciting ahead of the game’s upcoming 10-year anniversary,” SeungWon Lee, CEO of Kabam, said.
“We are delighted to partner with Kabam, one of the world’s leading game developers, to bring their hit game to more players around the globe. This partnership is a win for Kabam and the app stores, which we will connect to drive audience engagement,” Jens Lauritzson, CEO of Flexion, said.
Marvel Contest of Champions is an epic fighting RPG with over 260 iconic Marvel Super Heroes and Super Villains in the ultimate cosmic showdown. Players can collect and build a competitive team of Champions, compete against the world’s top Summoners, battle through an epic and deep Marvel story, and team up with powerful Summoners in alliances to become the Ultimate Marvel Champion.
“We’re delighted to add such a well-known and successful game like Marvel Contest of Champions to our portfolio. I am very positive about the growth potential of these alternative stores in 2024. There is no better time to expand to more audiences,” Jens added.
Marvel Contest of Champions will be available on the Amazon Appstore, Samsung Galaxy Store, Aptoide, and ONEstore Korea starting on April 29, 2024, with Samsung Gaming Hub, OneStore Global, and DT Games Hub following in the near future.
The post Flexion and Kabam Team Up to Bring Marvel Contest of Champions to the Alternative App Stores appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
gaming
The German Games Industry Association congratulates all winners of the German Computer Game Awards 2024
• “EVERSPACE 2” by ROCKFISH Games is ‘Best German Game’ 2024
• Pixel Maniacs from Nuremberg wins in the ‘Studio of the Year’ category
• ‘Best International Game’ is Baldur’s Gate 3
• ‘Player of the Year’ is Maurice Weber
High-quality games, great entertainment and many well-known personalities from the games industry and the cultural, societal and political spheres – the German Computer Game Awards 2024 (DCP), presented this evening in Munich, featured all that and more. Numerous guests celebrated the best games from Germany and the creative minds behind them in person at Eisbach Studios in Munich. The award show, which was hosted by Katrin Bauerfeind and Uke Bosse, was additionally followed by hundreds of thousands of viewers via live stream. A total of 800,000 euros was awarded in cash prizes. “EVERSPACE 2” by ROCKFISH Games was chosen ‘Best German Game’. The ‘Studio of the Year’ award went to Pixel Maniacs from Nuremberg, which has made a name for itself with successful games like the party racing game “Can’t Drive This”, its multifaceted involvement in the game industry and its promotion of young talent, as well as with its innovations in the area of marketing. The ‘Special Jury Prize’ was awarded to the project “Gaming ohne Grenzen” (Gaming without Borders), an initiative that enables young people with disabilities to participate actively in game culture – for example, by assessing in inclusive game testing groups the accessibility of various games as well as the ability of certain technologies to help overcome barriers in video games. In voting by the community and the jury, Maurice Weber was selected ‘Player of the Year’. The games editor and Twitch streamer regularly analyses current developments in the games industry and takes a critical look at them, while at the same time formulating a clear stance for more diversity and against extremism in games and society.
The German Computer Game Awards, which honour the year’s best German-produced games, are hosted by the German Federal Government, represented by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, and game – The German Games Industry Association.
‘Congratulations to all winners of the German Computer Game Awards 2024!’ says Felix Falk, Managing Director of game. ‘Even in these very challenging times for many German firms in the industry, German games companies have created high-quality and successful games that have deservedly been honoured on the big stage of the DCP. Around half of these outstanding games were developed with the support of federal game funding. This once again demonstrates the potential that we can leverage when the underlying policy framework for game development in Germany provides for truly predictable and internationally competitive conditions – conditions that allow games from Germany to shine even more brightly all over the world and achieve even greater success on the national as well as international stage. We must make this our goal!’
Overview of all winners:
Best International Game (not endowed)
Baldur’s Gate 3 (Larian Studios)
Best German Game (endowed with 100,000 euros)
EVERSPACE 2 (ROCKFISH Games)
The other nominees will each receive 30,000:
Atlas Fallen (Deck 13 Interactive/Focus Entertainment)
Fall of Porcupine (Critical Rabbit/Assemble Entertainment)
Best Family Game (endowed with 40,000 euros)
Spells & Secrets (Alchemist Interactive/rokaplay)
Newcomer Award – Best Debut (endowed with 60,000 euros)
Ad Infinitum (Hekate/NACON)
The other nominees will receive 25,000 euros each:
Fall of Porcupine (Critical Rabbit/Assemble Entertainment)
Lose CTRL (Play From Your Heart)
Newcomer Award – Best Prototype (endowed with 50,000 euros)
Misgiven (Symmetry Break Studio)
The other nominees will receive 25,000 euros each:
Bloodletter (Katharina “Mikey” Müller, David Cafisso, Marvin Braun, Alica Schneider/Hochschule für Technik und Wirtschaft Berlin)
EcoGnomix (Lars Hinnerk Grevsmühl, Lars Eble, Bahy Nguyen, Marcel Zurawka, Alec Shae)
Footgun: Underground (Eduard Dobermann, Theo Lohmüller, Georg Nimke, Robert Pistea, Lukas Salewsky)
REPLICORE (Sarah Inés Roeder, Rody Nawezi, Leonhard Gläser, Maximilian Götz/ HAW Hamburg)
Best Innovation and Technology (endowed with 40,000 euros)
Marble Maze (Fox-Assembly)
Best Serious Game (endowed with 40,000 euros)
Friedrich Ebert – Der Weg zur Demokratie (Playing History/Stiftung Reichspräsident-Friedrich-Ebert-Gedenkstätte)
Best Audio Design (endowed with 40,000 euros)
Ad Infinitum (Hekate/NACON)
Best Game Design (endowed with 40,000 euros)
Lose CTRL (Play From Your Heart)
Best Graphic Design (endowed with 40,000 euros)
The Bear – A Story from the World of Gra (Mucks! Games)
Best Mobile Game (endowed with 40,000 euros)
Cat Rescue Story (Tivola Games)
Best Story (endowed with 40,000 euros)
Ad Infinitum (Hekate/NACON)
Studio of the Year (endowed with 50,000 euros)
Pixel Maniacs
Player of the Year (not endowed)
Maurice Weber
Special Jury Award (endowed with 10,000 euros)
Gaming ohne Grenzen
The post The German Games Industry Association congratulates all winners of the German Computer Game Awards 2024 appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
gaming
World’s Best Teams to Compete in UK’s First Professional Women’s VALORANT Tournament in 2024, Red Bull Instalock
The UK’s first professional women’s esports tournament of 2024, Red Bull Instalock, is set to take over the Bull Gaming Sphere in Shoreditch, London for two days of thrilling VALORANT action from April 20 to 21. Red Bull Instalock will invite four of the world’s best women’s VALORANT teams to battle it out to become inaugural champions.
Promising a thrilling experience for viewers worldwide, the invited teams list includes G2 Gozen, GIANTX, Karmine Corp and Shopify Rebellion. Boasting four of the best women’s VALORANT teams globally, Red Bull Instalock will be a must-watch for VALORANT fans.
The LAN tournament will be broadcast from London’s premier gaming and esports venue, the Red Bull Gaming Sphere in Shoreditch, which will be transformed to replicate the in-game atmosphere of the legendary VALORANT map “Icebox”.
A unique format will be deployed to shake up traditional team compositions. Each team will be required to use three duelists, the game’s dedicated offensive class, which will encourage aggressive plays while rewarding tactical expertise and clutch skills to promise viewers worldwide an exhilarating viewing experience.
The Semi-Finals on Saturday 20th will set the stage for a pulse-racing Final day on Sunday 21st. Red Bull Instalock will also host a one-of-a-kind exhibition match, featuring a star-studded cast of fan-favourite VALORANT creators.
Renowned British esports host, Yinsu Collins, will be headlining the broadcast, with commentary provided by Kieran “Kairo” Tulloch, Billie “BillieIDK” Purdie, Matt “Twiggy” Twigg, and Harry “Hazza” Chapman. British FNATIC content creator and partnered streamer Megan ‘Megsoundslikeegg’ Garner will host the creator showmatch on Sunday 21st.
Looking ahead to the tournament, Red Bull Player and member of G2 Gozen Michaela “mimi” Lintrup said: “It’s fantastic to see another event for women’s VALORANT come into play and Red Bull Instalock is another amazing step into making a really lively competitive scene. It’s also going to be great for fans, with the format twist bringing a really exciting and new edge to every matchup.”
Red Bull Instalock will be broadcast live on Red Bull’s Twitch and YouTube channels, featuring top talent from the UK and around the world.
AGON by AOC, a global leader in gaming monitors, returns to join the Red Bull Gaming universe once again as the official Monitor Partner for Red Bull Instalock. Bringing the event to life and providing cutting-edge hardware for the esports tournament, AGON by AOC is equipping the event with the AGON PRO AG254FG monitors, featuring a 360 Hz refresh rate and 1ms response time for the best in-game experience.
The post World’s Best Teams to Compete in UK’s First Professional Women’s VALORANT Tournament in 2024, Red Bull Instalock appeared first on European Gaming Industry News.
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