With a $600 million commitment, A16z launches its first gaming fund.

Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has launched its first gaming fund, with plans to invest $600 million in-game studios, gaming-related consumer apps, and infrastructure. “Today, we are thrilled to announce the establishment of GAMES FUND ONE, a16z’s first fund dedicated to improving the future of the games industry.” “We believe the industry has entered a new age, and there is no better moment than now to launch a fund focused on helping the next generation of game designers,” a16z team members Andrew Chen, Jonathan Lai, and James Gwertzman stated in a blog post.

The fund, Games Business ONE, is “based on the conviction that games will play a vital role in determining how people interact, play, and work over the next century,” according to the company. It also stated that it believes gaming infrastructure and technologies would be crucial building elements of the Metaverse, in the long run, an opportunity that it believes might be far larger than the present $300 million game business. David Baszucki, co-founder of Roblox; Jason Citron, co-founder of Discord; Marc Merrill, co-founder of Riot Games; Mike Morhaime, co-founder of Blizzard; Aleks Larsen and Jeffrey Zirlin, co-founders of Sky Mavis; Kevin Lin, co-founder of Twitch; Mark Pincus, founder of Zynga; and Riccardo Zacconi, founder of King are among notable gaming industry investors in. A16z is not a crypto-native company, but it has grown to be one of the most prominent names in the industry. The business set aside $2.2 billion for its third crypto fund last summer, making it the largest crypto fund in history until Paradigm revealed its $2.5 billion vehicles in November.

Tags: $600 million, A16z, gaming fund