GOALS, a Swedish gaming startup, has raised $15M to build a multiplayer soccer game where players can own and trade soccer players as NFTs.
The company has made sure that everything about the upcoming soccer is kept secret. They plan is to take on the EA AAA title, FIFA in their upcoming gaming project. However, the company wants the community to know that they DO NOT intend on licensing real-life soccer players as NFTs.
CEO GOALS, Andres Thorstensson’s Message
When asked about how they intend to take on FIFA and their high competitions, Andreas said the following:
“You have a huge incumbent in a monopoly position. They are not innovating in terms of gameplay. They’re focusing on revenues. That’s where a startup has the chance to actually beat them. But we want to do things a little bit differently”
- Andreas Thorstensson CEO, Co-Founder GOALS
The CEO also revealed a little information about their next two-three year plan. Andreas said that the company will first make a simple version of the game to test the game from an inside perspective.
According to the CEO, the first, pre-alpha version of the game will be ready to test this summer. However, the game will be ready to launch in the next two or three years.
Banana Capital and Moonfire Ventures were a crucial part of the round while Northzone and Cherry Ventures were the leaders. Apart from these, Gerard Pique, a renowned FC Barcelona defender, and most importantly, COO Axie Infinity ($AXS) Aleksander Larson were also there at the funding event. Sorare Co-Founder Nicolas Julia was also part of the event.
How is GOALS different from FIFA?
According to CEO GAOLS, the game will take a different approach from FIFA to beat them. They plan on NOT licensing any real players. In addition to that, they won’t be focusing on making the game as realistic as FIFA.
Andreas says, “GOALS has a more sort of arcade kind of approach” and will sacrifice the “simulation” side of FIFA.”
In the future, both games will have in-game assets that the players can buy, own, and trade. But in GOALS, the approach towards the in-game assets will be a little different.
The assets you own in GOALS will not only be tradable in the game, but you can cash out those assets for Real Money. (Something FIFA doesn’t allow you to do)