Overworld and Rough House Games Launch REACH, a New Type of Game Publisher With a Proprietary Marketing & Distribution Platform Powered by Players

REACH Brings Developers Closer to Gamers, Democratizes Publishing Power in the Hands of Players

LOS ANGELES–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Rough House Games, led by MySpace and Jam City founder Chris DeWolfe and backed by a16z, and Overworld, an Xterio studio backed by Hashed, have launched REACH Labs, a new game publisher aiming to democratize publishing, powered by a proprietary marketing and distribution platform that rewards players for playing and sharing the games they love.

The REACH platform offers game developers and studios an innovative distribution solution to address significant game industry headwinds like fractured audience attention, increasingly crowded marketplaces, and soaring marketing and user acquisition costs. With REACH, fans and creators can directly impact the growth of a game by onboarding their friends and communities while earning rewards for promoting and recruiting new players.

REACH Labs is partnering with the Keystone Protocol, a decentralized social network technology enabling true social virality, to provide a secure economic infrastructure to democratize distribution by empowering and rewarding players, creators, and communities to gather around games they love.

“Game developers are facing considerable challenges capturing and retaining a consistent player base,” said Chris DeWolfe. “REACH is built on new technology to make games more discoverable and more social rather than relying on centralized platforms that overlook content creators. Our solutions allow players to bring a network of friends to games while getting rewarded for it. We are kickstarting this new phase of the industry with our novel distribution solution, and making our technology available to partners to build their player base. Together with Overworld, we are redefining what it means to grow a game’s community, and enabling anyone to become a stakeholder.”

REACH takes a player-first approach to game publishing, marketing, and monetization, tapping into community engagement to fuel its growth. The platform provides REACH participants with tools to manage accounts, promote titles and drive community growth, enhancing engagement by fostering social interactions that extend beyond gameplay to involve the player’s entire social network.

By bringing more high-quality games onto the Keystone protocol, REACH believes the network effect will increase exponentially, making REACH the new marketing and distribution standard for a new era of games.

“Xterio is thrilled to announce the formation of REACH, a partnership between our first-party studio Overworld, Rough House Games and Keystone Foundation,” said Michael Tong, CEO and co-founder, Xterio. “REACH is set to redefine how gamers engage with and benefit from the games they love. By offering real incentives, we’re empowering communities to turn their passion into meaningful rewards. This joint venture will expand Overworld’s capabilities and strengthen the entire Xterio ecosystem. Together, we’re eager to democratize distribution, welcome a diverse network of third-party partners to our ecosystem, and enable them to grow their games with the backing of their fan communities.”

REACH will kick off by developing and operating a diverse portfolio of high-quality cross-platform games, including Rough House Games’ Champions Ascension, a critically acclaimed title, alongside Overworld’s highly anticipated titles, codenamed Conquest, an action RPG for PC and consoles, and Kingdoms, a free-to-play strategy mobile game, with several additional projects in the works.

REACH plans to aggressively expand the number of games using the Keystone protocol through acquisitions and partnerships with other game studios and platforms. The first of these partnerships will be the Xterio ecosystem with its growing portfolio of game titles.

To learn more follow @reachlabs_net and reachlabs.net.

About Overworld

Overworld is a premier game development studio dedicated to crafting immersive gaming worlds, with two titles currently in development. As part of the Xterio ecosystem, Overworld leverages cutting-edge technology and expertise to push the boundaries of interactive entertainment.

About Rough House Games

Led by Chris DeWolfe, renowned founder of MySpace and Jam City. Backed by a16z, Coinbase, Crush Ventures and UTA, Rough House Games is a game development studio focused on the intersection of Web2 and Web3. Their flagship title, Champions Ascension, has been one of the earliest successes in the Web3 gaming space and is now gearing up for a global launch.

About Keystone Foundation

The Keystone Foundation is a nonprofit organization that oversees the Keystone Protocol, an on-chain technology designed to revolutionize user acquisition for blockchain games. The Foundation is committed to expanding its ecosystem of games, utilizing its network to fuel growth for both developers and players. Follow @Keystone_io and keystonefoundation.io to learn more.

Contacts

Jen Chong

fortyseven communications for Overworld

xterio@fortyseven.com