The platform has potential, though it will need wider adoption before it becomes viable.
Israeli start-up Edge, which has developed an interactive gaming content platform, has closed a $30 million funding Series A round led by Corner Ventures.
This successful raise follows a $10M seed round in 2021. Playtika, one of Israel’s leading gaming companies, led that round and contributed to the latest.
Edge’s platform allows players to record gameplay moments and turn them into standalone game units called “Playables.” When a Playable is shared on the Edge platform, viewers can click a “start playable” button to jump right to the recorded moment and play it on their own gaming system. They can then replay that segment themselves to create their own outcome as many times as they wish.
“Edgers (Edge users) can enter, play and control the content directly to create their own experiences.”
Asaf Gazit, co-founder and CEO at Edge
The catch is that Edge’s Playables will only be compatible with games that have integrated Edge SDK, the company’s lightweight, game engine-agnostic developer’s kit. The company claims that integration of its SDK will cause no impact on performance, while unlocking “the power of large-scale, high-quality user-generated content.”
This means that the company will have to pitch its platform to individual developers in order to build a comprehensive portfolio of games compatible with the Playable system (or “Playable-able games,” if you will).
This year, Edge plans to launch with three to five games, some of which are “very familiar games” with millions of monthly active users, and some medium to small game studios, said the company.
According to an Edge representative, the platform will not require that users own the games that they play Playables of, meaning that highlight moments of games could be played by hundreds or thousands of gamers, free of charge.
The social aspect
Edge has emphasized the social aspect of its platform, as it allows creators to engage with their audiences in a more in-depth manner.
According to Asaf Gazit, co-founder and CEO at Edge, the ability to participate in each other’s most exciting gameplay moments “creates an important new opportunity to form a genuine connection with other gamers. Rather than just watching from the sidelines as a spectator, Edgers (Edge users) can enter, play and control the content directly to create their own experiences.”
Edge described its platform’s initial performance as “strong,” with an average daily usage time of over an hour, and multiple individual play times for Playable content pieces. The company currently has thousands of users and is “carefully scaling up to a few millions of users in this current round,” according to a representative.
“Edge is expanding the gaming industry by giving gamers the power to create playable content in a way that is as fast and as easy as uploading a video to social media,” said Marvin Tien, co-founder and general partner at Corner Ventures. “We are excited to be joining Edge at this important stage in its life cycle and look forward to helping it realize its mission of transforming videos we used to watch into game highlights we can play.”