WowCube raises $1.5M from Xsolla founder for its Rubik’s Cube-like game device

Cubios, the creator of the WowCube handheld gaming cube, has raised $1.5 million from the founder of Xsolla, Aleksandr Agapitov. The funding is aspect of a total of $4.5 million raised in the company’s most up-to-date round.

The WowCube is like a Rubik’s Cube with displays on it. It’s a uncomplicated device, and it is distinctive simply because it was conceived 5 years ago by a then-13-year-old boy and then constructed into a firm by his father. The young teen asked his father if a Rubik’s Cube could be made with video game displays. And so his father, Ilya Osipov, began Cubios to make it take place.

The San Rafael, California-based firm wanted to break away from the usual mold of conventional game consoles, handhelds, and smartphones. And it has produced a gaming device that you can twist, shake, and turn in one’s hands.

Origins

Savva Osipov, now 17, and his family (which includes his father Ilya) are immigrants from Russia. Savva worked on gadgets like the WowCube, participated in Bay Area hackathons, and ran his personal do-it-your self (DIY) tech YouTube channel. That drew a lot of consideration to the firm, which his father helped take from notion stage to reality.

“It’s definitely a lot more complicated than the initial idea and even the first prototype,” stated Savva Osipov in an interview with GamesBeat. “I thought it was possible and it’s proven. It was a surprisingly simple idea, like a Rubik’s Cube where you could play games on it. That was the idea. Who would have expected it would turn out so good.”

Ilya Osipov stated in an interview with GamesBeat that he believed about it for a couple of days and then he known as a patent lawyer to do investigation on such inventions. They couldn’t come across something else, and proceeded with the prototyping about the finish of 2016. They began the firm in April 2017. In 2018, Ilya Osipov showed prototypes at events and saw tremendous interest in the solution. One investor place cash into the firm.

“It is not technologically difficult to do, but our challenge was building it all from scratch, layer by layer,” he stated. “It is a very unusual device with 24 screens and eight microprocessors.”

With that complexity, it is a challenge to make the device expense productive for the youth marketplace. One of the realities was that the group could make a cube with 2-by-2 squares on every single side, rather than 3-by-3 like in a Rubik’s Cube.

“With 3-by-3, it would be way more expensive,” Ilya Osipov stated.

Gleaming the cube

The WowCube entertainment method is in the shape of a cube made of eight connected modules. Twenty-4 higher-resolution screens cover the cube, converting the six side’s into a gameplay field. You manage the cube on every single side by twisting, tilting, tapping and shaking — substantially like with a Rubik’s Cube.

It delivers a distinctive user encounter of interacting with the digital world as if it is a genuine object. Cubios is working on more than 30 unique games: arcade games, puzzles, logic and technique games, gamified educational apps, and several more for players of all ages.

In September, the firm will launch a preorder campaign and open the software program development kit (SDK) to third-party developers. WowCube has six authorized patents and 3 pending applications. The patented magnetic connectors allow a continuous flow of facts involving the autonomous modules, guaranteeing a seamless gaming encounter. A constructed-in gyroscope (it is a beta version) supports a realistic response to gamers’ motions.

Getting notice

The WowCube has won accolades such as the Last Gadget Standing, Edison Award, CES Innovation Award, and the Muse Design Award. The firm stated it has interest from distributors in 18 nations with preliminary orders for 155,000 devices, with the highest demand coming from Japan.

WowCube will come with numerous games, such as Pipes, Scrabble, Space, Puzzle, and Maze. You can load more games (up to 24) by way of the WowCube Store mobile app and by means of Bluetooth connectivity. Zeptolab, which had one of mobile gaming’s early large hits with Cut The Rope, is one of the firms creating a game for it.

Ilya Osipov stated Xsolla supplies clever cash and offers access to an ecosystem of developers by way of its Game Investment Platform. The investment round closes September 30.

Xsolla has faced controversy in current weeks immediately after Agapitov’s Xsolla laid off 70 workers as the firm was falling brief of its 40% development objectives. That was hard for workers in aspect simply because of the cold messaging from Agapitov in a letter to the workers. Part of the controversy was that Xsolla utilised AI to figure out if men and women had been productive sufficient to stay employed. The firm later stated it was attempting to be transparent and make sure it held folks accountable in its processes.

Ilya Osipov stated his personal firm now has more than 30 personnel across several unique time zones and regions. His son has stayed involved in the project, normally studying for college at the company’s workplace.

“I’m not a technical guy, but I believe my son will be,” Ilya Osipov stated. “He really likes to communicate with people. It’s been great for him to participate in something that was built from scratch and can be sold in stores. It’s a great experience.”

Agapitov’s Hand of Midas investment firm, a sister firm to Xsolla, led the investment. Besides Hand of Midas, Other participants involve Dobro Capital, Starta Capital, InvestFest Network VC, Quonota, and person angel investors that place an added $3 million into the existing round.

Originally appeared on: TheSpuzz