- Inverse

30 years after revolutionizing the game industry by inventing Magic: the Gathering and creating the Trading Card Games ($13B) industry, Richard Garfield is ready to revolutionize video games with Chaos Agents. 

• Richard co-founded Popularium in 2022 with Jon Bankard and Arka Ray, to build CHAOS AGENTS, a video game that he has been developing for 20+ years
• Chaos Agents is the 1st-ever Autobattler-Royale video game, combining Autobattlers with Battle Royales
• Autobattlers are ready for a “Fortnite”-type moment – to grow from 30M to 300M players
• Popularium taps this growth potential similar to early Valve ($25B+ cap) and Bethesda (MSFT acquisition for $7.5B)

Richard Garfield is about to change gaming, again.

Are you ready to Let Chaos Reign?

The Problem

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1. Multiplayer games become stale as the community learns how to play "optimally", limiting new player attraction and engagement.
2. Autobattler games (eg. Teamfight Tactics) are highly engaging but don't monetize well.
3. Multiplayer live-service games being killed off (eg. Sony's Concord) has gamers wary of "what happens to my stuff?"

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The Solution

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1. Every Player has their own Globally Unique Superhero Agents. This leads to an "unsolvable metagame" that remains forever fresh.

1. Combining Autobattlers with Battle Royales unlocks the monetization potential through high social engagement and accessibility.

2. Popularium's Cloud Engine and Chaos Vault technology ensure the game cannot "die" by letting players always have a way to play through Dedicated Servers.
    

Chaos Agents is a 24+ player PVP Autobattler Royale combining features from Fortnite, League of Legends, and Teamfight Tactics to revolutionize the strategy genre.

In Chaos Agents, the player is a Chaos Broker – who recruits superhero Agents to battle for their House.

The Player is an eye in the sky, guiding their Agent to victory by directing their strategy and watching the outcome unfold.

(Early Chaos Agents gameplay - not final visuals)

1. Each player becomes the global expert on their Agents - an "unsolvable metagame" that remains forever fresh

2. Unlocks the monetization potential of autobattlers through Unique Agent sales and secondary transactions (trades, rentals)

3. Cost of producing Unique Agents is close to $0–high margins from primary and secondary sales.

Richard Garfield is one of the most influential game designers ever, renowned for creating Magic: the Gathering and the $13B annual Trading Card Game genre, and many other hits over a 35 year career.

Jon Bankard was a creator of Hearthstone at Blizzard Entertainment, where he developed the core business strategy generating >$5B in revenue, along with roles in World of Warcraft, Diablo 3, and Overwatch.

Arka Ray is a computer scientist who helped develop Xbox Live and 100+ games for Xbox and PC, including Grand Theft Auto IV and Fallout 3. Arka’s 1st company was funded by Disney and exited in 2017, the second continues to build cutting-edge enterprise solutions for Fortune 500 companies.

Chaos Agents has a ready-made audience of 50M+ Richard Fans from Magic: the Gathering and his other titles, who will be the initial target for Chaos Agents

The audience will expand to target 1B+ players comprising Autobattler fans, MOBA fans, and the massive Battle Royale market, all of which are ripe with players who are likely to switch over to Chaos Agents as their "main game'.

MOBAs (200M+ players) and Battle Royale (1B+ players) titles are losing their players as they age and look for new experiences instead of clones: eg. League of Legends is 15 years old and Fortnite is 7 years old and shifting towards a metaverse strategy–Chaos Agents is ready to capture these players.

Autobattlers are engaging but struggle to monetize – Chaos Agents solves this problem by selling Globally Unique Agents with “Unique DNA” that determines their gameplay powers, appearance, and character history

• Players build their own “Avengers-like" team of globally unique Chaos Agents!

• Players recruit or buy several Chaos Agents as no two Agents look or play the same – and purchase cosmetics, monetizing over a long time.

• Secondary transactions: increase revenue upside significantly – similar to Magic: the Gathering – that no video game has seen before.
  
  

• Very high margin: cost of producing Unique Agents near $0 due to Richard’s Agent generation algorithm–each Agent retails $5+ with additional upside from secondary transactions.

Player Growth and Milestones

• Private Alpha launching on Steam in November 2024
• Beta/Early Access launching on PC in H1 2025
• Public Launch (PC and Console) in Q4 2025 and beyond
• Mobile Launch in Q2-Q3 2026
• Major revenue milestones corresponding with each Player Growth milestone

2024

• 1,000 players: Playtest from October 2023-24

• 5,000: Private Alpha Launch in November

• 20k+ players signed up for Private Alpha
  ~1k avg. signups/day since Alpha announcement

2025

• 120k: Early Access Launch

• 370k: Total Early Access players

2026+

• 870K: Players at PC Retail Launch

• 2.4M: Players at Console Launch

• 7.8M: Players at Mobile Launch

• 500K: Avg. added with each cross-IP partnership.

$2M seed raised so far from prominent VCs and games industry vets

The Seed financing helped build the core game and launched the Playtest and Private Alpha with high engagement metrics.

Seed investors include VCs such as a16z Scout Fund and Palm Drive, and game industry veterans who have a personal connection with Magic and want to support Richard’s new vision.

Now, Republic investors can own equity in Popularium at Seed round terms ($20M valuation cap).

Varied and diverse player demographics: Ages 16 (Gen Z and Gen Alpha) to 50+ (older millennials and Gen X)

• Accessible and welcoming to casual and female players

• Low pressure to win leads to a friendly and helpful community

• Highly accessible - no reflexes needed

Aug 2024: Start of Alpha signups

Nov-Dec 2024: Private Alpha rollout to 5k+ players

Q1 2025: Private Alpha expands to 10k+ players

Q2 2025: Early Access (Beta) launch to 120K+ players   

Q4 2025: Seasonal Content Release for Holidays - grow to 300k+ players

Q2 2026: Target retail launch to 2M+ players

Chaos Agents is an accessible Strategy game filled with exciting action with the depth to satisfy the hardcore players

1. The first and only autobattler-royale in the market - massive growth potential through the fusion of two potent genres

2. Veteran game development team led by Richard Garfield and co-founders who have launched games generating a combined $25B over 25 years

3. Sweet spot between deep strategy gamers (Richard's core audience) and those craving excitement (Battle Royale and shooter fans)

4. Ready to capture an audience that has aged out of "reflex-based" games such as MOBAs (League, Dota) and shooters (Overwatch, Deadlock)

1. Popularium's founders created games generating $25B and now building the next-great-game-company.

2. Chaos Agents, the 1st Autobattler Royale: can grow the Autobattler market 10x, similar to what Fortnite did for Battle Royales.

3. Develop a thriving secondary market for unique Agents: increasing revenue upside and longevity, similar to Magic.

4. Can be played by all gamers, on any device, without needing strong reflexes and muscle memory. 

5. Popularium's Cloud Engine reduces Agent creation and transaction costs to near $0, and makes Chaos Agents a "forever multiplayer game" that "can't be killed."

6. Original IP with global appeal; opportunities for cross-IP promotions (eg. famous comics heroes) and high revenue upside.

Republic investors will be able to closely monitor and follow the development and release of Chaos Agents milestones November 2024 - June 2026.

Republic Investors get…

1. Access to invest in Popularium at Seed round terms.

2. Full access to Chaos Agents: Alpha (priority), Early Access (Beta), Full Game, Post-launch content.

3. Exclusive in-game Chaos Agents and cosmetics.

4. Recognition on the website and in the game.

5. 1:1 Game design sessions with Richard Garfield.

1. Limited-edition Chaos Agents physical artwork with Richard’s signature and certificates of authenticity: see details here.

Chaos Agents Hero Artwork (limited to 50)

Chaos Worlds Artwork (limited to 50)

Popularium Company Brand Artwork (limited to 50)