In 1995, just 2% of couples met online. Today, that number has surged to over 50%, making online dating the top way couples connect.

Anime is just getting started - today, new technologies and business models are accelerating a once niche industry to even greater heights.

Discord Activities represents a significant opportunity for developers to create the next generation of web-based games.

Generative AI is enabling a foundational shift in creative storytelling, empowering a new class of human creators to tell stories not feasible before.

A16Z GAMES SPEEDRUN is coming back to SF! SR004 will run for 12 weeks starting January 6th, 2025, and culminate in a Demo Day during GDC week. Applications will be open from August 26th to September 30th, 2024.

Gaming is not just entertainment—it's a revolution reshaping our culture, technology, and economy.

We’re excited to share that we’re investing in k-ID - the best-in-class compliance engine for online safety and privacy management.

The stakes are high. The opportunities are profound. From the creation of new medicines to bolstering national defense, this is our vision for the AI-enabled future.

We're thrilled to lead the $5M seed round for Yellow, a company focused on revolutionizing 3D character creation through generative AI.

We’re excited to announce A16Z GAMES' investment in Kaedim, a new type of co-development platform providing AI-powered art outsourcing.

A16Z GAMES SPEEDRUN is back! Given the quality and volume of applicants, we’re bringing our Tech x Games accelerator to Los Angeles later this summer. SR003 will run for 12-weeks starting July 29th, culminating in a Demo...

The emergence of generative AI, cloud computing, and new spatial platforms is poised to disrupt 3D creation end-to-end.

Smart energy grids. Voice-first companion apps. Programmable medicines. AI tools for kids.
We asked over 40 partners across a16z to preview one big idea they believe will drive innovation in the coming year.

Exploring soft launch best practices, myths, and limitations to determine the right strategy to soft launch your game.

Insights from leaders at OpenAI, Microsoft, Anthropic, Databricks, Character.AI, Roblox, insitro, and Figma on where we are, where we're going, and the open questions for building the next wave of AI.

Roblox cofounder and CEO David Baszucki and a16z's Jonathan Lai discuss the ways AI is changing games and virtual worlds and how we create them.

We’re leading a Seed investment in Proof of Play, an on-chain game studio and tech company that’s committed to building a future with composability, interoperability, and permanence at the core of gameplay.

A16Z GAMES is leading the seed investment in Series AI, a games & technology company that is reinventing the future of game development with generative AI.

We’re thrilled to announce that A16Z GAMES is leading the Series A in Pahdo Labs, a game studio building a next-generation anime RPG and UGC platform.

A16Z GAMES announces SPEEDRUN 2024 – and the commitment to invest up to $75M in the most promising pre-seed startups at the intersection of Games x Tech.

We believe the largest opportunity long-term is in leveraging AI to change not just how we create games, but the nature of the games themselves.

Drawing inspiration from the games speedrunning community, we created a16z Games: SPEEDRUN, a 6-week startup school, as a shortcut for gaming founders.

Years before the first blockchain was created, the sci-fi space MMO EVE Online proved out many of the core principles that define web3 today. This is why we are excited to be partnering with CCP on a new project set in t...

Generative AI will completely reshape UGC and expand the games market beyond what many thought was possible.

There is a moment of wonder in every great game that makes you sit back, take a breath, and really appreciate what it is that you’re experiencing: stepping out into the world of Zelda, overcoming Margit for the first tim...

We are thrilled to announce that a16z Games has led the Series Seed investment in Snapser, a games backend technology company poised to become the de facto platform for games studios.

We are thrilled to announce that a16z led the Series A investment in Voldex, a game studio that acquires, improves, and builds games on the massive user-generated content (UGC) platforms, Roblox and Minecraft.

Within every era of technology, the most talented entrepreneurs have taken unsolved problems and open questions and turned them into businesses.

We’re thrilled to announce that Andreessen Horowitz is leading the seed investment in Seidr AB who are building the next generation of midcore cross-play games. Based in Stockholm, a hotbed of games innovation, Seidr’s f...

To understand how radically gaming is about to be transformed by generative AI, look no further than this recent Twitter post by @emmanuel_2m. In this post he explores using Stable Diffusion + Dreambooth, popular 2D gene...

To celebrate the LA community and the city's growth, A16Z recently hosted Time to Build Los Angeles, an event where we invited LA-based investors, founders, and operators from across a diverse range of industries to talk...

Interoperability has long been a key guiding principle of the Metaverse - a vision that we can bring our digital identity and assets with us as we travel between virtual worlds.

You install that new Parkour game that everyone’s talking about, and instantly your avatar gains a new set of skills. After a few minutes in the tutorial level, running up walls and vaulting over obstacles, you’re ready...

Many of the most popular, genre-defining games trace their heritage to what are called “mods”—player-made modifications to existing games. The mods are built from developer tools within the game so that players can creat...

We are proud to announce GAMES FUND ONE, a16z’s inaugural fund dedicated to building the future of the games industry.

In today’s episode we’re talking about an emerging model of gaming called play to earn, in which players can make actual money based on how much time and effort they put into a game. Play to earn is also part of broader trends — the changing relationship between players and platforms, new incentives for participants in blockchain-based networks, and the new internet era that is coming to be known as a web3.

In the 2000s, hundreds of millions of people devoured web games like Bejeweled and FarmVille, powered by Adobe Flash. In contrast to siloed console or PC games, these browser-based Flash games were incredibly accessible:...

Aliens are among us. Well, the online multiplayer game Among Us is -- a murder mystery set in space, where the group must figure out who the alien imposter is (a variation of party games like Werewolf or Mafia) -- has seemingly suddenly become very popular. On this episode of 16 Minutes on the News -- our show where we talk about what's in the headlines; tease apart what's hype/ what's real; and where we are on the long arc of innovation with related tech trends -- we cover: 1) Who, how, and why now? Especially since the game, from indie game company InnerSloth, has been around since 2018 -- what if it's NOT just "the pandemic effect" (where people are seeking new ways to connect). 2) What are the underlying trends involved -- from social to streaming -- but digging in on the twists, and nuances, of both. 3) What are the implications for startups and big companies when it comes to the gaming market, beyond this game?

Dungeons & Dragons, the granddaddy of all role-playing games, has never been more popular than it is today. Released in 1976 the tabletop fantasy game was unique for introducing user-generated storytelling. One perso...

John Riccitiello, CEO of the game software development company Unity Technologies, discusses the rise of esports and streaming, the potential of cloud gaming, and far-reaching applications for game technology.

In this episode, a16z partner Jon Lai joins host Lauren Murrow to talk about how game developers are grappling with skyrocketing numbers, why this may be an inflection point for VR, the surprising transition of professional sports into esports, and why live-streaming is having its moment.

The combination of cloud, social, and mobile has turned gaming from a niche hobby into a massive industry. Now veteran gamer Kevin Chou is using blockchain technology to realign the economic relationships between game de...

Forget gamification. If you want to make software that feels like play, rather than work, it requires tapping into deeper, more intrinsic motivations. And that’s where the principles of game design come in. In this talk...

If history repeats itself, the next social network won’t look like the social networks we know today.

Join us as we kick off a new series of YouTube videos called "Founding Stories" with the story of Skybox VR.

Have you ever wished you could be in the room when founders present to the Andreessen Horowitz investing team? Even better, do you wish you could stay to hear the discussion after the pitch?

This episode of the a16z Podcast features the rare combination of a16z co-founders Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz in conversation, together, with economist Tyler Cowen (chair of economics at George Mason University and...

1/ Theory: esports is to traditional sports as ecommerce is to brick & mortar retail. 3 similarities. 1 difference.

There’s all sorts of interesting tech trends happening right now, including AI, VR/AR, self-driving cars and drones (as well as interesting stuff happening in verticals like healthcare and finance) — and there’s a lot also happening in seemingly more “mature” tech revolutions, such as mobile and cloud. But where are we now, really, with these shifts… and how does that inform how we think about the next couple decades?