Concept art for Halliday\u2019s platform Image Credits:<\/strong> Halliday<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Though Halliday plans to charge an initial fee to customers using the product to cover the startup\u2019s costs, Malhotra hopes to eliminate the fee over time as his goal is to keep the product as low-cost as possible for gamers. The founders did not share any further detail on their monetization plans, noting that they are still focused solely on building the product itself.<\/p>\n

One major consideration for Halliday will be how to model risk associated with its loans since the company will be paying game developers upfront for digital assets on behalf of its users.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere are not that many comparables for how to model risk for something like this, so this is where our team has been working to try to come up with innovative new approaches,\u201d Malhotra said.<\/p>\n

As for time frame, Malhotra noted that gamers will eventually be able to decide how long they need to pay off a given purchase with Halliday. The founders envision that average terms will be around 1-3 months to start, he said.<\/p>\n

The six-person team plans to launch its product in a beta partnership with League of Kingdoms in a few weeks, Malhotra said. A full public launch is expected to take place shortly after the beta, he added.<\/p>\n

In preparation for the launch, Halliday has raised a $6 million seed round led by a16z crypto, with participation from Hashed, a_capital, SV Angel, Immersion Partners, Sabrina Hahn and others, according to the company.<\/p>\n

Already, many video games that have in-game purchases allow players to rent virtual objects. But Malhotra and Dunaif argue that a product like Halliday that enables ownership is still in demand.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you look at comparable, real-world, economic markets, like cars, like housing, you see that there\u2019s always rentals, leasing and ownership \u2014 but there is a huge preference to own,\u201d Malhotra said. \u201cIf there\u2019s a way that you can own and get all the benefits associated with ownership, such as the emotional attachment, the emotional benefits, the economic benefits, everything else attached to that, and if there\u2019s a solution for that, there should be demand for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

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