Veterans of Disney, EA, and Kabam gave introduced the formation of a brand new studio, Carbon Counts, which is able to “take on climate change using the power of play, people, and technology.”

Carbon Counts was founded in 2020, but has remained secret while working on its first mobile title, EverForest, which will see the player’s progress affect positive change, as the studio will plant real-world trees based on user progress.

To help fund the project, the company raised $4.5 million in seed funding in a round led by Borderless Capital, Algorand, and the Algorand Foundation.

However, it has been revealed that the game will utilize blockchain technology, which has been criticized for the large amount of power needed to run the relevant systems – and the greenhouse gasses emitted as a result.

A green blockchain

To address this discrepancy, the game is being run on Algorand, which calls itself the greenest decentralized blockchain.

“The Carbon Counts team has the perfect storm of gaming, entrepreneurial, and conservation expertise and is creating something that is going to change the world,” says |Borderless Capital managing partner David Garcia. “We’re proud to help bring sustainable Algorand blockchain technology to further enable the team as they journey to use the power of playing and planting to help address the climate crisis.”

“Worldwide, the vast majority of people care deeply about climate change, but feel powerless to do anything about it,” said Carbon Counts co-founder and CEO Michael Libenson. “Our team has created some of the world’s most successful mobile games. Now, we’re combining proven mechanics with an immersive story to deliver a magical experience that transcends the screen and impacts the real-world.”

Co-founder Brett Jenks hopes that EverForest will encourage positive environmental changes among the player base. “People want to do something, but most often they don’t know what to do. Because there’s been a lot of misinformation about climate change, the public’s really confused. The challenge was to find a way to engage tens of millions (eventually, we hope) first in playing mobile game, then moving people at their own comfort level to other changes.”

This 12 months, we listed each Kabam and EA as among the many prime 50 cell sport makers.