John Smedley Unveils $30.5 Million-Backed Shooter Reaper Actual

Veteran game designer John Smedley, best known for co-creating EverQuest and PlanetSide, has formally introduced Reaper Actual, a large-scale open-world extraction shooter under his new outfit, Distinct Possibility Studios. The PC title blends massively multiplayer persistence with tactical first-person combat, allowing squads to raid, loot and defend bases across a Mediterranean island torn by factional warfare.

To finance development, Distinct Possibility has raised $30.5 million in venture funding led by Bitkraft Ventures with participation from Brevan Howard Digital and others. The 125-person studio has been building the game for two years; an alpha test on Steam and the Epic Games Store is scheduled “in the near future.” Smedley says the map spans roughly 16 km by 12 km—about four times the size of Call of Duty: Warzone’s Al Mazrah—and can host up to 200 concurrent players per server.

Reaper Actual will feature an optional blockchain layer running on Etherlink, a Tezos-based network, letting players buy, sell and trade purely cosmetic in-game items as NFTs or via conventional marketplaces such as Steam. Distinct Possibility also plans to rent mod-friendly servers directly to streamers and communities, aiming to build what Smedley calls a “vibrant, player-driven economy” without pay-to-win mechanics.

The announcement highlights a broader shift in the $200-billion games market toward cross-platform distribution, direct-to-consumer monetization and venture-backed expansion, as studios look beyond traditional exclusivity deals and experiment with Web3 technologies to keep players and investors engaged.