Loadout’s $LOAD launch tests funding model for 40 games

Loadout launched its $LOAD token on Oct. 13 after 18 months of development, Kieran Warwick said in an X post that cited outages, thin liquidity and verification problems.

Warwick said Loadout has engaged with more than 500 games over the past six months and has a current curated pipeline of 40+ titles, more than 12 times that pipeline by engagement count, according to Atlas360 calculations.

Loadout’s model lets game developers issue tokens that can trade from launch, with trading fees helping finance development, according to Warwick. He said studios can keep equity and intellectual property while continuing to build for Steam or consoles.

“They don’t have to agree with everything I believe about crypto. They just have to see a useful way to fund their game,” Warwick said in the X post.

Warwick said the launch had problems, including the website outage, limited $LOAD liquidity and verification issues. Liquidity is the depth of available buying and selling; when it is thin, traders can face slippage, meaning a trade executes at a worse price than expected.

The first title in Loadout’s curated pipeline is The Signal: Stranded on Sirenis, a survival-crafting game that Warwick said has nearly 50,000 current Steam wishlists. Its token launch is scheduled for Oct. 14, one day after the $LOAD debut.

The pitch targets financing constraints in games. Warwick said experienced teams can still struggle to fund follow-on projects, while publisher terms, venture capital and Kickstarter-style crowdfunding can carry barriers. He contrasted that with his experience raising for Illuvium, saying some venture investors once wanted to take an entire round even though he had not previously built a game studio.

Loadout is also preparing permissionless launches, where developers can list without waiting for Loadout’s review. Warwick said those launches will be marked as unverified, with traders responsible for researching what they buy.

Warwick said some games may be poor, some teams may fail to deliver and curated games can also miss expectations. He also said drawing attention away from Pump, which he described as a platform he uses, would be difficult.

Warwick tied Loadout’s larger opportunity to AI-assisted game development. He said more studios are likely to use AI over the next five to 10 years, potentially increasing the number of people able to build playable games. That is Warwick’s forecast, not a demonstrated outcome.

Rewards, referral payouts and XP will apply only to trades through Loadout’s native liquidity pools, Warwick said. He also said some studios may later choose to use part of game revenue to buy back their own tokens, but described that as optional.

The Signal: Stranded on Sirenis is scheduled to launch its token through Loadout on Oct. 14. Warwick said the outcome matters because other studios in discussions with Loadout want to see whether the model generates traction.

Over the four to six weeks after Oct. 13, Warwick said Loadout plans to polish the platform, get staking live, increase liquidity, improve integrations and build partnerships. He said Loadout will continue launching games from its curated catalogue while opening faster access for smaller developers.