Phaser has secured a $2 million investment from Open Core Ventures to modernize its JavaScript framework and enhance browser-based game development with the upcoming release of Phaser 4.

Information on the Target

Phaser is a JavaScript framework created by Richard Davey, originally designed to fill the void left by Flash in browser-based game development. Following the 2010 open letter by Steve Jobs, which marked the decline of Flash, Davey recognized a pressing need for a viable alternative. With a background in game development, he decided to create Phaser, which quickly gained traction among developers due to its open-source nature and the absence of similar solutions. Today, Phaser is lauded as one of the top 100 projects on GitHub, boasting contributions from over 1,000 individuals, and is regarded as a standard tool for developing browser-based games.

Industry Overview in the Target’s Specific Country

The HTML5 game industry is rapidly expanding, with current market size estimates around USD 23.4 billion, anticipated to grow to USD 31.89 billion by 2030. This growth is driven by the increasing prevalence of smartphone usage and the escalating demand for engaging in-game advertising. Despite this booming market, major game engines have largely neglected browser-based game development, leaving a significant gap for niche solutions like Phaser.

As the industry evolves, the ways in which developers build and integrate games into various platforms are shifting. This is particularly relevant for playable ads, which have begun to proliferate across non-traditional environmen