FarmVille developer Zynga set to release first NFT game this year
San Francisco-based recreation developer Zynga, finest identified for the FarmVille and CSR Racing sequence, has introduced plans to launch its first blockchain and NFT-based video games this yr.
The billion-dollar recreation studio first made waves within the crypto world final yr after appointing 30-year gaming trade veteran Matt Wolf as Vice President of Blockchain Gaming to guide the corporate’s cost into the burgeoning trade.
Zynga has additionally introduced plans to extend the present blockchain gaming group from 15 staff to wherever as much as 100 by the tip of this yr. The corporate can also quickly fall below the umbrella of video-game colossus Take-Two Interactive, writer of Grand Theft Auto which publicly introduced a $12.7 billion greenback acquisition transfer set to shut within the first quarter of 2023.
Talking on the agency’s NFT primarily based gaming plans with Axios, Wolf mentioned that forthcoming blockchain-based video games will likely be model new titles, because it “doesn’t make sense” to start out including NFTs into current video games akin to FarmVille immediately.
He mentioned that gamers can anticipate the brand new video games to look one thing like Mafia Wars, a now-discontinued social media recreation the place gamers assumed the function of gangsters and labored to construct up their crime household.
Zynga has been taking extra aggressive steps into the sometimes-controversial blockchain-based gaming sector than many different conventional gaming firms. Hesitancy has been the frequent denominator from gaming studios as cryptocurrency-related options have typically provoked a backlash from offended players.
Some gamers who’ve had NFTs added to their gaming expertise really feel that firms are simply searching for new methods to squeeze cash out of their clients.
Wolf has made it clear that the corporate’s recreation builders will all the time have the choice to decide in or out of any NFT plans, a lesson he appears to have realized from witnessing inside protests towards the know-how at fellow gaming firms: EA and Ubisoft.
Regardless of the criticisms, Wolf sees NFTs and blockchain know-how as the apparent subsequent step in Zynga’s evolution with tokenized programs creating new and extra practical types of worth, possession and wealth creation for players.
“By creating an built-in expertise that allows gamers to grow to be homeowners of their gaming journey, our purpose is to increase Zynga’s viewers attain and drive stronger engagement and retention,” he added.
Talking to the New York Occasions, Wolf mentioned that he’s conscious about the difficulties that NFT-based video games stand to return up towards: “It truly is all about neighborhood… we imagine in giving individuals the chance to Play-to-Earn.”
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