San Francisco-based recreation developer Zynga, greatest identified for the FarmVille and CSR Racing collection, 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 business veteran Matt Wolf as Vice President of Blockchain Gaming to guide the corporate’s cost into the burgeoning business.
Zynga has additionally introduced plans to extend the present blockchain gaming staff from 15 workers to wherever as much as 100 by the top of this yr. The corporate may quickly fall underneath 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 based mostly 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 present video games equivalent to FarmVille right away.
He mentioned that gamers can count on 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 usually provoked a backlash from indignant avid gamers.
Some gamers who’ve had NFTs added to their gaming expertise really feel that firms are simply on the lookout for new methods to squeeze cash out of their prospects.
Wolf has made it clear that the corporate’s recreation builders will at all times have the choice to choose 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 techniques creating new and extra real looking types of worth, possession and wealth creation for avid gamers.
“By creating an built-in expertise that allows gamers to develop into homeowners of their gaming journey, our purpose is to develop Zynga’s viewers attain and drive stronger engagement and retention,” he added.
Talking to the New York Instances, Wolf mentioned that he’s aware of the difficulties that NFT-based video games stand to come back up towards: “It truly is all about neighborhood… we consider in giving folks the chance to Play-to-Earn.”
NFTs and play-to-earn are the way forward for gaming business, says EA boss
