Major gaming brands are moving deeper into the realm of blockchain technology

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(Kitco News) – Epic Games, the company behind the popular online multiplayer game Fortnite, has officially waded into the world of blockchain gaming by launching Blanko’s Block Party on the Epic Games Store.

Blanko’s Block Party is a nonfungible token (NFT) powered online creation game created by Mythical Games that originally launched as an open beta in December 2020. Since its launch, the Web3 game has amassed more than one million users according to Mythical Games.

The game studio first revealed its plans to bring the free-to-play title to the Epic Games Store back in June, beating out Gala Games and western-themed shooter Grit for the honor of being the first Web3 game to launch on the popular PC gaming market.

Blanko’s Block Party was inspired by designer/vinyl toy culture and allows users to play and collaborate in a colorful online world. NFT technology is used to represent unique in-game items, such as avatar designs and accessories, that users can buy and sell through the game’s marketplace.

A number of well-known brands and artist partners have already signed up to be part of Blanko’s Block Party by offering a limited edition, including Burberry, Atari and musician Deadmau5. For interested players, it is important to note that it is not necessary to own an NFT to play the game.

The version of Blanko’s Block Party that launches on the Epic Games store is functionally identical to the playable version on the game website. Both versions are currently available in an “early access” state ahead of the game’s full launch, which is scheduled to take place on September 28.

Final Fantasy creators double blockchain

In other blockchain game news, Square Enix, the Japanese game developer behind the globally popular Final Fantasy franchise, has signed on to become a node validator for the blockchain gaming project Oasys.

According to the announcement from Oasys, Square Enix managed to claim the last of the project’s 21 initial validation slots. Along with becoming a validator, the pair have also teamed up to create the next generation of blockchain games on Oasys’ EVM-compatible proof-of-stake (PoS) blockchain.

The main focus of the collaboration will be on the creation of Triple-A quality games with play-to-earn (P2E) integrations. Other Oasys game partners include Double Jump, Bandai Namco and Ubisoft.

In January, Square Enix president and CEO Yosuke Matsuda signaled that he was interested in the idea of ​​introducing blockchain-enabled “token economies” into games to incentivize both players and user-generated content to add to the games.

“With the advancement of token economies, users will be given explicit incentives, thereby not only resulting in greater consistency in their motivation, but also creating a tangible upside to their creative efforts,” Matsuda wrote.

“From having fun to earning to contributing, a wide variety of motivations will inspire people to engage in games and connect with each other. It is blockchain-based tokens that will make this possible. By designing viable token economies in the games ours, we will enable self-sustaining game growth.”

The company’s first dip into the realm of NFTs occurred in July with the release of tokenized character figures for $129.99 featuring characters such as Cloud Strife from Final Fantasy.