Magmic signs ‘major league’ deal for licensed baseball game using blockchain – Ottawa Business Journal

Ottawa mobile game developer Magmic has signed a five-year, multi-million dollar deal with Major League Baseball and its players association to develop the first licensed baseball game using blockchain technology.

Magmic CEO and President Mohammad Agha is saying, in a way, that the longtime boutique game studio is now moving into the big leagues itself.

“A lot of gaming companies in Canada and Ottawa are shops that work to hire. They don’t build much of their own original content or the original (intellectual property). So this is, I feel, a big deal because it’s one of the biggest brands in the world and we build, we license. So we own the game,” Agha said of the project, which is scheduled for release in late 2024.

The tycoon-style management game will use non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and blockchain technology to add scarcity trading and a collectible system like trading cards. Players will use NFTs during gameplay.

The deal will also see Magmic, known for apps such as Texas Hold’em King and Passport Rummy, more than double in size, from 21 employees to 40 and eventually to 60. It will also seek to raise $20 million in additional investment, says Agha.

All this under the shadow of cryptocurrency uncertainty.

“We’re taking quite a bit of risk here,” Agha said, noting that Magmic has already been through a paradigm shift or two. “We’ve been doing mobile games since 2002. We started on PalmPilots. The calculator app on PalmPilot was the first application released.”

Magmic was the largest BlackBerry developer in the world before moving into successful Android and iPhone games. It was founded by Ottawa serial entrepreneur John Criswick and current chief technology officer Joshua Ostrowalker and has developed more than 100 mobile games including major titles for Mattel and Hasbro. Agha joined Magmic in 2007 and became President in 2016 and CEO in 2018.

Magmic has partnered with California-based Forte IO for the new project. Forte IO specializes in blockchain-based payment systems and tools for game developers.

Agha says 15 months of diligence went into courting Major League Baseball, but feels it ultimately came down to being in the right place at the right time.

“We started developing blockchain-based games around 2018. So, five years ago, before all the hype,” Agha told OBJ. “It’s kind of positioned us in a way to be able to secure quite a bit of funding to secure this license and then get MLB on board for us to do this game right.

“It really wasn’t easy. It’s a very big deal,” he added.

The deal places Magmic among major blockchain players such as Vancouver-based Dapper Labs, Paris-based Sorare and California-based Mythical Games; companies with employees in the hundreds and valuations in the billions.

Agha compares the movement towards blockchain-based games to the upheaval when BlackBerry gave way to the iPhone.

“I think this is going to be a big shift, and there’s been a lot of investment in it in the last few years,” he said, noting that video games and sports are probably the sweet spot for using blockchain technology in an economically viable way .

“You’re already kind of taking away from people’s existing habit of collecting baseball cards,” he explained. “So there’s already a market out there that’s pre-built. And it really lends itself really well to sports.”