The Sims Creator’s next project is a blockchain game
Will Wright cemented his place in gaming history by creating two of the most popular franchises, SimCity and The Sims, as well as the ambitious but ultimately flawed Spore. His next project could risk much of the goodwill he has accumulated with a move to blockchain technology. Wright says he is not interested in NFTs, but that technology is a core part of the project. That could make his planned VoxVerse virtual world a tough sell.
The game, which has no official release date, is a simulated world set on a massive cube. Players will have the ability to own parts of the cube to create attractions, retrieve resources, and interact with other players. VoxVerse is backed by Gallium Studios, a blockchain-focused studio founded by Wright and Carmen Sandiego co-designer Lauren Elliott.
Wright tells Axios that he’s more interested in attracting a million free-to-play players than serving “10,000 rich whales,” a reference to those with vast reserves of cryptocurrency to throw around. Gallium, with Wright and Elliott leading a team of engineers and artists, is working with Gala Games on the project.
Wright has no particular interest in NFTs as a business model, saying his real goal for the blockchain is to drive secure transactions between layers. Still, much of what Gallium is planning for VoxVerse can be considered a typical non-fungible token. Gala Games offers a series of crypto-backed “Vox” items, the latest batch coming from the DreamWorks movie Trolls. They were recently released for 0.888 ETH (about $1,300 at current prices). Owning a Vox guarantees you a part of the eventual VoxVerse. In other words, an NFT.
The focus on blockchain technology is a matter of justice for Wright. He estimates that user-generated content in The Sims accounted for about 30 percent of the franchise’s value, but there was no mechanism to compensate them for their work. That won’t be a problem in VoxVerse. He believes there will be three classes of players, including a small group of so-called whales who own pieces of the cube and commission content from a larger group of creators. Then there will be the unwashed masses of free-to-play people who just want to hang out and explore the VoxVerse.
So far, no one has managed to create a blockchain game that people want to play. Several have gone belly up after being reduced to ghost towns. Wright and Elliott understand game design, but can they create a world filled with crypto and NFTs that actually people wishes to visit? So far, Gala has spent $25 million on the chance they can.
Read now:
