Many traditional or “Web2” video game studios around the world are developing new games that leverage blockchain networks, cryptocurrency, and NFTs. Some of the game industry’s largest studios globally are exploring blockchain games, with appetites spanning across genres and platforms—from PC shooters to mobile games and multiplayer metaverse worlds.
And a majority of the game publishers on this list are headquartered in Asia, with just a few Western firms in the mix—a dominance that echoes DappRadar’s prediction that Asia could rule the Web3 gaming space.
Square Enix
Japanese video game studio Square Enix—maker of the Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts titles—has been exploring NFT video games since 2019. In 2021, the company released a sold-out collection of Ethereum-based NFT trading cards. Roughly six months later, Square Enix sold off its Tomb Raider IP as well as three studios it owned to help fund its moves into blockchain and AI research and development.
Final Fantasy Maker Square Enix to Launch NFT Game on Polygon
Square Enix—the storied Japanese video game publisher behind franchises like Final Fantasy, Dragon Quest, and Kingdom Hearts—announced today that it will launch its upcoming NFT-based game Symbiogensis on Polygon, an Ethereum scaling network. Symbiogenesis was first announced last November, and at the time, the publisher said that the story-driven collectibles game was tentatively planned to launch on Ethereum. However, the company said today that it will use Polygon instead, which uses a sidech...
Earlier this year, the studio announced that it’s planning to release an NFT game, Symbiogenesis, on Ethereum sidechain network Polygon. Square Enix calls the upcoming game a “collectible art project” with a narrative component and a mystery that players will have to solve over the course of the game.
The publisher also previously invested in metaverse game The Sandbox and announced plans to bring its Dungeon Siege IP to the game world. Square Enix also released Final Fantasy VII NFT-based trading cards on Enjin's Efinity platform on Polkadot, tied to physical statues and collectibles.
Electronic Arts
In June, another massive video game publisher signaled plans to start playing in the NFT space when Electronic Arts said that its EA Sports brand will incorporate Nike’s .Swoosh platform.
According to EA Sports, future games from the company will integrate .Swoosh “virtual creations,” which are digital items tokenized as NFTs on Polygon. EA Sports is the publisher behind massive franchises like Madden NFL and FIFA (now EA Sports FC), so the move has the potential to open up in-game NFTs to millions more players.
FIFA, Madden Maker EA Sports to Add Nike NFTs to Games
Sportswear giant and Web3 powerhouse Nike announced a collaboration with video game maker EA Sports on Thursday, with what appear to be planned digital collectibles of Nike-branded gear via the .Swoosh platform that will be integrated into future EA games. While there’s been no mention of the word “NFTs” thus far, .Swoosh is Nike’s Web3 platform that was announced last year and is currently in closed beta. It’s built on Polygon, an Ethereum scaling network, and currently only offers up NFT colle...
We don’t know how quickly EA plans to make the move, however. But with Madden NFL 24 out in August and EA Sports FC 24 following in September, it could come very soon. EA CEO Andrew Wilson previously said in November 2021 that he saw NFTs in gaming as “an important part of the future of our industry on a go-forward basis.”
Nexon
South Korea-based video game publisher Nexon is making a new MapleStory game called MapleStory Universe that will leverage Polygon NFTs. Nexon has shared that it will have its own private network or Polygon “Supernet” for the game.
Gaming Giant Nexon Taps Polygon for NFT Game MapleStory Universe
Nexon, one of the largest game publishers across Asia, is creating a new Web3 game based on its popular pixelated 2D role-playing franchise, called MapleStory Universe—and it’s launching a private Supernet on Polygon for the new game, Nexon announced Tuesday at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. MapleStory, launched in 2003, is a long-running success story for Nexon. The game has generated more than $4 billion in revenue to date, the company announced earlier this year, and amassed...
The original MapleStory games have raked in over $4 billion for the publisher, and have seen over 260 million players to date. MapleStory Universe’s Group Leader Hwang Sun-Young said that the studio will work closely with Polygon Labs throughout the development and marketing process.
Sega
Sega has been playing around in the crypto space for a while, albeit at a distance. For example, the Sonic the Hedgehog maker licensed its Battle of Three Kingdoms IP to developer Double Jump.Tokyo to develop a game on the Oasys blockchain network, but Sega itself is not making the game. Furthermore, Sega’s Virtua Fighter franchise was featured in an Oasys NFT project, but again via a partnership and licensing deal.
In July 2023, Bloomberg reported that Sega Co-Chief Operating Officer Shuji Utsumi suggested in an interview that the company was pulling back from the Web3 world and wouldn’t use its biggest IP in the space—but Utsumi later told Forkast that his comments were misconstrued.
He added that it was “very strange” that Bloomberg reached such a strong conclusion, given that Sega just licensed another as-yet-unannounced IP to Line Next—a division of popular messaging app company Line—for its Game Dosi crypto gaming platform. Even amid mixed messages around Sega’s approach, the company is still involved in blockchain games.
Krafton
Krafton, the South Korea-based publisher of PUBG: Battlegrounds and PUBG Mobile, plans to launch an NFT-enabled metaverse game under the working name Migaloo. Players will be able to create their own digital assets under what Krafton calls a “create-to-earn” system.
The studio has established a majority stake in a new joint-venture firm with tech company Naver Z. Together, Krafton and Naver Z will develop Migaloo and plan to release it sometime this year. In 2022, Krafton also said that it will develop games on Solana in partnership with Solana Labs.
Zynga
Zynga is an American gaming company known for casual smash hits like Farmville, CityVille, and Words With Friends. Last year, Zynga announced it is developing games that use NFTs in an effort to “future-proof” its business.
While little has been announced since, Zynga appears to be moving forward with its Web3 gaming division. Its website currently lists a job posting for a software engineer for the department, with the goal of creating “enduring Web3 games” for the studio.
'Future-Proof': Why FarmVille Creator Zynga Is Making NFT Games—Starting This Year
Zynga blasted to enormous success and notoriety with 2009’s FarmVille, a Facebook game that quickly amassed 10 million daily users despite the objections of hardcore gamers. Over the years, the firm continued attracting casual players with hits like CityVille and Words With Friends, becoming a major mobile developer in the process. But now, Zynga is building in a space that elicits the same kind of powerful (and often negative) reaction from many gamers that casual and mobile titles have in the...
Zynga's parent company Take-Two Interactive is one of the biggest game publishers in the world, with franchises like Grand Theft Auto, NBA 2K, and Red Dead Redemption in its portfolio. Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has spoken of opportunities in the Web3 world, and the firm invested in Web3 game developer Horizon in 2022.
Ubisoft
French game publisher Ubisoft is one of the few western video game studios openly exploring NFTs in its games. Back in 2021, it launched free Tezos NFTs for Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint. While those NFTs were aesthetically plain and launched in a game with few active players remaining, it still triggered massive backlash online from angry gamers who dislike the idea of NFTs in games.
In response, Ubisoft said that NFTs in gaming are a “major change that will take time” and has continued developing blockchain integrations for upcoming games. In 2022, Ubisoft said it was still researching how NFTs could be implemented into its titles.
Assassin's Creed 'Smart Collectibles' Pair NFTs With 3D-Printed Physical Items
Ubisoft has been the most active major game publisher to date in the Web3 world, and now the company behind game franchises like Far Cry and Just Dance is making another NFT play—this time based around its massively popular open-world action series, Assassin’s Creed. Integral Reality Labs and Ubisoft have partnered to create Assassin’s Creed Smart Collectibles, which are NFT access passes minted on Ethereum scaling network Polygon that are paired with physical collectibles inspired by the popula...
This year, Ubisoft released NFTs based on its Rabbids game IP in the metaverse game The Sandbox and launched “Smart Collectibles” from Assassin’s Creed—a move which blends physical collectibles with digital NFT components. Ubisoft is also working on a new blockchain game called Champions Tactics: Grimoire Chronicles, built on Oasys.
Previously, Ubisoft created One Shot League, a spinoff game from NFT-based fantasy soccer game Sorare, and rolled out a Rabbids NFT experiment in 2020 to benefit charity.
NCSoft
Korean game publisher NCSoft is the maker of titles like Guild Wars, Blade & Soul, and the Lineage series. It invested in blockchain firm Mysten Labs’ $300 million Series B funding round last year, and has shared plans to develop NFT games on the newly-launched Sui blockchain.
Sui Is Built for Games—Here's Why Developers Are Bullish
Layer-1 blockchain network Sui has already positioned itself as one of the most appealing destinations for Web3 game developers—despite being the newest to the game so far. Polygon, Immutable, Avalanche, and Solana have growing Web3 gaming ecosystems with a wide variety of games in all stages of development. But Sui, which just launched its mainnet on Wednesday, offers unique technical specifications and a different approach to on-chain assets that’s made it a compelling alternative for budding...
Mysten Labs is building infrastructure for the Sui network and believes that Sui is well-optimized for video games that use crypto transactions and NFTs. Numerous games are launching on Sui in the near future, although NCSoft still has yet to reveal its specific plans.
Bandai Namco
Bandai Namco is another traditional gaming giant that’s building on Oasys, joining Ubisoft and Sega, and the publisher behind Pac-Man, Tekken, and Elden Ring is getting hands-on.
In July, Bandai Namco Research teamed with Double Jump.Tokyo and startup Attructure to release RYUZO, a virtual pet game built around NFTs on Oasys. It’s a relatively rudimentary project as part of the blockchain’s Oasyx NFT project, but it shows how major publishers in the space are getting involved and experimenting with crypto games.
Gaming Giant Bandai Namco Launches AI Virtual Pet NFT Game
Major video game creator Bandai Namco has teamed up with Oasys, a gaming-centric blockchain network, to create an AI-powered virtual pet game around a series of NFT-based digital creatures known as RYU. Developed by Bandai Namco Research alongside Japanese startup Attructure, and published by Double Jump.Tokyo, the RYUZO game launched Wednesday. In advance of the release, 10,000 digital NFT eggs (or MARYU) were airdropped to holders of Oasys’ first series of NFTs in the “Oasyx” project. Upon hat...
Com2us
Com2us is the South Korean game developer and publisher behind Summoners War. But the studio has expressed strong interest in blockchain games and is developing games that offer NFTs and crypto integrations via the XPLA blockchain.
The company's U.S. President Kyu Lee told Decrypt in a message that the studio plans to release roughly 10 to 15 blockchain games per year and that most of them will be on mobile.
Wemade
Korean game publisher Wemade just released World Fishing Championship, a play-and-earn fishing game for Android mobile phones. It also plans to release two more blockchain games this year: R1B and Night Crows. R1B is a baseball game, and Night Crows is a high-concept fantasy MMORPG that’s being adapted into a Web3 game for global audiences.
Wemade also promoted its crypto gaming platform Wemix Play at the Game Developers Conference in March 2023. A Wemade representative told Decrypt via email that Wemix Play is intended to be like a Steam store for crypto games.
How Many Games Are Building On Solana? The Answer Might Surprise You
Solana Games General Manager Johnny Lee tells Decrypt's Kate Irwin about the current state of Solana's Web3 gaming ecosystem.
Wemix Play currently offers an NFT marketplace and has over 50 games from external indie developers planned for its platform, many of which offer players the ability to “play and earn” various crypto tokens. At time of writing, Wemix has 28 different gaming tokens listed on its platform as well as fan tokens. The majority of Wemix’s most popular live games are RPGs, but a few puzzle and strategy games also cracked its top 20 list.
Editor's note: This article was originally published on May 29, 2023 and last updated with new entries and information on August 8, 2023.
