Iconic Japanese gaming company Sega has announced a collaboration with game studio Double Jump Tokyo to start selling NFTs in the summer of 2021. They will sell NFTs based on Sega’s iconic intellectual property, which includes Sonic The Hedgehog and Crazy Taxi. In the future they will also consider modern and upcoming brands as an NFT.
Sega announced that the first NFTs will be part of classic brands that gamers still love today. In the future they will add newer IPs to the line-up, including games currently in development. Obviously Sonic the Hedgehog comes to mind. However, it’s also very likely that they will protect their main mascot for the time being.
Both Sega and Double Jump Tokyo are a bit sketchy on the details of these NFTs. In their blog post Double Jump Tokyo mentions that they will ‘also explore ways to effectively utilize the NFT contents owned by users’. For now these NFTs seem to be collectibles, serving as a promotion for existing and upcoming brands. However, considering the blockchain game company’s portfolio, using NFTs as game characters doesn’t seem an outlandish concept to imagine.
Double Jump Tokyo worked on games like My Crypto Heroes and Brave Frontier Heroes. In both RPGs players owned in-game characters and NFT-based characters, that would team up to beat enemies. They also partnered with a variety of entertainment companies. This which resulted in Final Fantasy characters being part of Brave Frontier Heroes, while Astro Boy joined My Crypto Heroes.
Gaming industry and blockchain technology
The traditional gaming industry has been holding off the boat on blockchain technology for quite some time. However, Namco Bandai invested in avatar platform Genies. At the same time Ubisoft has been dipping its toes in blockchain gaming. However, we’re still waiting for a strong announcement. For now Atari, a gaming company with a troubled history, is a frontrunner in this industry.
However, thinking that there are no efforts, would be wrong. Capcom released a series of Street Fighter NFT collectibles on the Wax blockchain. At the same time Square Enix was part of an investment group in The Sandbox. At the same time PlayStation has given The Six Dragons, a blockchain-powered role playing game, a license to publish the game on the PlayStation 5.
