The New York-based Arcade Distillery, who develops games for platforms like PS4 and Xbox, is developing a new blockchain turn-based strategy RPG game called Plague Hunters. The new blockchain game is equipped with in-game assets, pegged as Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) to the Ethereum blockchain.
Plague Hunters passed the official Sony review process for all PlayStation games, even with a variety of blockchain technology components integrated. By doing so, Plague Hunters will become the first ever major game to integrate blockchain technology. The game is expected to be released in early 2019.
Plague Hunters will feature a built-in P2P marketplace on Ethereum for exchanging in-game assets. Though the gameplay itself will not be built on Ethereum, it will be designed for the PS4 and Nintendo Switch, while Arcade Distillery plans to explore Xbox One and mobile gaming later down the road. Drive Insider reports that the new game resembles the hybrid on-chain/off-chain model adopted by Gods Unchained. Plague Hunters will feature a familiar gameplay as other games on major platforms, while still retaining the full ownership, provable scarcity, and P2P marketplace of assets pegged to a blockchain. Not to mention – the game will be free for all users to play.
Arcade Distillery released Plague Hunters as a sequel to the company’s original title Plague Road, while its new game is amongst a wave of new developments in blockchain gaming. Gods Unchained recently released their gameplay trailer, in which their Beta phase is set to begin in the near future. Since there are large scalability problems prohibiting gameplay from functioning well directly on a blockchain, a large amount of development companies are beginning to choose the hybrid approach.
Hash Rush also built a game on Ethereum – one that utilizes the on-chain transaction and NFT model for exchanging in-game assets while gameplay is processed off-chain. In addition, Mythical Games recently closed a $16 million series A funding round to build a user-generated content game on the EOS blockchain.
Arcade Distillery and several other developers chose a great time to create such a game, as the gaming industry is growing at a revolutionary scale. The global video games market is currently valued at $115 billion this year and is expected to reach $138 billion by 2021. Meanwhile, games such as Fortnite and Red Dead Red Redemption 2 catapulted in value to astonishing sales numbers. Epic Games — the company behind the smash hit Fortnite — raised $1.25 billion in financing following the major success of the game, while Red Dead Redemption 2 collected $750 million in sales in its first 3 days.
