Published on: 23/06/2022
NFT Game Blankos Block Party to launch on Epic Games
Publisher Mythical Games announced this week that its NFT-driven creation game, Blankos Block Party, would soon launch on the Epic Games Store. The announcement was made during NFT.NYC 2022 in New York. That being said, no release date was announced for that game that has garnered over one million players.
Earlier, rival Gala Games also announced that it would launch GRIT, a Wild West-themed shooter GRIT, as the first NFT game on the Epic Game Store. The developer team said the game would be released on Epic’s marketplace later this year.
As one of the most popular platforms for digital PC and Mac games with over over 194 million users by the end of last year, the Epic Games Store’s only direct rival is Steam. That being said, the publisher of Fortnite and the Unreal Engine software has been more welcoming to blockchain games compared to its sole competitor.
Bringing NFT games to Epic Games Store
Mythical Games CEO John Linden said his company had been “working with Epic for months now” on bringing NFT games to the platform.
“They’ve kind of gone back and forth with some of the skepticism and all that, and rightfully so,” said Linden. “There’s a lot of early games that were very much gamified economies, really, more than a game.”
Ethereum-based game Axie Infinity has remained the most successful NFT title to date, generating over $4 billion worth of total NFT trading volume in its prime. That being said, the Pokémon-inspired title began failing last year following a series of breaches by hackers. Its gameplay is also widely considered shallow, while its token prices continue to decrease.
Mythical Games was co-founded by former game industry executives from Activision, Oculus, and EA. Linden insisted that the company would not meet the same fate as Axie Infinity as it aimed to deliver a safe NFT game” to the Epic Games Store. He also said that the game would focus more on gameplay than token-reward mechanics.
“It’s definitely a ‘game-first’ type experience,” Linden said. “And we’re excited to have it on the Epic Games Store.”
About Blankos Block Party
Blankos Block Party is available on PC and Mac. The game allows players to co-create and interact in vibrant 3D environments. NFTs are used to represent user-owned items in the game. These include avatars and digital apparel. The in-game avatars took their inspiration from vinyl toy collectibles. The NFTs can be sold on the Blankos marketplace or be combined to create brand new NFTs.
Linden said the version released on the Epic Games Store would be the same as the existing one. The game was beta launched in December 2020. It has since recorded over a million registered user accounts.
The game also earlier announced an in-game collaboration with fashion brand Burberry after previously giving away NFT drops with musician Deadmau5 and The Marathon Clothing.
Linden said that his studio was planning to release game updates for Blankos Block Party’s launch on the Epic Games Store. Mythical Games is also the studio behind NFL Rivals, an officially licensed “play-and-own” NFT game, made in partnership with the National Football League.
The publisher also recently announced two other play-and-earn titles—racing game Nitro Nation – World Tour and digital trading card game Epic Spell Wars: Magic Fight, both of which will launch in 2023.
