Upcoming battle royale shooting game StrayShot has signed a deal with NBA players LaMelo and Lonzo Ball – as well as their family’s lifestyle brand, Big Baller Brand (BBB) – to make the brothers and the rest of their prominent family playable NFT characters, developer iBloxx Studios announced on Thursday.
More details about the playable LaMelo Ball and Lonzo Ball NFT characters will be revealed after the free-to-play game fully launches, according to a statement. The PC game, previously called 0xBattleGround, is currently in public beta. iBloxx CEO Domenik Maier said this Declutter via email that StrayShot could be fully released as early as December this year, but will more likely launch in February 2024.
The NFTs of the LaMelo and Lonzo characters will wear military-style outfits, as well as BBB-branded clothing, according to Maier and images viewed by Declutter. According to the announcement, the studio also plans to release licensed Ball NFTs outside of the game. No release date has been announced for any of the Ball NFTs.
LaVar Ball, the players’ outspoken father and founder and CEO of BBB, will also appear as a game character, alongside his wife Tina Ball and youngest son LiAngelo Ball, who plays in the NBA G League.
“My boys and I will not only dominate the basketball court,” LaVar claimed in a statement, “we will also dominate the StrayShot battlefield!”
The 22-year-old LaMelo is currently a point guard for the Charlotte Hornets and was a top prospect there ESPN‘S top 50 nba players this year. Lonzo, 25, plays for the Chicago Bulls and previously the Los Angeles Lakers, but is currently active faced with a knee injury that is expected to keep him off the field for the second season in a row.
While it may seem like a surprising partnership, the Ball brothers are actually big gamers. In his spare time, Lonzo plays video games such as NBA 2K and the Electronic Arts football game Madden, and LaMelo has played Halo on an Xbox console in the past.
StrayShot used Ethereum scale up network SKALE for its blockchain transactions and will “capture all key aspects of the game on-chain,” said Jack O’Holleran, co-founder and CEO of SKALE Labs Declutter via email.
All in-game items, including weapons, character outfits and special playable characters in StrayShot, will be NFTs that will be included on-chain when players pick them up, O’Holleran added. However, he said that in-game transactions take place behind the scenes in a way that does not require gamers to sign with them crypto wallets.
Just one game on Solana does more daily transactions than all of Polygon
StrayShot’s NFTs can be won in-game and sold later, O’Holleran said, and the battle royale shooter also offers a ERC-20 token that players can win through tournaments.
The Ball family’s BBB brand faced some controversy in 2018 when it reportedly received an “F” score from the nonprofit Better Business Bureau. The brand now appears to have improved its rating to a “C+” score, but the Bureau is still doing so lists what she calls “a pattern of complaints” on her website.
In 2020 the brand was relaunchedand LaVar Ball claimed to do so Barstool Sports that Big Baller brand was “worth a billion.” The company did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Declutter‘s GG regarding the Better Business Bureau complaints or the claimed appraisal.