Zynga, the gaming industry’s largest mobile game developer, announced its first-ever blockchain game, Sugartown, on Monday, according to an initial report from Decrypt.
Best known for its popular games from 2009 Farm village And Words With FriendsZynga quickly made a name for itself after launching one of the first few games on Facebook, drawing more than 80 million people to play their games.
Last May, it was acquired by Take-Two Interactive for $12.7 billion, where the mobile gaming giant would bring its most popular games to Take-Two, including Farm village And Words With Friends. As a gaming powerhouse, Take-Two currently manages some of the most popular franchises in the industry, including but not limited to Grand Theft Auto, Red Dead Redemption, NBA 2K, BioShock, and more.
In Sugartown
The game uses Ethereum-based NFTs that take gamers to an alternate dimension where they will be introduced to creatures known as ‘Oras’.
At the start of the game, gamers discover that three farm animals from another dimension have accidentally opened a wormhole in Sugartown, allowing creatures known as ‘Oras’ to enter the town and transform it into a gamified landscape only accessible to gamers holding one of 10,000 Oras. NFTs.
These Ora NFTs not only unlock the ability to play in Sugartown, but also grant holders access to the embedded free-to-play mini-games. Gamers also have the option to “stake” or lock their Ora NFTs in exchange for receiving Sugartown’s in-game currency, called “Sugar”, which enhances and enriches the overall gaming experience. The in-game currency is not cryptocurrency.
A Zynga representative told me Decrypt that Sugartown is expected to be released at “a later date”, but did not give an exact date. However, the Ora NFT collection is expected later this year, according to that representative.
“We created Sugartown to appeal to a native Web3 market,” said Matt Wolf, Zynga’s Vice President of Web3 Gaming, in a statement to Decrypt. He also said their focus is to scale the game much further over time as they build a community of Ora NFT holders.
On Tuesday, Sugartown held its first official Spaces with Zynga’s Wolf and its Head of Product, Tommy Ngo, diving deeper into the game.