Asian Developer Nexon Comes up with NFT Game MapleStory Universe
Nexon's highly successful MapleStory game series is heading into the Web 3.0 space, where it will be powered by its own Supernet on the Ethereum scaling network, Polygon.
Nexon, one of the largest game publishing companies in Asia, has decided to enter the Web 3.0 space with the release of its successful 2D RPG game, MapleStory Universe. The announcement was made at the Game Developers Conference on Tuesday March 21, 2023, with the announcement that a private Supernet will be launched for this new game on Polygon's network.
MapleStory was launched in 2003 and immediately gained many fans around the world. It has been a great success and highly profitable for Nexon ever since, and in early 2023, the company announced that the game has generated more than 4 billion USD in profits to date, and has more than 180 million registered players.
Hwang Sun-Young, Group Head of MapleStory Universe said, "We look forward to expanding the NFT ecosystem envisioned in MapleStory Universe by building on Polygon." He added, "We will be working closely with the Polygon Labs team to develop and market the game."
Ethereum's Polygon scaling network is an obvious choice for many developers as it offers faster and cheaper transactions than the Ethereum mainnet itself. Polygon Labs' VP of Global Game and Platform Development, Urvit Goel, told Decrypt in an interview that "They have the ability to scale in a way that you can't scale on a shared blockchain." On Nexon and its upcoming Supernet, he went on to explain that "They have a very broad vision of how many transactions they think they're going to do per day because the game and the IP is so large."
MapleStory Universe itself was announced last year, but the company has not yet given a release date. According to Goel, there are no plans to pre-sell NFTs, with players being able to acquire them in the game itself by simply playing. "They're not pushing for in-app purchases," Goel added, noting that microtransactions are a common thing in mobile games.
MapleStory Universe will focus on NFTs, suggesting that tokenized items that can be traded on the in-game marketplace will play a major role in the game. It's likely that the game will have its own token, but there is no information about this yet.
Nexon operates in both South Korea and Japan, but the majority of their revenue comes from the South Korean market. It isn't the only company from the region with ambitions in the Web 3.0 space either; other well-known South Korean gaming companies working on Web 3.0-related projects include NCSoft and Netmarble, and both companies are using Sui's newly created blockchain network. Another prominent company is Krafton, the company behind the popular game PUBG: Battlegrounds, which is currently working on several blockchain projects and is collaborating with Solana Labs.
"Korea is by far the leader in terms of developers," Goel said. "If you look at the top ten gaming companies in Korea, eight out of ten have publicly stated that they are building something on blockchain, which is very unique globally."
Source: decrypt.co
analyst opinion
Pavel Černý
Nexon, one of the largest game publishing companies in Asia, has decided to enter the Web 3.0 space with the release of its successful 2D RPG game, MapleStory Universe. The announcement was made at the Game Developers Conference on Tuesday March 21, 2023, with the announcement that a private Supernet will be launched for this new game on Polygon's network.
MapleStory was launched in 2003 and immediately gained many fans around the world. It has been a great success and highly profitable for Nexon ever since, and in early 2023, the company announced that the game has generated more than 4 billion USD in profits to date, and has more than 180 million registered players.
Hwang Sun-Young, Group Head of MapleStory Universe said, "We look forward to expanding the NFT ecosystem envisioned in MapleStory Universe by building on Polygon." He added, "We will be working closely with the Polygon Labs team to develop and market the game."
Ethereum's Polygon scaling network is an obvious choice for many developers as it offers faster and cheaper transactions than the Ethereum mainnet itself. Polygon Labs' VP of Global Game and Platform Development, Urvit Goel, told Decrypt in an interview that "They have the ability to scale in a way that you can't scale on a shared blockchain." On Nexon and its upcoming Supernet, he went on to explain that "They have a very broad vision of how many transactions they think they're going to do per day because the game and the IP is so large."
MapleStory Universe itself was announced last year, but the company has not yet given a release date. According to Goel, there are no plans to pre-sell NFTs, with players being able to acquire them in the game itself by simply playing. "They're not pushing for in-app purchases," Goel added, noting that microtransactions are a common thing in mobile games.
MapleStory Universe will focus on NFTs, suggesting that tokenized items that can be traded on the in-game marketplace will play a major role in the game. It's likely that the game will have its own token, but there is no information about this yet.
Nexon operates in both South Korea and Japan, but the majority of their revenue comes from the South Korean market. It isn't the only company from the region with ambitions in the Web 3.0 space either; other well-known South Korean gaming companies working on Web 3.0-related projects include NCSoft and Netmarble, and both companies are using Sui's newly created blockchain network. Another prominent company is Krafton, the company behind the popular game PUBG: Battlegrounds, which is currently working on several blockchain projects and is collaborating with Solana Labs.
"Korea is by far the leader in terms of developers," Goel said. "If you look at the top ten gaming companies in Korea, eight out of ten have publicly stated that they are building something on blockchain, which is very unique globally."
Source: decrypt.co
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