The latest company to hop into the blockchain game is iCandy Interactive (ASX: ICI). The Southeast Asia-based mobile game company has just announced its pre-sale release date for CryptantCrab, a game developed on the Ethereum blockchain platform. Early adopters will be getting one CryptantCrab worth 0.5ETH!
iCandy began development of CryptantCrab as a spin-off from its award-winning mobile game, Crab War. The Ethereum blockchain platform-developed game is an important milestone for iCandy as this will be one of the first blockchain games designed and developed in Southeast Asia.
Why Blockchain for Gaming?
It was because of the parallels between in-game virtual currency and cryptocurrency concepts that saw many gamers were among the first to see benefits of the latter. Now, blockchain technology, the underlining power behind crypto is also being funnelled into gaming technology.
Blockchain offers game developers many reasons to leverage on it as a tool – limited quantities of rare in-game items, unique collectibles, secure payment methods – all of which translates into excellent monetization opportunities.
“We are excited at the prospects that blockchain technology is able to put users front and centre with their decisions to manage and improve their in-game resources in a transparent and secure manner,” said Desmond Lee, COO of iCandy.
Introducing CryptantCrab
Pre-Sale begins globally on 25 October 2018 (12 am, +0 UTC) while the full game is set to be released towards the end of 2018
So, what exactly is it about CryptantCrab that makes it special? According to iCandy, a key differentiator that makes the game stand out is its in-depth gameplay. Each virtual crab is tagged with a digital token and comes with random individualized traits.
As users spend time learning and discovering the capabilities of their virtual crabs, they can also mutate their crabs’ parts. This is done with the in-game resource, Cryptant.
With Cryptant in hand, players can mutate their crabs as much as they like to create truly unique crabs. Gamers can choose to expand their collections or choose to trade them off in the in-game marketplace. All aspects of the virtual crabs – experience, the rarity of parts, and marketability – will have an impact towards their overall market value within the CryptantCrab economy.
Blockchain Overcomes Issues in Virtual Gaming
While the mechanics and features certainly do sound attractive, it will be in the details where iCandy will likely be tested. One of the main goals of blockchain based games, as mentioned earlier, is to act as a facilitator of the obtainment and exchange of valuable in-game items.
That same technology largely overcomes a phenomenon that has plagued gamers forever – fraud. Items are easily known to be authentic since they are inherently woven into the fabric of the game.
While this may not seem to be a big reason for some to go as far as to design a blockchain game, to put it into perspective, the global virtual goods industry is valued at an estimated $15 billion dollars.
Can it be any wonder that the developers of blockchain-based games like CryptantCrab are looking towards this technology?