Take-Two Interactive Software, the brains behind the legendary Grand Theft Auto series of games, is breaking new ground and entering the future of gaming. Through Zynga, a subsidiary it bought for an impressive $12.7 billion last year, the company unveiled its latest game: Sugartown, a crypto game that runs on the ether (ETH) network.
GTA developer gets into crypto
sugar town is one of the first attempts by a major game developer to build a crypto game from scratch. Players enter the game with a crypto token. Once inside, they can collect “Energy” that allows them to participate in games and earn special in-game currencies. This currency can then be exchanged for various rewards.
What This news The release of access tokens called Oras is particularly exciting. Zynga plans to initially produce 10,000 of these tokens later this year. If Sugartown resonates with the general public, it could have a significant impact on the gaming industry as we know it today. It could encourage other prominent developers to jump into the potentially lucrative market crypto gaming.
Crypto gaming is on the rise
Take-Two CEO Strauss Zelnick has previously expressed interest NFT made known, although he showed a certain reluctance. Zelnick emphasized the importance of their position in the digital goods space, but also expressed concerns about the speculative nature of the NFT market. his aspiration? Avoiding a speculative economy within their gaming portfolio.
It’s also important to note that Zynga, known for crackers like FarmVille and Words With Friends, originally had plans to launch a game with NFTs back at the end of last year. Matt Wolf, Zynga’s Vice President of Web3, expressed his enthusiasm for Sugartown, calling it Zynga’s first Web3 game and the first Web3 game with an original IP.
Despite some recent declines in the NFT market, confidence in blockchain technology remains high. Investments in the NFT gaming sector have seen a notable rebound of late, up 65% month-on-month, underscoring the potential for future growth.
If Sugartown becomes a success, it’s not surprising that crypto will play a more prominent role in all games, not just mobile games.