Nexon, the leading game publisher across Asia, is venturing into a new Web3 game based on its popular pixelated 2D role-playing franchise, MapleStory Universe. The game is set to launch a private Supernet on Polygon, a scaling network for Ethereum, which will enable faster and cheaper transactions. And the private Supernet for MapleStory Universe is only the beginning of the great NFT experience Nexon has in store.
First released in 2003, MapleStory Anime has gained immense success with more than $4 billion dollars in revenue and over 260 million players worldwide. In its endeavor to bring Blockchain technology to its IP (intellectual property), Nexon has decided to build it on Polygon as this platform allows developers to customize options and provides projects with better performance and quality. “They have the ability to scale in a way that you can’t scale on a shared blockchain,” said Urvit Goel, VP of Global Games and Platform Business Development for Polygon Labs.
The team at MapleStory Universe has made clear that there will be no NFT presales and that players will be able to earn unique items as NFT in-game. What’s more, MapleStory Universe will also provide its own crypto token though the details of this still remain unclear. Interacting with the NFTs on the platform will provide an impressive experience for gamers and Nexon has been looking forward to expanding the NFT ecosystem.
South Korea is driving past other countries in the adoption of Web3. In fact, 8 out of the 10 top gaming companies in South Korea have publicly declared their leap into Blockchain technology. Apart from Nexon, some other major South Korean game publishers such as Krafton, NCSoft, and Netmarble have been launching projects in collaboration with various Blockchain networks.
Polygon Labs President Ryan Wyatt believes South Korea is truly a critical market for Web3 gaming. To generate the quality of experience Web3 promises, Polygon Studios was launched in West Hollywood, California – to serve as a funnel for consumer-facing companies that want to transition into this technology. The team is comprised of expert developers who understand the technical complexity of Web2, Web3 and the requirements of the industry. (Belbuca)
Square Enix, the gaming giant behind popular franchises such as Final Fantasy and Kingdom Hearts, has formed a partnership with Polygon network for the launch of its gamified art collecting project titled Symbiogenesis, which is set to go live in Spring 2023. And their agreement is yet one more sign of the increasing investment in Web3 gaming, with an estimated $1.5 billion that had gone into Web3-based companies during the third quarter of 2022.
The team at Maple Story Universe is excited to get the project underway and to be part of such a monumental wave of technology. Nexon said in a statement, “We plan on issuing our unique coin, and specific details about this will be revealed later with our tokenomics.” With how far Web3 has come, change is definitely on the horizon.
