Yesterday mobile game developer Animoca Brands announced it’s bringing the Star Girl franchise and other upcoming games to Dapper Labs’ Flow blockchain platform. Star Girl is a series of fashion role-playing games with one million monthly active users and is expected to launch on the Flow platform in 2021. Additionally, Animoca is currently developing a blockchain-based game for motorsports championship MotoGP, also to be released on Flow. The company operates another motor racing game as the official licensee of F1 Delta Time.
The Flow blockchain was developed by Dapper Labs, which is backed by NBA stars, Samsung, Warner Music and Andreessen Horowitz. Animoca Brands is also an investor.
“Animoca Brands has been an incredible supporter of NFTs (non fungible tokens) and decentralized games since 2017,” said Dapper Labs Chief Business Officer Mik Naayeem. “We share a mutual vision and approach to creating mainstream adoption of decentralized games in an inclusive manner.”
Dapper Labs’ Flow blockchain is aimed at game development, digital collectibles, and running fan tokens for the game industry, music artists and sports personalities. A key objective is to extend blockchain gaming beyond the realm of cryptocurrency enthusiasts and into the mainstream. To that end, it recently partnered with Circle to enable game users to make debit and credit card payments. These payments will convert to the USDC stablecoin, which can be used for in-game payments.
Dapper Labs has partnerships with both the UFC and NBA, recently announcing the beta test results for its NBA Top Shot app. In 2017, Dapper Labs released the hugely popular CryptoKitties app, a blockchain game built on the Ethereum network. Over $5 million in transactions was processed just seven days after its launch, accounting for around 25% of Ethereum traffic and slowing down the entire network
As a game developer that leverages new technologies like AI, Animoca is well-versed in blockchain technology. Its subsidiary, TSB Gaming, is presently developing The Sandbox’s blockchain version, with a public beta to launch in the fourth quarter. Last year Animoca announced TSB raised $2 million in cash and cryptocurrencies. Animoca bases many of its games on intellectual properties, with Formula One granting Animoca a license to develop F1 Delta Time on the Ethereum blockchain.
Animoca was previously listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX) but was delisted in March. Subsequently, its shares were available on the PrimaryMarkets secondary marketplace for unlisted shares, but that also ends later this week.
According to CrunchBase, Dapper Lab’s total financing to date stands at around $52.5 million. Two months ago, Dapper Labs received funding from several prominent investors, including NBA players Spencer Dinwiddie and Andre Iguodala. It has also has a partnership with Ubisoft, which advises Dapper Labs on Flow and its development for enterprise use.
