Epic Games Launches First NFT Game, ‘Blankos Block Party’

Epic Games has been one of the few major traditional game developers and publishers in the market to show a clear interest in NFTs. While the tier 1 gaming company hasn’t been especially aggressive in the space quite yet, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney has a notorious pro-developer stance, and has expressed that NFTs can show great utility in gaming – with enough time and development.

While Epic has likely hedged their bets, and will likely suffice in being a ‘second mover’ – not quite first to jump in, but certainly not last – there’s been some traction this week as Epic has listed their first-ever NFT game, ‘Blankos Block Party,’ on the Epic Games Store.

Epic Games & Blankos Block Party

Gaming studio Mythical Games first unleashed Blankos Block Party roughly two years ago with an open beta, and Mythical has since claimed that over one million players have engaged with the title. Today, the Epic Games Store added Blankos Block Party to their offerings, making the title the first Web3 or NFT based title to see the Epic Games storefront.

We first covered Mythical’s vision around Blankos, and Web3 gaming at large, back in 2018 when the company completed a $16M fundraising round. The game takes a very Roblox-esque presentation with the allure of a vinyl toy culture that is likely best visually comparable to real life through brands like Medicom’s BE@RBRICKs, Funko Pop, and the like. NFTs are not required to play the game, but rather give users personalization plus-ups, much like those available in mainstream titles like Fortnite or CS:GO.

By 2020, Blankos Block Party was in open beta. The past two years have seen a flurry of new partnerships, including artist partners such as Deadmau5 and brand partners like Burberry.

Sweeney’s Stance

In recent months, Epic CEO Tim Sweeney reiterated his stance on NFTs following Minecraft’s dismissal of NFT support. Sweeney emphasized his vision for an open and frictionless development of games – whether that includes NFTs or not. As we noted in our report, Sweeney stated that “developers should be free to decide how to build their games, and you are free to decide whether to play them… I believe stores and operating system makers shouldn’t interfere by forcing their views onto others. We definitely won’t.”

Epic Games hosting Blankos is certainly the biggest story of the year so far for Mythical, and arguably one of the biggest stories of the year for Web3 gaming.

Flagship Microsoft (MSFT) title Minecraft has shown reluctance to integrate or support NFTs, but Epic Games has shown that their door is open. | Source: NASDAQ: MSFT on TradingView.com

Featured image from blankos.com, Charts from TradingView.com