Zynga is widely known for the FarmVille and CSR Racing franchises. Zynga is revealing its intentions to create the first-ever blockchain and NFT-based games for the year.
Last year, the billion-dollar game studio made headlines on the internet. A 30-year gaming industry veteran Matt Wolf as Vice President of Blockchain Gaming will be managing the company’s foray into the nascent industry.
Zynga will be using Wolf to connect NFTs and blockchain into its entire portfolio. Moreover, they will be creating new NFT-based games.
There was a new release on Snap Games, Google Nest, and Amazon Alexa. Zynga said that the company has been an early adopter of innovative platforms and technologies. Zynga is well-known as chief product officer Scott Koenigsberg.
Wolf will enable them to hit a new potential market through NFTs and discover different ownership possibilities for gamers. According to Koenigsberg, the importance of blockchain technology is within the digital economy.
Furthermore, Zynga is expanding its blockchain gaming team from 15 to up to 100 personnel by the end of the year.
Take-Two Interactive might be acquiring the company, the publisher of Grand Theft Auto. They recently are announcing a $12.7 billion acquisition deal that they expect to close in the first quarter of 2023.
NFT-based Gaming Plans
Wolf told Axios that the next blockchain-based games will be completely new titles. He mentioned those when they are asking him about the company’s NFT-based gaming plans. Hence, he emphasized that immediately incorporating NFTs into existing games like FarmVille would be counterproductive.
Players should expect the new games to resemble Mafia Wars. In addition, they are now considering it as a defunct social media game. The playing will be taking over the role of gangsters and will be working to expand their criminal empire.
Zynga has been more aggressive than many of the other traditional gaming businesses. He is entering the sometimes contentious blockchain-based gaming sector.
The common denominator among gaming studios has been apprehension, as cryptocurrency-related features have frequently elicited a response from enraged gamers.
Some players believe that businesses are simply searching for new ways to extract money from their customers.
Wolf has made it plain that the company’s game developers will always have the ability to opt-in or out of any NFT plans, a lesson he appears to have learned from EA and Ubisoft’s internal objections against the technology.
Despite the complaints, Wolf sees NFTs and blockchain technology as the logical next stage in Zynga’s progression, with tokenized systems allowing gamers to create new and more realistic forms of value, ownership, and wealth.
He continued by saying that their goal is to expand Zynga’s audience reach and promote higher engagement and retention by developing an integrated experience that allows players to become owners in their gaming adventure.
Finally, Wolf told the New York Times that he understands the challenges that NFT-based games face: “It’s all about community,” he remarked. They believe that people should be able to earn money as they play.
