Quick take:
- Israeli mobile game developer Plarium has no plans to join the blockchain gaming craze.
- The massively multiplayer online game publisher’s games are played by more than 400 million gamers globally.
- The company was acquired by Australian-based global gaming content and technology developer Aristocrat for $0.5 billion in 2017.
Global massively multiplayer online gaming (MMORPG) publisher Plarium has no plans to leap into the world of blockchain gaming.
A Plarium representative told NFTgators in an email on Thursday the company is “always looking for new approaches to enhance our gaming ecosystem but for now, at least, we have no plans to join blockchain gaming.”
In an earlier email, the representative had told gators that Plarium was keenly following the industry trends.
Plarium is not the only gaming company that isn’t yet ready to onboard its massive gaming community of more than 400 million players to the play-to-earn (P2E) blockchain gaming ecosystem.
Several mainstream game developers are yet to show their hand, with some forced to walk back plans of introducing blockchain-based in-game items after facing fan backlash.
In December, GSC Game World was forced to shelve plans to add NFTs to its popular AAA game, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2 after fans slammed the company for chasing profits.
On the other hand, the popular online game developer Ubisoft has defied fan criticism and proceeded with its plans to introduce in-game items to selected gaming titles after launching Quartz, a blockchain gaming platform built on Tezos.
One of the most attractive features of blockchain gaming is the ability to reward gamers for their activity using NFTs.
The explosive growth of the metaverse, which saw computing software giant Microsoft acquire giant game developer Activision Blizzard for $69 billion is also a major feature of attraction as more people continue to embrace the 3D virtual world.
However, Plarium seems to be determined to stick with its community of gamers for now. Its parent Aristocrat is valued at about A$26 billion. Its annual revenue and net income of about A$4.4 billion and A$700 million respectively imply that if Plarium decided to jump on the blockchain gaming train, capital may not be an issue.
Some of Plarium’s top games include Raid: Shadow Legends, Vikings: War of Clans, Terminator Genisys: Future War and Sparta: War of Empires, among others.
Plarium bought Finish-based game developer Futureplay games last August to add to its 2017 acquisition of Rumble, both acquisitions have combined total funding rounds of nearly $50 million.
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