On Tuesday at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Nexon, one of the largest game publishers in Asia, announced the creation of a new Web3 game based on its pixelated 2D role-playing franchise MapleStory Universe.
MapleStory will enter Web3 with its own dedicated Supernet on the popular Ethereum scaling network Polygon. Hwang Sun-young, MapleStory Universe Group Leader, said Nexon will be working closely with Polygon’s team “to develop and market the game.”
According to Polygon Labs VP of Global Games and Platform Business Development, Urvit Goel, Polygon’s Supernet can handle the many daily transactions MapleStory expects considering how big the game and IP is. The Supernet also provides a dedicated sub-network for individual projects, customization options for creators, and they insulate decentralized apps (dApps) and games from potential performance problems on the broader public network.
MapleStory was first launched in 2003 and has become one of Nexon’s most successful games, generating more than $4 billion in revenue and amassing over 180 million registered users to date. According to the game’s steam page, it has over 260 million total players.
The MapleStory Universe will be an NFT-based game with its own crypto token — though no detailed information about the game’s tokenomics has been released. Players will be able to play-to-earn (P2E) NFTs and digital assets that can be traded or transferred via the game’s marketplace.
Nexon is a Japanese and South Korean company that makes most of its revenue from the South Korean market — and it’s not the only gaming company in Korea that’s chosen Polygon. According to Goel, eight of the top ten gaming companies in Korea are building on the Polygon blockchain.
MapleStory Universe does not have a release date yet, and there won’t be any NFT pre-sales. Instead, players will earn NFTs by playing the game.
Polygon Keeps Building in 2023
News of MapleStory’s upcoming Web3 game on Polygon is exciting for fans of the popular role-playing game from Nexon. But it certainly isn’t the only new project to choose Polygon as a partner. At Rarity Sniper, we’ve written several stories over the past couple of months about Polygon. Here are some of the top headlines.
First, yesterday, also at the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, the leading Web3 gaming platform Immutable announced it is partnering with Polygon to create a “one-stop-shop” to develop Web3 games. The two companies aim to onboard the next billion users into Web3 through their new partnership.
Next, about two months ago, Alethea AI announce it launched a new decentralized application with Polygon. The dApp lets users create their own avatar AI-generated NFTs by entering text, which they can trade on Polygon.
Lastly, Fractal, a popular Web3 gaming platform that began on the Solana blockchain, recently expanded to Polygon. The move brings Fractal’s entire Web3 gaming suite to Polygon, including an NFT marketplace, an NFT launch pad, and support for things like esports tournaments.
Although cryptocurrency prices are just beginning to recover after a dreary 2022, Polygon has proven that it can build in a bear market. Fans will have to patient for the MapleStory Universe to launch, but one thing is certain: Polygon blockchain isn’t going anywhere.