ICONLOOP and Korean game developer 2bytes held a media round table last week to promote their upcoming blockchain game platform SPERA.
As reported earlier, SPERA will allow gamers to use and trade NFTs from other blockchain networks using ICON’s BTP technology, setting it apart from other “walled garden” platforms.
ICONLOOP CEO J.H. Kim explained how the interchain platform might work. For example, you might be able to bring an NFT from, say, CryptoPunks into a game, and this would boost the skills or item acquisition rate of your in-game character. Or you could bring into games NFTs from other networks like Ethereum, Klaytn or Solana.
Kim said game development companies have told him the biggest hurdle they face in adopting blockchain is that it inevitably locks them into a particular blockchain network.
Being able to use NFTs from different blockchains will lead to more entertaining games, though it also requires developing completely new games with interchain capability built in.
This is where 2bytes comes in. Most of the game developer’s key members come from major Korean game studios like Pearl Abyss and NCSOFT.
CEO Ham Young Chul spent a while at Pearl Abyss, where he was in charge of the MMORPG Black Desert Online and Black Desert Mobile. He said while NFTs might be experiencing a boom, the fact that you can’t do anything with them is a problem. Existing games have a problem, too — namely, that when game companies end service for a title, the gamers who enjoyed that title and consumed its content are left with nothing.
SPERA represents an attempt to resolve these problems. Ham said they’re already pretty far along in game development, and should be able to show results within the year. In particular, he was focusing on making games that are both fun — something lacking in many existing blockchain games — and provide opportunities to earn NFTs.
That is, 2bytes is designing games that feel more “play-and-get” than “play-2-earn.”
Ham repeatedly emphasized that SPERA’s games will be fun, rather than boring excuses to make crypto. People will play the games because they are fun, and they will have full ownership over the things they earn while playing.
More information about SPERA will come sometime after late March, when a second teaser page is launched. Additional game studios are expected to join the project as partners, too, and will be announced later.
