Nifty News: Dan Harmon’s NFT show set for season 3, NFT-friendly Square Enix CEO steps down and more…

March 4, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Square Enix’s NFT-friendly CEO is stepping down, but it may not impact the firm’s NFT plans, while Disney-backed Baobab Studios' first NFT drop sold out ahead of its upcoming RPG game.

Krapopolis, the NFT-affiliated cartoon series from Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon has been renewed for a third season by Fox, despite season one not even airing yet.

The Krapopolis team announced the renewal via Twitter in March. 2, and emphasized that NFT holders can still engage with the show before it airs.

HOLY KRAP! Citizens we just got BIG news that Krapopolis has been renewed for a *third season*. You don’t need to wait for the show to start, you can start participating now by voting, viewing exclusive content, redeeming rewards and more on https://t.co/vQCCep6yyq!

— Krapopolis (,) (@Krapopolis) March 2, 2023

Speaking to Deadline on March. 2, Michael Thorn, Fox’s president of scripted programming noted that “We’re so bullish about the work that we want to support and its ability to find an audience and succeed,” as he emphasized his faith in Harmon. “While [a third season order] is atypical, it was a no-brainer for us with Krapopolis,” he added.

Krapopolis is an animated comedy set in ancient Greece that follows a “flawed family of humans, gods and monsters that try to run one of the world’s first cities without killing each other.”

The case includes some big names such as Richard Ayode, Matt Berry, Pam Murphy, Duncan Trussell and Hannah Waddingham.

The series is produced by Fox Corp’s NFT firm Blockchain Creative Labs, which also provided the NFT-related elements for the show.

The NFTs themselves are called “Krap Chickens” and depict cartoon chicken avatars in the same style of art as the show. There are 10,420 tokens in total, with some still up for mint at 0.18 Ether (ETH).

Holders are given exclusive access to experiences, content, rewards and voting rights on certain aspects of the show.

Square Enix’s CEO steps down

Square Enix’s NFT-friendly CEO Yosuke Matsuda is stepping down after nearly 10 years at the helm of the firm behind the Fantasy franchise.

In a March notification of company changes, Square Enix outlined that Takashi Kiryu will take over the role of CEO from Matsuda. The move won't officially be finalized until an annual shareholders meeting in May however.

While Web 3 and NFTs weren’t referenced explicitly in the notification, the firm did indicate that it is still looking to push on with new tech integrations, suggesting its blockchain-related plans may remain unhindered.

“Under the rapid change of business environment surrounding the entertainment industry, the proposed change is intended to reshape the management team with the goal of adopting ever-evolving technological innovations and maximizing on the creativity of the Company’s group,” the filing read.

During his time at Square Enix, Matsuda outlined bullish sentiments on Web3 gaming on several occasions.

In a New Year’s letter from Jan. 1 in particular, Matsuda emphasized Square Enix had devoted “aggressive investment and business development efforts” towards the space in 2022, and would continue to do so in 2023.

“Following the excitement and exhilaration that surrounded NFTs and the metaverse in 2021, 2022 was a year of great volatility in the blockchain-related space,” he mentioned in the note, adding that:

“However, if this proves to have been a step in a process that leads to the creation of rules and a more transparent business environment, it will definitely have been for the good of the growth of blockchain entertainment.”

Under Mastuda’s leadership, Square Enix rolled out tokenized Final Fantasy character collectibles in July 2022 and partnered with the Oasys blockchain gaming project in September. In December, the firm also invested $52.7 million into mobile game developer Gumi Games, to help develop mobile-based play-to-earn titles.

Mint Madness

Multi-chain NFT marketplace Magic Eden has launched a “Mint Madness” campaign that offers free access, or “free mints” to 13 Web3 games in March.

Mint Madness went live on March. 3, and the name is a nod to the famous NCAA college basketball tournament dubbed "March Madness" which sees roughly 67 basketball games crammed into the month.

The blockchain games are spread across Polygon, Ethereum and Solana, with nine, three and one apiece respectively. Magic Eden is also offering a 20,000 Polygon (MATIC) prize pool worth roughly $23,200.

Announcing MINT MADNESS: 12+ FREE gaming mints across Polygon, ETH & SOL in March ️

The 10 top traders for our 9+ @0xPolygon mints can win $ from our 20K $MATIC prize pool

Register your Polygon wallet to enter https://t.co/hpXudzuaS1!
Don't forget to follow @MEOnPolygon! pic.twitter.com/KLFTBrnwxZ
— Magic Eden (@MagicEden) March 2, 2023

The prizes will go to the top 10 traders of the NFTs related to nine of the new games based on Polygon, with the top prize fetching 4,500 MATIC ($5,220).

The full list of available games during the promo includes Planet Mojo, Meta Star Strikers, Alaska Gold Rush, Shrapnel, Petobots, Blast Royale, Rogue Nation, Tearing Spaces, Freckle Trivia, Realm Hunter, Legendary: Heroes Unchained, Shrapnel, and Papu Superstars.

Disney-backed studio’s sell-out drop

Nine-time Emmy Award-winning, Disney-backed Baobab Studios sold out its first collection of 8,888 NFTs in just nine hours after launch on March. 2.

The journey begins, we have sold out. pic.twitter.com/letPxGkhUR
— Momoguro (@MomoguroNFT) March 3, 2023

The cartoon avatar-focused drop is called “Momoguro” and is tied to an upcoming role-playing (RPG) game on layer-2 Ethereum scaling solution, Immutable X.

The game itself has breeding elements, along with quests in a world named “Uno Plane,” with NFTs being a key part of the gaming experience.

According to data from CryptoSlam, the NFTs have generated $8.1 million worth of secondary sales to date, with $7.6 million of that coming on the day of launch.

Other Nifty News:

Layer-1 Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) blockchain Flare welcomed its first NFT platform, after Sparkles went live on March. 2. The platform is set to hone in on the interoperability of native Flare protocols to increase use cases for NFT utility.

On March. 1, Trading platform Robinhood launched its Web3 wallet on Apple’s App Store, becoming available to iOS users in over 130 countries.

Nifty News: GameStop NFT market goes live, Hong Kong’s NFT concept and more

November 1, 2022 Coin Telegraph

Adoption

The latest Web3 offering from GameStop sees the official launch of its NFT market, and the Hong Kong government is testing a proof-of-concept NFT at a convention.

The nonfungible token (NFT) marketplace for American video game retailer GameStop has officially gone live on Ethereum (ETH) layer 2 blockchain ImmutableX, all part of the latest Web3 push from the gaming retailer.

The pair first partnered in February to build the marketplace offering a $100 million grant for NFT content creators and tech developers before a public beta of the NFT marketplace debuted in July.

With the Oct. 31 announcement of the full launch, GameStop’s market will allow for popular Web3 games on ImmutableX such as the role-playing game Illuvium and Gods Unchained to be accessed by users.

Gamestop has worked to launch a series of Web3-powered products over the past year with a beta self-custody crypto wallet released in May that integrates with its NFT marketplace.

In March the retailer also launched its first beta NFT marketplace on Loopring, an Ethereum-based layer-2 protocol.

Most recently in September, GameStop announced a partnership with FTX US aimed at bringing more customers to crypto and working together on e-commerce and online marketing initiatives.

Hong Kong’s proof of concept NFTs

The Hong Kong government on Oct. 31 released a policy statement that set out its stance on virtual assets and detailed its related pilot projects, one of which involved NFTs.

Its NFT-based project is a proof of concept to promote the usage of NFTs with the government Financial Services and the Treasury Bureau (FSTB) and foreign investment department InvestHK issuing NFTs at their flagship Hong Kong Fintech Week event.

The NFT serves as proof of attendance for the conference-goers with the statement saying it's a “digital badge and memento using blockchain technology in celebration of their participation”.

The NFT can also be used to create an Augmented Reality (AR) avatar “to experience the Metaverse” while at the event and holders will receive a discount on tickets for the event in 2023.

Although it's not mentioned what blockchain the NFTs are minted on they can be stored in a crypto wallet, or for those who are without a wallet, can be stored as what the statement calls an “NFT-to-be” with a user storing it on an email address until they create a digital wallet.

Hong Kong Fintech Week kicked off on Oct. 31 and sees speakers from a range of Web3 firms including Yat Siu, co-founder of Animoca Brands, Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder of FTX, and Sebastien Borget, co-founder of The Sandbox metaverse and others.

Art Gobblers makes over $20M hours after launch

NFT project “Art Gobblers” created by Justin Roiland, the co-creator of the popular animated show Rick and Morty, has seen nearly $20.5 million in ETH volumes just seven hours after launch.

The project is a collaboration between Roiland and venture capital firm Paradigm, and describes itself as an “experimental decentralized art factory.”

According to Blur data, the project is seeing strong launch success with 12,906 ETH in volume at the time of writing.

According to a Paradigm overview, the Art Gobblers ecosystem is intended to work by financially incentivizing artists and collectors in a feedback loop for both to contribute to the project, either with better art, or more money.

*A diagram explaining the intention of the Art Gobblers ecosystem. Image:* *Paradigm*

Artists create a drawing using the websites tool which can then be turned into an NFT provided they have enough native tokens called GOO, these NFTs can then be “eaten” by an Art Gobbler which will store the artwork in its “belly gallery” with the NFT artwork associated to that Gobbler on-chain.

The project also enacts other deflationary measures such as restricting the amount of NFTs that can be minted and mechanisms that automatically adjust prices in coordination with an issuance schedule.

The initial mint saw 2,000 “Gobblers” minted with the community expected to spend GOO tokens to mint a further 8,000 over the next 10 years.

Cardano NFTs hit third place for trading volume

Cardano (ADA) NFTs surged in trading volume over the past month placing the blockchain in third place according to an Oct. 27 report by analytics platform DappRadar.

The report said in the last 30 days Cardano’s NFT volume reached $191 million bringing it to the third-largest NFT protocol behind Ethereum and Solana (SOL).

The blockchain’s popular NFT marketplace JPG Store saw a 40% increase in trading volume in the last 30 days also which reached a value of $11.2 million.

DappRadar attributes the surge to the blockchain’s Vasil hard fork upgrade that went live on Sep. 22 which brought with it increased efficiency for its smart contracts allowing decentralized applications to deploy and run at lower costs.

More Nifty News:

American National Basketball League (NBA) athlete Steph Curry filed a trademark application for a so-called “Curryverse” that could see the basketball champion granted exclusive rights for, among other things, “metaversal appearances.”

A Japanese city has adopted a metaverse-based school to try to get students to attend classes with students able to explore a virtual campus and classrooms, although the students must gain permission from their real school principals before attending.

Broadcast Company Fox to Launch NFTs and a Blockchain-Curated Animated Series

May 18, 2021 Bitcoin.com

Fox Unveils NFT Company, Blockchain Creative Labs

May 18, 2021 The Crypto Briefing

Fox teams up with Rick and Morty co-creator on animated NFT series

May 18, 2021 Coin Telegraph

Coin Telegraph

Fox will launch a nonfungible token marketplace for its upcoming animated series, Krapoplis.

Fox Broadcasting Company has teamed up with Rick and Morty co-creator Dan Harmon to develop what they describe as the “first-ever animated series curated entirely on the Blockchain.”

The animated comedy series, dubbed “Krapopolis,” will be launched alongside a dedicated marketplace that will host the sale of tokenized digital goods including nonfungible tokens depicting the characters and artwork featured throughout the show. The show also hopes to reward its most devoted fans with tokens that unlock “exclusive social experiences.”

Alongside the partnership, Fox announced the launch of the new NFT company “Blockchain Creative labs,” which is expected to operate the marketplace for Krapopolis and other shows in the future.

While details are sparse on what exactly “curated entirely on the blockchain” means, Fox Entertainment CEO Charlie Collier noted plans to introduce advertising partners to NFTs during a streamed presentation announcing the platform, stating:

“Not to go too far into it today, but as an advertiser-focused, artist-first and animation-obsessed company, Fox is going to take advertisers into the world of blockchain-powered tokens, including NFTs.”

Krapopolis will be produced by Fox-owned Bento Box Entertainment, however, the series holds no reference to crypto as it is set in ancient Greece and focused on a “flawed family of humans, gods and monsters that tries to run one of the world’s first cities without killing each other.”

Dan Harmon rose to fame for writing and co-creating Community and Rick and Morty — with the animated series Rick and Morty winning Primetime Emmy awards in 2018 and 2020. The series is a loose parody of the popular movie Back To The Future, following the antics of time-traveling scientist Rick and his grandson Morty.

Justin Roiland, the other co-creator of Rick and Morty. has been quick to cash in on the recent NFT mania. In January, Roiland sold an NFT dubbed “The First Ever Edition Of Rick And Morty Cryptoart” for $150,000 through a silent auction on the Gemini-owned NFT platform, Nifty Gateway.

Rick and Morty