Animoca Brands Japan Teams up With Square Enix to Market ‘Symbiogenesis’ and Its NFT Collection

April 23, 2024 Bitcoin.com

Square Enix announces auction dates for Symbiogenesis NFTs

November 24, 2023 Coin Telegraph

The company said Symbiogenesis NFTs will be auctioned off in three separate phases.

Final Fantasy game developer Square Enix announced auction dates for its upcoming Symbiogenesis non-fungible tokens (NFTs). In a Nov. 24 social media post, the team said it would sell the NFTs in three batches. The first batch will be auctioned from Nov. 27-28, the second from Nov. 30-Dec. 4 and the third from Dec. 2 to Dec. 3. Symbiogenesis is Square Enix’s upcoming blockchain game that features Ethereum-based NFTs.

Starting next week, it's finally time for the start of the auction!

Phase 1: 11/27 12:00 - 11/28 11:59 (JST)
Phase 2: 11/30 12:00 - 12/1 11:59 (JST)
Phase 3: 12/2 12:00 - 12/3 11:59 (JST)

More details herehttps://t.co/MFprrApwio #SYMBIOGENESIS
— SYMBIOGENESIS -NFT Art＆Game Project- | SQUARE ENIX (@symbiogenesisPR) November 24, 2023

According to the game’s documents, the first phase will include facet and mesh characters and will only allow “stakeholders” to participate. This seems to imply that only early investors will be able to participate in the Novemb 27-28 phase. The second and third phases will be available to participants in an “allowlist entry campaign,” the documents state.

From Nov. 7 to Nov21, the game’s team ran the allowlist entry campaign. Collectors were asked to participate in a series of quizzes, as well as a “treasure hunt” that took place within a prototype version of the Symbiogenesis game world.

*Symbiogenesis game world, as shown on its homepage. Source: Square Enix.*

The participants earned NFT “relics” as a result of these activities, and they scored points toward participating in phase 2. The to 50 highest scores will be allowed to acquire NFTs in phase 2, as well 40 random participants ranked 51st to 300th. The rest of the participants will be allowed to bid on items in phase 3.

Square Enix describes Symbiogenesis as a "narrative-unlocked NFT entertainment" game. It is scheduled to be launched on Dec 21.

Square Enix is the creator of the Final Fantasy series of games, which the company claims has sold over 173 million units. It launched Final Fantasy NFT trading cards on March 31. In April, the company announced it was partnering with Web3 infrastructure provider Elixir, although details of the partnership have been scarce.

Nifty News: Yuga Labs scores court battle win, Mandala Metaverse to drop on Polkadot and more…

April 22, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Bored Ape Yacht Club

A Metaverse/AR story game is coming to Polkadot, Square Enix has made another Web3 gaming play, and an NFT esports cricket game has launched on Tezos.

Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) creators Yuga Labs has scored a key win in its long-running court battle with Ryder Ripps, the co-creator of copycat NFT project RR/BAYC.

Yuga Labs initially filed a complaint against Ryder Ripps and co-founder Jeremy Cahen back in July 2022, alleging that the duo had engaged in trademark infringement, false advertising, and unfair competition, among other things.

In a pre-trial summary judgment ruling on April 21, a U.S. district court in central California found that Ripps and Cahen had infringed Yuga Lab’s trademarks with their RR/BAYC NFT collection.

The Court further ruled that Yuga Labs is entitled to an injunction and damages, the latter of which will be determined at trial.

In a message shared with Cointelegraph, a Yuga Labs spokesperson said:

"In a landmark legal victory for web3, a federal judge found that Ryder Ripps and Jermey Cahen infringed Yuga Lab’s intellectual property. This isn’t just a win for us, it’s a win for the entire web3 industry to hold scammers and counterfeiters accountable."

Ryder Ripps and Jeremy Cahen created the BAYC derivative NFT collection RR/BAYC back in May 2022 as a satire and protest against Yuga Labs. The project essentially uses all of the same imagery from the BAYC NFTs.

Ripps in particular, is behind a conspiracy theory in which he alleges that Yuga Labs purposely designed the BAYC NFT artwork to convey racist caricatures. Additionally, Ripps also asserts that the project’s logo and branding have several nods to certain Nazi symbology and language.

Mandala Metaverse to drop on Polkadot

Upcoming cross-chain augmented reality (AR) game Mandala Metaverse has chosen Polkadot parachain Astar Network to host its first major NFT drop on April 28.

Mandala Metaverse is a story-based project that has content spanning across TV, graphic novels, gaming and AR. Its gaming elements have been developed in Epic Game’s Triple-A quality Unreal Engine.

The drop is called the “Cryptonauts” and the NFTs depict different avatars that will serve as playable characters in the game. The artwork was illustrated by comic artist Bruce Zick, who has worked on projects for giants such as Disney and Marvel.

1/ Mandala Metaverse (@enterthemandala), a cross-platform game and interoperable metaverse, has chosen @AstarNetwork for its NFT drop, leveraging features that are available #OnlyOnPolkadot. pic.twitter.com/cnK3Zcf4AG
— Polkadot (@Polkadot) April 21, 2023

Polkadot is not necessarily a blockchain that is known for hosting gaming and NFT projects, with the network not even having any recorded sales data on aggregators such as Crypto Slam.

Regarding the decision to take the Cryptonauts NFTs to Polkadot, Mandala Metaverse CEO Jon Shanker, noted:

"Polkadot has real future-proof NFT applications, such as nesting, staking and the ability to send NFTs over bridges - plus many other innovative ways to use NFT assets. We can now do things we didn’t think were possible."

Square Enix partners with Elixir Games

Final Fantasy developers Square Enix has partnered with Web3 infrastructure firm Elixir Games to bring blockchain gaming to the mainstream.

The move was announced on April 19, however specific details on the partnership are sparse at this stage.

Elixir hosts both traditional and Web3 games on its platform, and also offers Web3 distribution features for its partnered games, such as NFTs sales and marketplaces.

As such, Square Enix will likely take advantage of those features when launching games via Elixir, something the firm has become increasingly interested in doing over the past year or so.

“This partnership brings us closer to Web3 gaming mass adoption. Our team is incredibly excited to bring our technology to work, and we foresee Elixir users playing Web2 and Web3 games alike without distinction,” Carlos Roldan, Elixir Games CEO, said as part of the announcement, adding that:

“2023 has already seen more industry leaders enter the space with impactful projects, and we anticipate to see more as the year progresses. We’ve put all efforts to ensure we are ready for scalability.”

NFT cricket game on Tezos

A free-to-play multiplayer NFT cricket strategy game called “Cricket Stars” has been launched on the Tezos blockchain.

The game is being led by Tezos India — an organization that focuses on developing projects on Tezos — in partnership with esports game publisher GoLive Games. Despite the name however, no licensing deals with actual cricket stars appear to be in place.

Cricket Stars follows a similar model to other sports NFT games like Sorare, by offering player cards that can be used have an affect on the game, or traded on the market place. The game also offers player vs player modes, knockout tournaments and esports tournaments.

"We understand the power of blockchain technology and its role in the gaming ecosystem. Our partnership with Tezos India is an astounding statement of blockchain technology becoming an integral part of the gaming industry," noted GoLive Games founder Ravi Kiran as part of the announcement.

Nifty News: Trump NFTs pump after indictment, Q1 trading volume hits $4.7B and more…

April 2, 2023 Coin Telegraph

Nifty News: Trump NFTs pump after indictment, Q1 trading volume hits .7B and more…

Coin Telegraph

The total NFT market trading volume in Q1 hit $4.7 billion, more than doubling the previous quarter, while Square Enix dropped Final Fantasy trading cards that can't actually be traded, yet.

Oddly, following news of a New York Grand Jury voting to indict former president Donald Trump on March 30, the floor price for the officially licensed Trump Digital Trading Cards NFT project pumped.

According to data from OpenSea, NFT traders were seemingly spurred into action by the announcement, with the floor price moving from 0.46 Ether (ETH) or $835 at current prices, to as high as 0.6 ETH ($1090) on the same day.

*Trump Digital Trading Cards floor price. Source: OpenSea*

It is worth noting that when the project launched in December, it offered exclusive one-on-one experiences to certain NFT hodlers, such as private golf sessions, dinners and conversations with Trump.

Given the indictment news, it could potentially have an impact on the forty-fifth's potential to deliver on such experiences.

At the time of writing, the floor price has since dropped back to around the 0.51 range. The price still sits well above the initial mint price of $99 from December.

NFT sales hit $4.7B in Q1

According to a March 30 report from blockchain analytics platform DappRadar, there was a total of $4.7 billion worth of NFT trading volume in Q1, more than double that of the previous quarter.

The firm pointed to bullish action coming from the Blur marketplace in particular, which took the market by storm in February during its token airdrop farming period.

The $4.7 billion came from a total of 19.4 million NFT sales in Q1, marking an increase of 8.56%, while total volume increased by 147% compared to the $1.9 billion posted in Q4 2022.

*Total NFT market trading volume. Source: DappRadar*

The Ethereum network accounted for a whopping $4.1 billion worth of the volume, with second-placed Solana contributing $242 million, while Polygon notably ranked third with $85 million for the quarter.

*Trading volume by blockchains. Source: DappRadar*

Square Enix drops Final Fantasy NFT trading cards

Square Enix, the Japanese gaming giant behind the widely popular Final Fantasy franchise, has released NFT trading cards in celebration of the twenty-fifth anniversary of Final Fantasy VII.

The NFTs come as part of the Final Fantasy VII Anniversary Art Museum Digital Card Plus collection, which features five physical cards and a sixth digital NFT card.

*Final Fantasy VII trading card artwork. Source: Square Enix*

However, despite being called trading cards, Square Enix stated on its website that the NFTs can’t actually be traded or transferred at this stage, unless the company decides to build a marketplace in the future.

“If we decide to support the marketplace in the future, we will notify you,” the website reads.

The packs were dropped on March 31 and cost around $3.30 a pop, with the card artwork depicting various characters and scenery from the iconic Final Fantasy VII game.

While it is unclear if the firm intends to build a marketplace to support its digital collectibles, Square Enix has been gradually ramping up its NFT and blockchain gaming-related initiatives over the past couple of years, suggesting something could be in the works.

NFT flight tickets

Low-cost Argentinean airline Flybondi has launched domestic NFT flight tickets under an initiative called “Ticket 3.0.”

According to a rough translation of a March 29 announcement from the firm, users of the new service will be able to directly change names on the tickets, transfer them to other people, or give them away, essentially streamlining the firm’s current ticketing models.

“With Ticket 3.0, our passengers will have greater flexibility and control over their trips because they will be able to transfer, rename or give away their tickets in a simple and autonomous way,” noted Flybondi CEO Mauricio Sana, adding that:

“With this launch, we seek to generate a positive impact in the aviation industry through innovation and an application of blockchain technology.”

The move comes as part of an expanded partnership with NFT ticketing company TravelX, which launched late last year and utilizes the Algorand blockchain for its tokenization.

Other Nifty News:

Wakweli, a Web3 infrastructure protocol that issues certificates of authenticity, has officially partnered with layer-2 scaling platform Polygon to make NFT authentication possible.

On March 27, United States-based ticketing company Ticketmaster announced a new feature — token-gated ticket sales — allowing artists to reward NFT holders with exclusive benefits, including “special presales, prime seats, custom travel packages and access to unique concert experiences.”

The Pokémon Company Might Be Preparing to Make Moves in the Metaverse

March 15, 2023 Bitcoin.com

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

Baobab Studios

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.

Square Enix to Use Polygon’s Network in Symbiogenesis, Its Upcoming Web3 Experience

February 17, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Square Enix to Deepen Its Blockchain Efforts in 2023

January 4, 2023 Bitcoin.com

Japanese Gaming Company Gumi Partners With Square Enix and SBI Holdings to Strengthen Metaverse Pivot

December 28, 2022 Bitcoin.com

Nifty News: Square Enix invests into NFT gaming firm, Beeple speaks on NFT art future and more…

December 26, 2022 Coin Telegraph

beeple

Pokémon Company International has taken an Australian company to court over advertising an unlicensed NFT-based Pokémon game and HSBC has filed for a host of NFT and Metaverse trademarks.

NFT-friendly Japanese gaming giant Square Enix has invested 7 billion yen ($52.7 million) into game developer Gumi to create “high-quality” mobile games, blockchain games and a Metaverse initiative, among other things.

According to a translat ion of the press release, the partnership will help Gumi tap certain intellectual property from Square Enix, while it has also teased that the duo could be teaming up for a game-NFT-focused marketplace.

“We are already considering the establishment of a platform dedicated to blockchain games and an NFT marketplace, etc. Through collaboration between the two companies, we will provide a one-stop service from the development and distribution of blockchain games to the sale and distribution of tokens and NFTs.”

The company also outlined plans to work on a host of NFT games that will likely have Metaverse integrations. The Japanese company has outlined a quirky new term called “Wow and Earn” which essentially refers to games built off of world-famous IP that is integrated with blockchain-based Play-to-Earn (P2E) features.

“In the future, while considering the use of powerful content that everyone recognizes, we will break away from the highly speculative blockchain games of the past and create value while enjoying fun and excitement. We strongly recognize that it is necessary for game users all over the world to create a blockchain game that realizes ‘Wow and Earn,'" the release reads.

Gumi also stated that its “working day and night” to develop its Metaverse-focused arm of the business, as it looks to add another source of revenue outside of mobile games.

Gumi has previously worked with Square Enix on a couple of mobile games as part of the Final Fantasy Brave Exvius series, and both firms are partners of the Oasys blockchain-gaming project, which is building its own network designed purely for P2E gaming.

Beeple outlines future of NFTs and art

Michael Winkelmann, the widely successful digital artist also known as Beeple, believes that all physical art in the future will one day have an NFT attached to it.

Speaking with the Wall Street Journal on Dec. 23, Beeple suggested that NFTs will massively help the art industry by providing superior methods for tracking provenance and storing verifiably authentic data.

“I think all paintings will eventually have NFTs attached just because again, it's a better system than just handing you a piece of paper,” he said, adding that:

“If you had a standardization around ‘this is a painting,’ you could have all the provenance in the metadata of that NFT. You could have [that data on] where that painting was shown. So it’s all there and it's searchable in a database.”

As such, he thinks that NFTs will eventually help build a standardized art database that “everyone relies on.”

Pokemon takes NFT company to court

Pokémon Company International has taken an Australian company to court over advertising an unlicensed NFT-based Pokémon game, according to documents lodged with the Federal Court of Australia.

The company in question is called “Pokémon Pty Ltd” and it has been advertising an unlicensed “metauniverse” P2E game on Ethereum called Pokeworld.

On its website, it also claims to work on a host of official Pokemon games in the past, while it also claims to have an official partnership with Pokémon Company International.

However in the court documents, the Pokemon IP holders are seeking to restrain Pokémon Pty Ltd from representing that they hold any license, partnership or rights to sell Pokemon NFTs.

It has also called for the company to halt the launch of the game, promote it using Pokemon trademarks on its website and social media.

HSBC trademarks

British multinational mega bank HSBC has filed virtual trademarks for its name and logo, outlining potential plans for a host of NFT, blockchain and Metaverse products.

In its filing, highlighted by licensed trademark attorney, Mike Kondoudis via Twitter on Dec. 23, the HSBC lists a host of products and services including downloadable NFT virtual goods and files, virtual world friendly debit cards, NFT music and video content files.

The Metaverse appears to be a keen focus in the filing, as it also states that it is looking at providing financial advisory and entertainment services in the Metaverse and other virtual worlds.

#HSBC has filed trademark applications for its name and logo. The applications indicate plans for:

▶️ Digital media backed by NFTs
▶️ Virtual currency exchange + transfer
▶️ Virtual credit card processing
…and more!#NFTs #Metaverse #Cryptocurrency #Blockchain #Crypto pic.twitter.com/RK1yegoYIh
— Mike Kondoudis (@KondoudisLaw) December 23, 2022

Other Nifty News:

Hackers linked to North Korea’s Lazarus Group are reportedly behind a massive phishing campaign targeting NFT investors — utilizing nearly 500 phishing domains to dupe victims.

NFT marketplace OpenSea has been banning artists and collectors from Cuba, citing United States sanctions as the key reason behind its action.

square enix