1. Home
  2. World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft

‘Huge signal and validation’ — Top Activision exec to take Yuga Labs’ helm

Kieran Warwick, co-founder of blockchain role-playing game Illuvium, believes Yuga Labs' latest hire will be a boon for GameFi.

The appointment of one of Activision Blizzard's highest-ranking executives to a leadership position at Bored Ape Yacht Club parent Yuga Labs has been seen as a boon for its metaverse efforts and another validation of the crypto industry.

On Dec. 19, Yuga Labs confirmed it has appointed Daniel Alegre — the current president and chief operating officer of Activision Blizzard — as its new CEO. He'll take the helm of the company in the first half of 2023, succeeding the current chief executive, Nicole Muniz. 

Activision Blizzard, a gaming giant with a market cap of around $60 billion, is responsible for popular gaming franchises such as Call of Duty, World of Warcraft, Diablo and Overwatch. Alegre has held the role since 2020.

Kieran Warwick, the co-founder of blockchain role-playing game Illuvium, said in a Dec. 19 tweet that Yuga Labs'  new hire is “Big for all of GameFi,” suggesting that the next crypto market bull run will be sparked by Web3-powered gaming. 

“Every day more news comes out about new players from traditional gaming entering the space. DeFi 2.0 is cool. But gaming will be the narrative that kicks off the next run,” he explained.

Andrew Soro, vice president of global business development at blockchain tech company Immutable, had similar thoughts in a response to Warwick, noting that the appointment is a “[h]uge signal and validation for the space.”

Nonfungible token (NFT) proponent and managing partner of NFT investment fund Sfermion Andrew Steinwold called the news “WILD.”

“Someone of that caliber jumping into the NFT space to head one of the leading companies?! Huge news & positive signal for our whole industry,” he said.

According to the Dec. 19 release from Yuga Labs, Alegre will work closely with Yuga Labs founders Wylie Aronow and Greg Solano.

Aronow explained they had “been on the hunt for someone with Daniel’s skill set for some time,” to help with “our vision of a truly interoperable metaverse.”

In a statement, Alegre said he looked forward to the new role, noting that the company’s pipeline of products, partnerships and intellectual property represents a “massive opportunity to define the metaverse” in a way that gives creators and users ownership of their identity and digital assets.

His contract with Blizzard ends on March 31, at which point he will take the reigns of CEO at Yuga Labs.  Muniz, the current CEO, is set to stay on as a partner and strategic advisor.

Related: How GameFi contributes to the growth of crypto and NFTs

Founded in 2021, blockchain technology company Yuga Labs develops digital collectibles and is arguably most famous for its Bored Ape Yacht Club and Mutant Ape Yacht Club NFT collections.

It has been working on a Metaverse product called "Otherside,” which makes use of gaming mechanics from mainstream MMORPGs and Web3 tech.

Otherside attracted 4,500 people for the “first trip” tech demo on July 16, and developers have said in the project litepaper that development will be shaped by community member participation going forward.

On Nov. 15, the company acquired 10KTF, an NFT game founded by digital artist Mike “Beeple” Winkelmann.

3 Crypto Titans—Blackrock, Grayscale, and Fidelity—Dominate 85% of US Bitcoin ETF Reserves

Vitalik Buterin suggests making NFTs ‘soulbound’ like World of Warcraft items

NFTs are known for their transferability and commercial viability, but there are also downsides to those features, according to Buterin.

In a blog post published Wednesday, Vitalik Buterin, co-founder of Ethereum (ETH), expressed his wishes to make nonfungible tokens, or NFTs, soulbound as with the namesake item class in popular MMORPG World of Warcraft, or WoW. In outlining his reasons, Buterin explained that if someone shows they own an NFT that is obtainable by doing X, such as attending an auction, it is not possible to tell if the person actually obtained it from the auction themselves in attendance or simply bought the NFT via the secondary market.

An example of a soulbound item in WoW | Source: Blizzard Watch

The soulbound feature in WoW prevents an item from being traded, mailed, or sold at the in-game Auction House to other players. It was designed by developers to prevent "twinking" or passing down gear from high-level to low-level characters to dramatically speed up the grinding process of fighting monsters to gain experience.

However, they also serve the purpose of demonstrating achievement; that is, the character earned the item by defeating challenging bosses and not via an heirloom. The latter property seems to be of interest to Buterin, as the Ethereum co-founder raised the point that on-chain proposals to store driver's licenses, university degrees, etc., would face problems if someone who doesn't meet the necessary conditions can readily purchase them.

Buterin also spoke highly of the "proof of attendance protocol" project POAP, which stores digital mementos of one's life on-chain, and issues a unique badge supported by a cryptographic record. The team behind the project encourages developers who care about transferability to check "on-chain if the current owner is the same address as the original owner." But like soulbound items in WoW, taking away the transferability of NFTs would also presumably take away their commercial viability.

3 Crypto Titans—Blackrock, Grayscale, and Fidelity—Dominate 85% of US Bitcoin ETF Reserves