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Mythical Games launches early access for Blankos Block Party


Mythical Games has launched early access on the PC for its Blankos Block Party open-world multiplayer game, which offers unique game characters authenticated with nonfungible tokens (NFTs).

The Los Angeles-based Mythical Games is pioneering the idea of “playable NFTs,” using that technology to uniquely identify game characters so players can truly own them. NFTs use blockchain, the secure and transparent digital ledger, to authenticate unique digital items. Just last week, Mythical raised $75 million from WestCap and others to pursue the larger opportunity to license its NFT technology to other game companies.

CEO John Linden made the announcement today in a talk at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) event, which is an all-online trade show. The company revealed some major fashion, music, and art collaborations for Blankos Block Party. It has deals with Burberry, DeadMau5, Quiccs, and El Grand Chamaco. The E3 talk included numerous artists talking about the potential they see in the blending of NFTs, art, and games.

“We’re moving the game into early access, which is exciting, and adding a lot of new features in the game itself,” said Linde, in an interview with GamesBeat. “The MMO hub has been redesigned. Deadmau5 is going to be involved. Burberry is going to be announcing their first NFT. And we have a lot of great artists involved too.”

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Rob Manley, chief marketing officer at Burberry, said in the E3 talk that being a part of the gaming community is a big opportunity and it represents the company’s first move into NFTs.

Above: Burberry and Blankos have teamed up.

Image Credit: Mythical Games

Blankos Block Party has vinyl-style game characters who you earn (through gameplay), buy, or sell. It has begun testing its marketplace where players can buy and sell their characters, which can be customized or decorated with various things earned in the game.

The NFT craze

John Linden is CEO of Mythical Games.

Above: John Linden is CEO of Mythical Games.

Image Credit: Mythical

Mythical is one of many game companies offering a “play-to-earn” opportunity for gamers, enabling them to earn money from the time and investments they put into the game. NFTs have exploded in other applications, such as art, sports collectibles, and music. NBA Top Shot (a digital take on collectible basketball cards) is one example. Built by Dapper Labs, NBA Top Shot has surpassed $500 million in sales, five months after going public. And an NFT digital collage by the artist Beeple sold at Christie’s for $69.3 million. But more recently NFTs have seen price declines as some say that the hype is running out of steam.

While many NFT projects have been dismissed as overhyped schemes to get rich quick, Linden said in an interview with GamesBeat that the company wants to drive mass adoption of ownership in games through playable NFTs.

The playable NFTS in Blankos Block Party have the same utility as any character or accessory you might buy or earn in another game, but because of the blockchain technology behind them, players actually own what they buy and can sell them in real-money transactions when they no longer want or need them, unlocking the value of their time and money spent.

NFT marketplace

Above: Blankos Block Party’s marketplace.

Image Credit: Mythical Games

Pre-blockchain, players invested billions of dollars into digital items in other online games without a tangible way to benefit from it beyond gameplay advantages (or just showing off their bling); content remains locked behind their account because their purchase is really just a lease or licensing agreement, with no capability to transfer or sell, Mythical said. And while other secondary marketplaces have existed in the form of gray markets and black markets, players who participate are exposed to unsafe transactions, scams, and even the threat of losing their accounts for terms of service violations, the company said.

“The marketplace is where they can sell things,” he said. “Our accessories are still curated. But what the players can do then is, with most of the characters, players can now customize so they can level them up. We’ll keep adding things into this world. ”

Linden said that the various brands will have a lot of options for their NFT characters. They can limit the number of them or the time period in which they’re sold to create scarcity. They can also offer them at different prices. What’s different about this game is that blockchain enables provenance, or the capability to trace the history of an NFT. That means that brands can get paid a percentage of the sale price every time one of their NFT characters changes hands. And so they can benefit from a rise in price for an object over time.

You can buy Mythical's blockchain-based limited items for $25 to $150.

Above: You can buy Mythical’s blockchain-based limited items for $25 to $150.

Image Credit: Mythical Games

But the tech isn’t really easy to create. Mythical Games has more than 100 employees, and it has been working on its tech and game for three years, Linden said. Adding NFTs to a game means that a company has to create a digital wallet for players to securely hold their digital property. It sits on top of a blockchain platform, and that platform often has to be modified to reduce transaction costs, speed up transactions, and use less energy than the likes of Bitcoin and Ethereum. All of that takes engineering work, and Mythical is still hiring.

On top of that, Mythical Games is talking to other game companies to license its platform to them so that those game companies can create their own games with playable NFT characters.

Mythical wants to drive mass adoption of ownership in games through playable NFTs with the growth of its first game, Blankos Block Party; expansion to other gaming platforms; and new projects launching later this year and in 2022. Via its Mythical Economic Engine and Mythical Marketplace, the company says it is providing a platform for game developers to create their own player-owned economies, as well as new tools for content creators and brands to facilitate ownership of in-game assets.

Through the Mythical Marketplace, players can unlock the value of monetary, rarity, and time-based efforts by selling their NFTs to other players for real money, in safe and secure transactions with proof of authenticity.

Early access and influencer events

Above: Blankos Block Party has a marketplace for NFT characters.

Image Credit: Mythical

In the open beta for Blankos Block Party, Mythical has enabled player-designed levels. Players hold more than 100,000 NFTs; as the game’s audience continues to grow, earlier assets and specialized releases will become more scarce and likely more valuable in the secondary market, creating rarity on a mass-market scale and providing new sources of income for players.

Mythical streamers include KarlNetwork, Captain Sparklez, and KaraCorvus. Folks can tune in on Friday, June 18 to watch and even join some of their favorite streamers in Blankos and they can get a chance to get a playable NFT Twitch Drop.

Mythical's marketplace for the Blankos Block Party game.

Above: Mythical’s marketplace for the Blankos Block Party game.

Image Credit: Mythical

Mythical will work together with Deadmau5 (Joel Zimmerman) on a Blanko and accessory package modeled after his beloved cat, Professor Meowingtons, and the infamous deadmau5 helmet. This will drop in summer 2021.

Burberry will do a Blankos NFT drop, releasing this summer as a way to reach gamers. And Mythical is also working with Marathon Clothing, a brand owned by the late rapper Nipsey Hussle. They will work together on Blankos-related gear later this year.

And Mythical is working with El Grand Chamaco, an illustrator based in the small village of Los Ramones. El Grand Chamaco’s artworks are inspired by his Mexican roots, adopting the colorful vibrant palette of the culture into his 3D graphics. After years of perfecting his style, he gained his fame as a prominent illustrator and character designer—reimagining pop culture characters into his own depiction. And Mythical is working with Hackatao, an artist duo born in Milan in 2007. Hackatoo has pioneered crypto art since 2018.

Above: Alex Pardee is an artist who hopes to benefit from the NFT art craze.

Image Credit: Mythical Games

Blankos Block Party and the Mythical Marketplace are built on a private EOSIO blockchain using a proof of authority model that is more environmentally friendly and sustainable than the proof of work model (neither the game nor Blankos NFTs require any crypto mining). With Blankos Block Party and its Marketplace, Mythical aims to drive mass adoption of ownership in games through NFTs and blockchain technology, opening the door to a new kind of global game economy where creators are owners and players are asset holders. Mythical has raised $120 million to date and it has more than 100 employees.

Players can sign up now to join Blankos Block Party in early access on PC. The Mythical Marketplace, where players can buy and sell Blankos in peer-to-peer transactions for real money, is in its alpha phase and will continue rolling out to players this summer.

Linden said the game has had very good key performance indicators (KPIs) during its beta testing.

“We’re really taking the wraps off of all the fun stuff you can do in the game,” he said.

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