Looking to drive synergies from new blockchain game
Mobile game publisher turned blockchain outfit Animoca Brands continues to build market momentum with another acquisition – mobile game developer Pixowl.
We believe the blockchain version of The Sandbox has incredible potential
Best known for its The Sandbox games, which have generated 40 million downloads and have one million MAUs who have created 57 million worlds, Pixowl has also worked on games using IP such as Peanuts, Garfield and Goosebumps.
However, the main selling point for the deal – worth $4.875 million, split $520,000 cash and the rest in Animoca shares – is Pixowl’s recently announced The Sandbox blockchain game.
Due to be released in 2019, this will enable players to sell their creations as non-fungible tokens, which should encourage a strong trading mechanic. Pixowl plans to launch a marketplace to seed this activity in late 2018.
Headquartered in San Francisco with its development based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, Pixowl is also planning a token sale for game’s ERC20 SAND token.
Animoca Brands builds on strategy
The news follows a strings of deals for Animoca, which is based in Hong Kong and floated on the Australian stock exchange under the ASX: AB1 ticker.
It recently raised $1 million from Hong Kong investment firm Sun Hung Kai and Lithuanian blockchain fitness company Lympo, also acquiring Finnish mobile developer Tribeflame, and closing a deal with Dapper Labs and HTC to bring CryptoKitties to mobile devices.
“Our acquisition of Pixowl provides powerful strategic and operational synergies with Animoca Brands,” commented Animoca co-founder Yat Siu.
The Sandbox demonstrates our vision of a next-generation User Generated Content gaming ecosystem.
“We believe the blockchain version of The Sandbox has incredible potential. Pixowl shares our vision of blockchain gaming, NFT’s, and games as a platform. We look forward to utilising the many opportunities for growth conferred by this acquisition.”
“Animoca Brands is a perfect fit for Pixowl and we are happy to add our brand relationships to its portfolio while accelerating growth for our key IP, The Sandbox, with a new 3D version that will integrate blockchain technology and demonstrate our vision of a next-generation User Generated Content gaming ecosystem,” added Pixowl CEO Arthur Madrid.
You can see Arthur Madrid talking about The Sandbox at Blockchain Gamer Connects San Francisco 2018 below.
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