Cantina Royale Builds Web3 Entertainment For The Next Billion Gamers, Powered By Elrond Network And Strategic Investment From Elrond Research
Blockchain gaming has experienced rapid growth over the last years, with the market reaching $3 billion USD in 2021 and projected to grow beyond $40 billion USD by 2025. More than 1.5 million people are enjoying blockchain games today, which is an impressive number for such a relatively new niche, but still a far cry from the 3.24 billion people who have played “classical” games in 2021.
There are a number of reasons for the relatively small adoption of blockchain gaming relative to the broader gaming sphere, such as:
- Friction generated by the blockchain component, which typically requires users to install wallets and buy crypto currency before being able to play
- Focus on Play-to-Earn mechanisms, which are often detrimental to the enjoyment of the game and can make regular gamers feel like the game is asking them to invest rather than offering them the opportunity to be entertained
- App store restrictions imposed by both Apple and Google on blockchain-enabled products, which potentially leave 2.1 billion mobile gamers outside of the reach of blockchain gaming
Web3 Entertainment For The Next Billion Users
Overcoming the aforementioned topics is essential for bringing blockchain gaming to the next billion gamers. This is why we are excited to announce that Elrond Research has made a strategic investment in Cantina Royale, a free-to-play action game that taps into Web3 via Verko, the Layer 2 Metaverse experience framework.
“The adoption model put forward by Cantina Royale has very high chances of breaking through the relatively narrow blockchain-gaming space and reach global audiences. The next billion gamers can tap into exciting entertainment with zero added friction from the crypto side of things. This is thanks to the seamless integration of Elrond’s internet-scale blockchain technology with the Verko Metaverse experience framework used by the game.” said Lucian Todea, Elrond Network Co-Founder and COO.
Cantina Royale is a top-down real-time arcade shooter that will be simultaneously released on iOS, Android, Windows and MacOS.
The game features an optional blockchain component that opens up possibilities for players to engage with Play-to-Earn mechanisms and NFTs in a novel way, such as importing existing NFTs as playable characters.
Notably, Bored Apes are already integrated as playable characters, so owners of the popular NFTs can bring their apes to life inside the game.
The game also features an NFT Lending Marketplace that gives Free-2-Play users the possibility to experience a Play-2-Earn game by borrowing an NFT while sharing rewards with the NFT owners.
The Metaverse-Scale Blockchain Engine
The blockchain part of the game uses the novel Layer 2 gaming protocol Verko, which acts as a plug and play mechanism that any game can use to tap into the benefits of blockchain technology through the use of APIs. Verko relies on the Elrond Network for fast and inexpensive blockchain transactions and NFTs that are embedded into the core protocol for maximum efficiency.
Cantina Royale raised $4.5 million in funding through a round led by Elrond and Mechanism Capital. Other investors include Crypto.com, Morningstar Ventures, Animoca Brands, Skynet EGLD Capital, GBV Capital, Good Games Guild, Chingari and more. The funding will help the team continue development and begin building new and exciting features and game modes.
Read the official press release: https://cointelegraph.com/press-releases/elrond-based-cantina-royale-to-launch-f2p-p2e-game-on-ios-android
About Elrond
Elrond is a new blockchain architecture, designed from scratch to bring a 1000-fold cumulative improvement in throughput and execution speed. To achieve this, Elrond introduces two key innovations: a novel Adaptive State Sharding mechanism, and a Secure Proof of Stake (PoS) algorithm, enabling linear scalability with a fast, efficient, and secure consensus mechanism. Thus, Elrond can process upwards of 15,000 transactions per second (TPS), with 6-second latency, and negligible cost, attempting to become the backbone of a permissionless, borderless, globally accessible internet economy.
About Cantina Royale
The product of a 15-strong team with decades of shared experience, Cantina Royale, is led by game designer Dan Bojan and developer Paul Szanto. Bojan has previously worked with Angry Mob Games on successful projects such as Predators, Alien vs. Predator and Muffin Knight. He’s also collaborated with Facebook, Google and Valve on virtual reality and Android console projects. Szanto, meanwhile, is head of engineering for Phenomenon Games and has worked for Gameloft and Angry Mob Games on major gaming projects.
About Elrond Research
Elrond Research is the strategic innovation lab of Elrond Network. Its mission is to identify and foster game changing projects building with internet-scale blockchain technology. With research and support provided by the very architects of the Elrond technology and ecosystem, every outstanding team gains a moonshot chance.
Lucian Todea, Co-founder & COO of MultiversX, is a seasoned tech entrepreneur with a remarkable track record. As the Founder & CEO of Soft32, he achieved a staggering 10 million users per month. Additionally, Lucian's role as a partner at mobilPay underscores his significant influence in the tech world. He further demonstrates his prowess as an angel investor in Typing DNA and Smart Bill, solidifying his reputation as a pivotal figure in the industry.
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