Famed game producer of the Dead or Alive and Ninja Gaiden series Tomonobu Itagaki has announced the launch of the Web3-focused Apex Game Studios where he is now hard at work building a high quality NFT-based game called Warrior.
The blockchain gaming industry is largely ignoring the ongoing ‘crypto winter’, with over $1.3 billion in recent investments going to GameFi and Metaverse projects and new gaming projects continuously launching. Apex Game Studios is no exception, and Itagaki is aiming to make a big splash in the Web3 gaming industry — a space infamous for being obsessed with making money while paying little regard to entertainment value.
Itagaki’s past games are well-known for being beautiful, highly engaging and downright difficult-to-beat quality console action games. In short, they’re video games in the classic vein, and Itagaki has promised that Warrior will very much be one of his darlings — albeit a bit easier to play. His new game studio is gearing up to kick off GameFi 2.0, refocusing the players’ attention on fun, rather than finance (although that’s still in there, too!)
In a recent video interview, Itagaki spoke about Warrior and the rise of NFT games. Here are a few short excerpts, translated into English:
On Building Warrior With New Web3 Technology
Itagaki explained that in Warrior, the players themselves will own the game world and will set many of the rules for it. The players can create the play experience together by trading, fighting and sharing different values.
“It is very important that the in-game assets are owned by the players themselves. This kind of player ownership will not only be available in this specific game, but can also be used in a variety of games. This concept goes along with the current Metaverse fad,” Itagaki said.
He added: “Games in the past, especially online games, have required players to invest their money and time, and it’s all controlled by the game companies and game platforms. When a game company goes out of business, or a server goes down, the player’s assets also disappear. But NFTs, by contrast, are not centralized. The gaming experience does not rely on any single game. So, the time and money invested by the player is retained and can even be accessed in different games. I find this very interesting so I am challenging myself to do it.”
Pushing Web3 Gaming to Top Tier Levels
“Doesn’t tribal warfare in an action game sound interesting?” Itagaki asks, and he’s right — it does sound compelling. This action RPG will let players group together in clans and clash in intense PvP battles to win territory and resources. It also features play-to-earn mechanics and NFTs familiar to the GameFi industry.
The clans themselves will be represented by DAOs — a blockchain-based community-based innovation brought by the Web3 movement — which will allow clans to operate autonomously within parameters set by the extent of the tribe’s territory, the number of members and their activity level.
On why Itagaki is pushing into the Web3 gaming space, he explained: “Ultimately, it is the latest technology. I’ve been making traditional games for a long time. At the same time, I’m also sensitive to new technologies and trends. Making players happy is the most important thing to me, because that’s what game developers do.”
The full Tomonobu Itagaki interview video is below, including even more commentary from him about good game design and the gaming industry in general. Check it out:
More information about Warrior can be found at these official links:
About Apex Game Studios
Apex Game Studios, founded by well-known Japanese producer Tomonobu Itagaki, focuses on producing highly playable, high quality and immersive Web3.0 games; it currently has more than 100 employees, mainly in Japan and Singapore. Their first game released is Warrior, an MMO RPG game developed with Unreal Engine. The Warrior Project is about to make its initial decentralized exchange offering, or IDO, and release its first Alpha version, with a series of community giveaway events already underway.
