Upcoming Blockchain Business Sim Legacy Has Already Sold Over $53M In Land NFTs
Just a few days ago, British video game developer 22cans announced that they were developing a new blockchain business simulation game called Legacy. The game revolves around starting a blockchain business and managing its day-to-day affairs much like Rollercoaster Tycoon and SimCity.
Players start off by buying land for their headquarters and will be in charge of constructing buildings, designing products, and keeping employees happy and maintaining efficiency. They’ll also be able to trade with other players to earn LegacyCoin, a new cryptocurrency that runs on the Ethereum blockchain. Additional LegacyCoins can also be earned by forming business partnerships with other players.
As you can probably already guess, buying land plays a big part in the game’s core mechanics and it’s already lured so-called whales to the game. The total virtual land sold so far in Legacy has been valued at over 14,000 Ethereum or roughly $53 million, with the most expensive plot selling for around $890,000, according to Rock Paper Shotgun. That’s even before 22cans can announce a definite release date for the NFT game.
Populous creator and 22cans CEO Peter Molyneux offered more information about Legacy’s game mechanics in an interview with The Verge. He also defended the negative connotations surrounding “company towns” in the US and explained the importance of NFTs in the game.
“I think as a living world, it’s totally unique. You know, every building you design, every product you design, every worker that you’ve got. So we’ve got this unbelievable simulation, this incredible narrative we weave through the game. We’ve got moral choices in there and competing against each other, all within this totally new world, which is, of course, exactly what blockchain is all about.”
“The first thing is that — you have to earn the right — but you can create your own blockchain items from within Legacy,” said Molyneux. “This is a real incentive, of course — if you’re playing the game, if you’re doing well, if you’re earning points, that can be converted into real-world money.”
Unfortunately, 22cans’ reputation isn’t exactly stellar thanks to several cancelled games and another one that’s glitch beyond repair. Their flagship game Godus, described as the spiritual successor to Populous, raised over $690,000 through Kickstarter in December 2012 and launched into Early Access in September 2013. The devs abandoned the game in 2016 due to poor reception to work on a spin-off called Godus Wars. The studio also left the game in Early Access to develop a mobile game called The Trail which was fraught with microtransactions and glitches with no way to transfer progress and purchases to a new phone.
Legacy is slated for release sometime next year. More information can be found on the official site.
