On Monday, the blockchain game developer and investor Animoca Brands announced a partnership with the Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) in order to develop a BAYC play-to-earn game leveraging the collection’s popular NFTs. Bored Ape Yacht Club has seen 23,016 sales to date and has a market valuation of around $2.05 billion.
BAYC and Animoca Brands Team up to Launch a Game
The Yuga Labs-issued Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC) and Animoca Brands have revealed a joint partnership in order to develop and publish a blockchain game. The game will integrate the collection of BAYC NFTs, which have seen extreme demand in 2021. When the collection of 10,000 BAYCs was first introduced, each BAYC sold for 0.08 ether (ETH) per NFT. Single Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs have sold for hundreds of thousands of dollars in crypto and even millions of dollars in ether at auction.
A lot of 101 BAYC NFTs were sold at Sotheby’s “Ape In!” sale, which realized $24.4 million at auction. Metrics from dappradar.com indicate that BAYC has an overall market valuation of around $2.05 billion and has seen 23,016 sales among 9,972 BAYC traders. Animoca Brands recently raised $65 million this past October from investors like Liberty City Ventures, Ubisoft Entertainment, Sequoia China, Dragonfly Capital, Com2uS, and Kingsway Capital.
“We’re excited to work with Animoca Brands to grow the BAYC universe and expand the utility and benefits offered to all Bored Ape NFT holders,” a Yuga Labs spokesperson said in a statement sent to Bitcoin.com News. “Animoca Brands is a trailblazer in the blockchain gaming space with a proven track record of delivering. We can’t wait to share more with the community about what we’re building.”
Bored Ape Yacht Club Sees Prominent Partnerships This Year, BAYC Game Launch Schedule for Q2 2022
Bored Ape Yacht Club has been involved with a number of partnerships in 2021 in addition to the recent deal with Animoca Brands. BAYC has partnered with well known brands such as the magazine Rolling Stone, the popular beverage producer and brand Arizona Iced Tea worked with BAYC, and in mid-November, Universal Music Group backed a BAYC-infused entertainment project. The same day, the hip hop record producer and recording artist Timbaland launched a BAYC-related entertainment project as well.
The German athletic shoes, sportswear, and accessories giant, Adidas, has also managed to work with the Bored Ape Yacht Club as the collection has become a phenomenon. In regard to the recent partnership between BAYC and Animoca Brands, the new game is expected to release in the second quarter of 2022, notably featuring “play-to-earn mechanics.” Yat Siu, the co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands explains that while there’s been a lot of NFTs this year, BAYC has made its mark in the industry.
“NFTs have emerged as a store of culture,” Siu remarked. “There are very few icons that are able to represent the surging world of NFTs as powerfully as Bored Ape Yacht Club, which is why we, as a group and in aggregate, hold a significant number of them. We are incredibly excited and proud to collaborate on a game for this cultural milestone.”
What do you think about Bored Ape Yacht Club and Animoca Brands partnering to release a play-to-earn video game in Q2 2022? Let us know what you think about this subject in the comments section below.
