iCandy reports strong pre-sales of new digital blockchain game
iCandy’s first blockchain based game, Cryptant Crab, has generated over US$50,000 (A$69,000) of revenue in the first 10 days of pre-sale.
Gaming developer iCandy Interactive (ASX: ICI) has generated over $69,000 revenue in the first 10 days of a pre-sale promotion for its debut blockchain game Cryptant Crab.
The company sold over 1000 “virtual crabs” online in the 10 days from 25 October to an existing community of 350 million mobile gamers added to its user base in June when iCandy acquired the casual games portfolio of Hong Kong’s Animoca Brands Corporation.
At an average price of $69 per crab, iCandy chief operating officer Desmond Lee said the pre-sales revenue reinforced that players within the company’s gaming network are early adopters of blockchain-based technology.
“Despite the requirement to set up a secure online cryptowallet to store the virtual crabs purchased, conversion rate from website traffic to purchase has remained high,” he said.
“We expect there will be significantly further additional virtual crabs sold throughout this ongoing pre-sale period.”
Blockchain technology is considered the next big development in web-based gaming, providing an extra layer of security against theft, cheating and unauthorised editing of in-game data.
Cryptant Crab
The web-based Cryptant Crab is a spin-off from iCandy’s popular mobile game, Crab War, and takes its inspiration from the Asian past-time of raising fighting fish.
It is one of the first blockchain games to be designed and developed entirely in South East Asia, and the first major cryptocurrency-based game developed by iCandy.
The game is centred around artistically-designed crabs which users can battle, mutate, collect and trade.
Employing the Ethereum blockchain platform, it allows players to pit their crabs against challengers within a virtual battle zone with all victories and experience gained recorded on the blockchain.
Each virtual crab has individual traits tagged with a digital blockchain token and users are able to determine the look and powers of their crabs to create one-of-a-kind playing characters.
Pre-sale early adopters of Cryptant Crab were rewarded with incentives including “pioneer status” visible in-game, a unique “pre-sale only” virtual crab, and the chance to win one of the “Legendary” ranked parts only available at pre-sale.
“We are very excited that we are able to put gamers front and centre, with their decisions to manage and improve their in-game resources in a transparent and secured manner,” Mr Lee said.
“We look forward to [using Cryptant Crab to create] a vibrant community of fans and engaged gamers seeking to experience blockchain gaming.”
A helping hand
Earlier this month, iCandy gave Malaysia’s gaming industry a helping hand when it signed an agreement with government agency Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation to provide funding and knowledge sharing to assist the country’s adoption of blockchain-powered games.
In return, MDEC agreed to assist iCandy recruit game studios which are keen to venture into the niche space.
“We are very excited with the prospect of collaborating with MDEC, and we hope to share our expertise [to help] drive the growth of this industry in Malaysia,” Mr Lee said at the time.
At midday, shares in iCandy Interactive were trading 8.70% higher at $0.075.