Why Laguna Games Rejected ‘Game of Thrones’ to Create ‘Crypto Unicorns’

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A few years ago, Laguna Games faced a crossroads that will be familiar to many studios, embracing the relative safety of being acquired by a big company and working on huge intellectual property, or remaining independent and taking a risk on something totally new.

In this case, it was a choice between dragons or unicorns.

Laguna chose the latter and developed the NFT Crypto Unicorns game. But in an interview at the recent 3XP conference, company executives told Decrypt that they shunned the opportunity to work on a Game of Thrones-licensed game and join Warner Bros. Games in the process.

Before building Crypto Unicorns, we were building the upcoming mobile MMO House of the Dragon with the Game of Thrones IP, Laguna Games co-founder and CEO Aron Beierschmitt told Decrypt. We moved away from WB to start building unicorns.

Beierschmitt said that WB tried to acquire Laguna Games, i.e. acquire the studio in order to absorb the development team, but made us a really poor offer.

Laguna would have had the opportunity to work on a major property, but would lose its independence in the process. And the video game industry is littered with stories of studios being acquired and then closed within a few years.

Representatives of Warner Bros. Games did not respond to Decrypts’ request for comment on this story.

Calling it a tough decision, Beierschmitt said that ultimately the team was more intrigued by the building possibilities in the Web3 world and wanted to try something new.

We didn’t start this company, and go through all the pain and hassle that entails, just to get jobs at WB, he added, a project as exciting as this.

The Laguna Games website lists a partnership with Warner Bros. Games to produce two prototype titles, including Kingdoms Forever and an unannounced 4x game. The latter is a type of strategy game related to the popular Sid Meiers Civilization franchise.

The Game of Thrones franchise has made its own game in the NFT world via a series of collectibles called Build Your Realm, in partnership with marketplace Niftys and startup Daz3D. However, the project received extremely negative reactions to its works. An influencer called it the worst thing I’ve ever seen.

From Web2 to Web3

Crypto Unicorns is a browser game in which players collect digital unicorns as pets, engaging in activities such as jousting, racing, and farming to improve their abilities. Lagunas’ pivot to Web3 also happened amid broader struggles to fit into the crowded video game market.

As a startup in the space, it’s incredibly difficult to succeed with a free Web2 mobile game, Beierschmitt said, citing the difficulties of building and delivering an entertaining game, coupled with the seismic financial budget needed to compete with the industry. ‘industry. behemoths.

If you look at the top-grossing mobile game charts, he added, they haven’t changed much in the last five years.

Following conversations with the Lagunas senior team in 2021, it became apparent to Beierschmitt that the Web2 space was heavily oversaturated with established game titles. If they enter this space as a startup, they assumed it would be very difficult to stay afloat.

In contrast, the nascent and emerging Web3 space offered what they saw as more opportunity, with the success of Axie Infinity serving as validation of the industry’s future potential.

I presented it as an experiment, said Beierschmitt of Crypto Unicorns. I just thought: Let’s look at the absurdity of IP. We are not fictitiously restrained by any constraint; we can do whatever we want. That’s why we have things like unicorn poo, unicorn milk, and all that crazy stuff.

Andrew Campbell, who joined Laguna as Head of Product and Growth in February after a stint with Axie Infinity creator Sky Mavis, described the DAO community of Crypto Unicorns and the integration of the community into the game design process as a risky experiment. But he’s optimistic that the risk is worth the potentially sizable reward.

If we can figure it out, Campbell said, we think it will pay dividends, be very valuable and give us something no one else has.

As Crypto Unicorns releases new types of games that build on its existing NFTs, providing greater utility for holders, Beierschmitt said Lagunas’ focus on rapid prototyping and testing features potentially gives it a leg up. ahead of longer-time Web3 game holders.

I think having that as part of our corporate culture allowed us to iterate very quickly, he said. We haven’t been in the market that long compared to some older games, and I think we’re closing the gap very quickly.

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