Is Gaming A Waste of Time? A Blockchain Game Wants to Change That

A blockchain-based game says it has the ambition of becoming the title that “started a revolution” by leading the industry to mainstream adoption.

Brave Frontier Heroes has brought together two titles that were successful in their own right. While My Crypto Heroes is said to be the world’s number one blockchain game, Brave Frontier is a role-playing game dedicated to smartphones that has been downloaded 38 million times.

The collaboration between both companies dates back to the summer of 2019, with their jointly developed blockchain game launching in January. This saw the intellectual property and creativity behind Brave Frontier join forces with the technology and know-how that drives My Crypto Heroes.

Already, it’s claimed that Brave Frontier Heroes has recorded transaction volumes worth more than 5,000 ETH — achieving a loyal following in Japan and one of the biggest daily active users on the globe.

A game-changer?

For the developers behind Brave Frontier Heroes, a major motivation has been transforming the reason for playing games in the first place. Until now, many players have simply been looking only for fun — an escape from the pressures of everyday life or, more recently, something that’ll keep them busy during the lockdown. However, the team behind this title says the use of nonfungible tokens also offers something that hasn’t been commonplace in the gaming industry before now: the chance to earn assets and even become a small business.

Indeed, nonfungible tokens (otherwise known as NFTs, for short) are at the beating heart of Brave Frontier Heroes. Although rare characters and game items have been coveted assets ever since video games hit the mainstream a few decades ago, the company argues that the industry has struggled to find a way for these items to be traded in a fair and socially acceptable way.

As the company explains, NFTs are irreplaceable — and no two are the same. Even though they may look identical, each offers distinctive qualities that make them impossible to swap. A common analogy that the industry reaches for is that of the plane ticket: Although they may all appear the same, each is printed with a different destination, name and seat.

Gaming companies have often been reluctant to embrace trading data because of how it falls out of their control. Eiji Takahashi is the CEO of Alim, the company that helped develop Brave Frontier. He says NFTs offer a breakthrough by “making possible what the game industry has been prohibiting.”

A new experience

Through Brave Frontier Heroes, players can actually own their heroes — not to mention their weapons, shields and items — via the power of blockchain. It’s playable on any mobile device or desktop, and the app can be downloaded via Google Play for Android smartphones or Apple’s App Store.

Using the app, players automatically get a wallet generated, where they can store their NFTs — otherwise known in more technical terms as ERC-721 tokens. Detailed, step-by-step guides are offered for those who are unfamiliar with cryptocurrencies, allowing them to make the most out of this new experience.

Since Brave Frontier Heroes was officially launched in January, an ambitious roadmap has ensured that new features are continually being released. The team says that one particularly interesting feature has enabled players to upload their very own illustrations for their characters, providing the opportunity for gamers to express their individuality, personality and artistic flair in a way that few other titles can match. Moreover, the company will start selling a new character from the legendary category, starting on April 30.