Moviepass Hops on the Blockchain Game Bandwagon as Investor Also Partners With EVE Online Devs
- MoviePass launches Mogul, a fantasy studio game where players build virtual movie studios using real-world films, actors, and directors.
- It uses Mogul Coin, a virtual token with no real-world value, and offers a $100,000 prize pool; real box office results affect scores.
- Blockchain games face scrutiny as many are banned on Steam but allowed (with limits) on Epic Games.
- Mogul is supported by Sui Foundation and Animoca Brands, linking film fandom with blockchain gaming, and also creating a link with MMOs like EVE Online.
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Fantasy Studio
Moviepass, the ticket subscription service that lets film fans pay a monthly fee to access over 4,000 theatres across the States, has created a fantasy studio game called Mogul. Players can create their own virtual movie studio, with real-world events affecting the flow of the game.
Moviepass has a spotted history, but the current iteration of the company is run by Stacy Spikes, who reinvigorated the service with a $100 million investment in May this year. Mogul is his way of creating a new way to show appreciation for movies, and create a social game at the same time.
“You basically create your own studio by picking real movies, real actors, real directors and the way those projects behave in the real world, and your ability to pick and predict what might happen, impacts your scoring,” said Spikes, Co-Founder and CEO of MoviePass, in an interview with Variety.
“We’ve always been a company built from a fan perspective,” he added. “We’re not a studio, we’re not a theater, but we want to really find a new way of creating engagement around going to the movies. We don’t want people to just sit at home. This allows film fans to show the same competitive spirit that sports teams inspire.”
Blockchain and Box Office
Mogul was in private beta until recently, but now the public can try it out for free. Season One has recently started, and there’s a $100,000 prize pool for the top studios. However, this is in Mogul Coin, the platforms’ virtual token – Mogul operates on blockchain, but it’s worth noting Mogul Coin has no real-world value.
Players start with 1 million Mogul Coins, and can spend them on a studio in a similar way to how teams are drafted in fantasy football. The biggest difference here is that studios are built from movie types they focus on (Blockbuster, Mainstream, or Indie), Actors (Lead, Co-Lead, Supporting), and Directors. Real-world events affect the in-game hiring price, so players need to be canny in their decisions and pay attention to current film industry news.
As the season progresses, the game will change accordingly so, for example, if a movie a player adds to their studio does well at the real box office, it’ll earn Mogul Coins for the virtual studio. There’s also a chance for players to earn NFTs such as signed movie memorabilia, although this hasn’t been implemented yet.
Crypto Gaming on the Rise
Games built on blockchain or Web3 tech are a controversial topic, as there have been gaming scams related to cryptocurrency. Most recently, BlockBlasters was found to contain drainware, which stole crypto from a streamer.
In October 2021, Valve banned games using blockchain technology from dealing in crypto and NFTs, although the blockchain aspect itself is considered a gray area. At the time of writing, there are around 100 games listed on Steam that are in some way linked with blockchain/NFTs, although many are in development or Early Access. The former includes free-to-play (a lot of the games are listed as this) FPS Reaper Actual, and the latter includes Guild Saga: Vanished Worlds, a JRPG released last October.
However, it’s worth noting that these games claim to not use any NFT or crypto features on Steam. Reaper Actual’s developer Distinct Possibility Studios, for example, intends to use Web3 and tokens in the game via its official site, for in-game items.
Guild Saga: Vanished Worlds developer, Ocelot, does incorporate Solana into its Guild Saga games (there are three), but has stated that the version of Vanished Worlds on Steam doesn’t use any blockchain integration at all.
Meanwhile, Epic does allow blockchain, token/crypto, and NFT games on its platform. However, the company terms clearly state that such games must be made available to gamers for free, must not encourage or facilitate gambling, and should clearly state on the game page that it uses this kind of tech.
Big Tech, Movies, and MMOs
As for Mogul, since it’s playable in-browser and currently doesn’t involve real money, it can sidestep a lot of these concerns. For gamers who know a thing or two about blockchain or Web3, or who may still be wary of Mogul, Moviepass has a vote of confidence in Mogul thanks to the backing of the Sui Foundation, a layer-one blockchain supporting next-generation decentralized applications, and Animoca Brands, one of the world’s largest and most influential Web3 investors.
Sui Foundation started working with more typical video game companies this year, with several titles already linked with its platforms. Most notably, it started this month off by partnering with CCP Games to bring its new MMO space sim EVE Frontier to blockchain. It’s also linked with Walrus, a data monetization platform, and Seal, a data encryption service.
“Much of Sui’s early design was shaped by the needs of high-performance games with full programmability for players,” said Sam Blackshear, co-founder and CTO of Mysten Labs, the original contributors to Sui, in a news post on SUI’s site.
“EVE Frontier is the first game to leverage all of the novel features that Sui, Walrus, and Seal offer. We’re inspired by CCP Games’ vision to build a truly player-defined game that outlasts its creators. It’s a perfect match for the technical ambition of Sui.”
EVE Frontier is available to try now, and looks set to follow in its parent game EVE Online’s footsteps by giving players a literal universe to play around in, according to Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CEO of CCP Games, in the same news post.
“Since inception, our mission has been to create virtual worlds more meaningful than real life. With EVE Frontier, we are pushing that ambition further than ever before: building a player moddable universe, bound by its own digital physics, that can outlive us all.”
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