Blockchain, the same technology that powers cryptocurrencies, is the hype of the internet.
The technology opens new opportunities for commerce, as well as gaming. And Sega, the Japanese multinational video game and entertainment company headquartered in Shinagawa, Tokyo, announced its partnership with Double Jump Tokyo, to create its first blockchain-based game.
Double Jump Tokyo, the Japanese blockchain company, explained in a Medium blog post that the game would be based on the Sangokushi Taisen series (Three Kingdoms), a real-time strategy game predominantly played on arcades in Japan that uses real, physical cards to play with.
“In this game, doublejump.tokyo plans to use the IP of SEGA CORPORATION," stated Hironobu Ueno, CEO and Founder of double jump.tokyo Inc. This, in order to create "incredible Japanese artwork players can enjoy while playing."
He went on to talk about the release of this game on Oasys, saying that with the "unique architecture optimized for blockchain games," Oasys aims to solve obstacles for gamers, offering fast transactions and zero gas fees and providing users with a more comfortable gameplay experience.
Hironobu Ueno's company has been participating as a developer of this Oasys chain, alongside a bunch of other game companies and blockchain technology companies.
The consensus-building algorithm of the “Oasys” chain adopts the PoS (Proof of Stake) method, which is environmentally friendly.
Sega’s partnership with Double Jump Tokyo is how the gaming company is testing the waters of blockchain games.
The company first expressed its major interest in the non-fungible tokens (NFT) and blockchain space in 2022, when it trademarked the "Sega NFT" in January.
"Gaming has a history of expansion through the connection of various cultures and technologies. For example, social networking and game video viewing are recent examples," said Sega producer Masayoshi Kikuchi in April.
"It is a natural extension for the future of gaming that it will expand to involve new areas such as cloud gaming and NFT."
And this Sangokushi Taisen project is tied into these ideals.
Sangokushi Taisen series (Three Kingdoms) is an arcade game originally released back in March of 2005.
It's a hybrid physical and digital collectible card game for the arcade, on the Chihiro arcade board. As a real-time strategy-based game set in the Three Kingdoms period of Chinese history and the 14th century Chinese novel Romance of the Three Kingdoms by Luo Guanzhong, where players face off against their opponents, attempting to attack the enemy's castle, with the player who has the most health winning the battle.
The start playing the original game, players must first buy or obtain their starter deck of cards.
Then, players can place the cards of their choice on to a sensitive playing area.
The area that resembles a table, can detect when players put their card on it, which one is placed, where it is placed, and which way the card is pointing.
The cards themselves are collectibles, since they have excited drawings of raging feudal fighters and other pseudo-historical military units from the age of the samurai.
Players can control their onscreen armies in real time, by sliding units around the cards on the tabletop, just like how generals of wars plot their models inside their tents.
When players win, they can capture some of their enemy troops or recruit some marauders or something.
As for the latter, winners would receive new shiny packet of cards to grow their army on their next battle.
With more than 500 million trading cards have been shipped, the game was positively received by the public, and was cited as one of the influences for the battle system of Final Fantasy XIII.
By putting it into the blockchain, Sega, the company behind the console Sega Genesis and famous videogame franchises like Sonic and Yakuza, aims to provide a difference experience of gaming.
"With a unique architecture optimized for blockchain games, Oasys aims to solve obstacles for gamers, offering fast transactions and zero gas fees and providing users with a more comfortable gameplay experience," explained Hironobu Ueno.
Sega wants to use blockchain because the technology allows NFT assets to thrive, where each represents ownership of physical or digital items.
Using the technology, Sega can create an ecosystem, where assets of the game' traditional gaming mechanics like collectibles is applied to the unique ownership of NFTs.
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