According to Cointelegraph: Korean massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), MapleStory is set to widen its gaming experience by integrating with the Avalanche blockchain. The game, developed by South Korean game publisher Nexon, boasts over 180 million registered users since its conception in 2003 and attracts around 400,000 daily active players.
The new integration, as announced on March 11 under the project "MapleStory N," will power the game through an Avalanche subnet on the same blockchain's cloud network. This strategic transition will allow the game to function independently without the need for a separate implementation partner, leading to more convenience, enhanced support options, and a faster time to market.
MapleStory's new variant on Avalanche will open new avenues for users to create fresh content and new worlds, thus adding to the ongoing player experiences. The game is due to launch its blockchain version later in 2024.
Angela Son, Partnership Lead at MapleStory Universe, expressed their enthusiasm over the partnership with Ava Labs, highlighting their plans to construct a stable and comprehensive blockchain ecosystem, catalyze competitiveness, and securely facilitate various decentralized apps (dApps).
MapleStory, widely popular in the Asia-Pacific region, utilizes an array of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in its Web3 venture, MapleStory Universe, to enrich player experiences.
In a comparable move, on March 22, 2023, Nexon, the parent company of MapleStory, chose Ethereum layer-2 scaling solution, Polygon, to develop its blockchain ecosystem further. This move is predicted to support player interactions by enabling them to earn and collect in-game items as NFTs.
The expansion into Avalanche follows widespread adoption of its network in 2024, bolstered partly by partnerships with JPMorgan and Citi for their asset tokenization initiatives and new technological implementations on its blockchain platform.
