Seven days after fintech and bitcoin payments company Zebedee announced it had secured a $35 million capital raise, the company has revealed a new partnership deal with mobile game studio Viker. The two companies have enhanced three classic video games with Zebedee’s Bitcoin reward mechanics, including “Solitaire”, “Sudoku”, and the “Missing Letters” game.
Square Enix-backed Zebedee has made a number of announcements lately and last week the company announced that it had raised $35 million from strategic investors. Participating investors in Zebedee’s latest fundraising round include Kingsway Capital, Raine Group, Initial Capital, Lakestar and Japanese gaming giant Square Enix. On July 26, Zebedee revealed that he had signed a new partnership with mobile game studio Viker.
Zebedee and Viker have teamed up in the past as the Bitcoin rewards mechanism has been implemented in games like “Wheel of Trivia”, “Amazeballs”, and “Balls King”, which are available to play on iOS and Android devices. . The success of these games has prompted both companies to integrate BTC payments into classic mobile games that have been popular over the past decade. The three newly enhanced games include “Sudoku”, “Solitaire” and “Missing Letters”, a game similar to the “Wordle” mobile app.
In mid-April, Zebedee partnered with Fumb Games, the creator of the “Bitcoin Miner” mobile game. When Fumb Games first introduced “Bitcoin Miner”, the game was a virtual mining application with no real rewards except for improving the gaming experience. After logging into the Zebedee’s technology that leverages BTC’s Lightning Network (LN), “Bitcoin Miner” players can now earn genuine BTC rewards by playing the game.
During Tuesday’s announcement, Dan Beasley, co-founder of Viker, said the company is a firm believer in play-to-win (P2E) mechanics in games. “These games are literally played by billions of people, for hundreds of hours over many years,” Beasley said. “But so far, none of them have been able to win anything for their time. Why continue like this, when we are now in a time when games can reward you with more than just fun?” Beasley continued his statement by adding:
We have the largest portfolio of Play-and-Earn casual games, with 500,000 players earning bitcoin every month, while continuously releasing new games and improving our users’ experience. We believe Viker can bridge the gap between gaming and crypto, with a seamless journey that lets everyone have fun and make money. [and] Safely enter the world of cryptography.
The partnership with Zebedee and Viker follows a slew of gaming companies branching out into non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and crypto payment rewards. Viker has also integrated NFT technology into some of its games. Square Enix, the video game company that invested in Zebedee, announced on July 21 that the company would release Final Fantasy NFTs next year.
The day before Final Fantasy NFT was announced, Mojang Studios, the creator of the world’s best-selling video game, Minecraft, said that blockchain and NFT technologies are now banned on all Mojang servers. The introduction of crypto assets and NFTs into video games has drawn mixed reviews from the gaming community, as some are for the idea and others vehemently oppose it. In addition to Mojang Studios’ decision, last year major game companies Ubisoft and GSC Game World faced backlash over the inclusion of NFT.
What do you think of the latest partnership agreement between Zebedee and Viker? Let us know what you think about this topic in the comments section below.
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