Published on: 13/07/2022

Dead or Alive creator Tomonobu Itagaki announces new NFT-based studio

Tomonobu Itagaki’s new NFT-focused Apex Game Studios is reportedly already working on an MMORPG titled “Warrior”.

Tomonobu Itagaki, best known as the creator of the Dead or Alive gaming series and the Ninja Gaiden reboots, has created a new game studio called Apex Game Studios and is currently developing an MMORPG or Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game titled “Warrior”.

Itagaki, who has 30 years of experience in the gaming industry, said entering the NFT space, and therefore Web 3.0, is a new experience for him. He believes that the industry will grow steadily despite it being relatively new.

Itagaki views that one of the main characteristics of a game is that it has to be fun to play — which is what he and his new studio envisioned in an NFT game. To that end, he removed the pay-to-win system in favor of a more skill-based gameplay, making it more accessible and profitable than other NFT games currently on the blockchain.

What we know about Warrior

The game itself revolves around battling and collecting “mob servants”, which are NFTs, thus giving it a Pokemon-like feeling. According to Itagaki, he would “gradually iterate gameplay to make Warrior a high-quality GameFi 2.0 project that is both entertaining and investment-oriented with competitive and long-term operation capabilities.”

Players can enjoy an improved system that aims to solve the performance, security and sustainability issues of GameFi 1.0. However, he did not reveal how these issues would be solved other than adding an in-game token system, which allows trade between players. This is not an entirely new system because almost every NFT game has a form of in-game currency that uses this model to a degree, which adds further problems as there is no clear distinction between this game and its predecessor in the same niche.

Comprehensive information has been given on the game’s website regarding how the economic system would work. However, other than a mention of a “multi-chain” framework, there is not much to go on regarding how the game would fix the previous issues of GameFi 1.0.

At the time of writing, there is no indication on which consensus mechanism the game would run in — whether it would be in the greener “proof of stake” system or the traditional “proof of work” remains to be seen. The issue with this is without clearly knowing beforehand what consensus it would run in, new players would be less enticed to invest, causing a smaller number of early adopters of the game.

There has also been a limited amount of information regarding the actual gameplay of the MMORPG, which has yet reached the Alpha stage, and development outside of the provided information on the game’s website. Bearing in mind the current crypto market condition after the massive crash and the slow and steady disinterest in the NFT market, it raises a certain doubt regarding the project’s potential progress and adoption and, moreover, its sustainability.

There is, however, a clear deadline. Warrior is set to launch its beta in Q3 of 2022, with the full version launching in Q1 of 2023, according to Eurogamer.