Leading NFT Creator Handed a $4 Billion Valuation Following $450 Million Seed Round

Yuga Labs, the maker of the multimillion-dollar Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs, just raised a $450 million seed round at a $4 billion valuation. The Miami-based NFT company behind Bored Apes Yacht Club has yet to raise any funds, though the startup has long caught the eye of VCs keen to back a major player in the NFT craze. Yuga Labs has also just launched ApeCoin, in which the founders and executives of the startup have a substantial stake. The token gathered a multi-billion dollar market capitalization on its first day of trading. In 2021, countless celebrities have purchased an NFT from the Bored Ape Yacht Club, including late-night talk show host Jimmy Fallon, tennis star Serena Williams, and pop star Justin Bieber. Meanwhile, companies like Good Gamer Entertainment Inc., GameStop Corporation, Zynga Inc., Take-Two Interactive Software Inc and Funko Inc. are launching exciting NFT collections to the growing market.

Marketing Technology News: Pavilion Data Systems Appoints Shridar Subramanian As Chief Marketing and Product Officer

Good Gamer Entertainment Inc., a real-money skill-gaming operator and blockchain game developer, just revealed that its publishing partner Fork Gaming has announced the official mint date and fifth character for the Chosen Ones Legendary Heroes NFT collection.

On April 1, at 3 pm PST, the first set of Legendary Heroes will be released to whitelisted users, followed by the public sale on April 3, at 3 pm PST. The initial collection will consist of five characters from a collection of 10,000 unique, richly detailed, and vibrant Chosen Ones Legendary Hero NFTs. Each Chosen Ones Hero is a unique ERC721 warrior from Godland’s eight kingdoms. The Legendary Heroes NFTs were created using Good Gamer Entertainment’s proprietary NFT character generator to combine multiple traits layers for hundreds of thousands of trait combinations and represent the actual characters that a player will use in the auto-battler game and in the Sandbox metaverse.

The mint price has been set to 0.15 ETH (approximately $465). On April 1, whitelisted users will have the ability to mint up to three NFTs. On April 3rd, the NFTs will be available for sale to the public and people will be able to mint up to ten NFTs.

Good Gamer Entertainment Inc. also announced that Fork Gaming has revealed the fifth Chosen Ones Hero, Kor from Apezi. Kor is an enigmatic and ruthless creature, standing nine feet in height, and wielding a mace capable of causing earthquakes. This new Chosen Ones Legendary Hero will be featured in Fork Gaming’s first NFT collection along with the other four handcrafted, unique NFT characters: Alara, Drakar, Aldair, and Rynn.

Leading up to the mint day, Fork Gaming has been focused on growing the Chosen Ones online community. Since the initial announcement on February 1st, the communities have gained plenty of traction, adding more than 29,000 Discord members and 69,000 Twitter followers on the Chosen Ones accounts.

Fork Gaming has also signed the seventh-largest influencer as its Brand Ambassador on liveme.com. BlaYzE aka Wesley Gilbert is a liveme broadcaster with over 680K fans and is a top 7 broadcaster on the platform. He’s advised many big hits over the past few years and runs a live broadcasting agency on liveme and also teaches people about streaming life.

Good Gamer has developed a suite of blockchain applications to create the Chosen Ones NFTs, artwork, and characters. The company is also developing the Unity-based auto-battler mobile game where players will utilize their NFTs to battle against each other in a futuristic arena-styled chessboard.

Marketing Technology News: MarTech Interview with Kristi Flores, VP of Global Marketing at Tektronix

Gaming Companies Continue Launching New Products to Market

GameStop Corporation has entered into a partnership with Immutable X Pty Limited. The partnership establishes a fund of up to $100 million in Immutable X’s IMX tokens, which the parties intend to use for grants to NFT content and technology creators. Immutable X will also become a Tier 2 partner and platform for GameStop and the company’s NFT marketplace due to launch later this year. Furthermore, the terms call for Immutable X to provide up to approximately $150 million in IMX tokens to GameStop upon completing certain milestones. In the fourth quarter, GameStop generated net sales of $2.254 billion, compared to $2.122 billion in the prior-year quarter. The company established new and expanded brand relationships, including with PC gaming companies such as Alienware, Corsair and Lenovo, which contributed to sales growth in the quarter.

StarLark, a subsidiary of Zynga Inc., a global leader in interactive entertainment has announced that it is celebrating the fourth anniversary of its popular fantasy-themed mobile golf game, Golf Rival, with several upcoming in-game events for players. To celebrate the title’s exciting growth, StarLark shares milestones from the past four years as it looks to the future. Golf Rival brings adrenaline-packed player versus player (PvP) competitions filled with over-the-top moments like long-range dunk shots and trick shots to mobile golf enthusiasts around the world. Since its launch in 2018, the game has been downloaded more than 30 million times.

Marketing Technology News: 4 Things We Learned About Influencer Marketing in 2021

Rockstar Games®, a publishing label of Take-Two Interactive Software, announced on March 15 that GTA Online and Grand Theft Auto V are available digitally for the Xbox Series S|X games and entertainment system and the PlayStation 5 computer entertainment system. The physical releases are coming in April. The new standalone version of GTA Online can also be downloaded for free via the PlayStation Store until June 14. Take-Two Interactive and Zynga announced in January that they have signed a deal under which Take-Two will acquire all Zynga’s outstanding shares. The combination establishes Take-Two as one of the industry’s largest and most diverse mobile game publishers. The transaction is expected to close in Take-Two‘s first quarter of fiscal 2023, ending June 30, 2022.

Funko Inc., a flagship brand of pop culture lifestyle, recently reported its fourth-quarter financial results. Net sales increased 48% to $336.3 million, reflecting broad-based strength across geographies, products and channels. Funko launched Popsies, a new line of collectible and interactive wish displays, expanding the company’s footprint in the multi-billion dollar greeting aisle. In January, Funko entered the NFT market by acquiring a majority ownership stake in TokenWave, LLC, the developer of TokenHead a leading mobile app and website for showcasing and tracking NFT holdings. The investment accelerates Funko‘s entry into the NFT market. It will also expand the company’s pop culture platform to include digital assets. Funko plans to launch its first NFT offerings in June, with a unique property each week starting at $9.99. The products will be sold on the WAX platform, the first decentralized wallet on the blockchain, which provides verifiable authenticity for Funko NFT purchases.

Meanwhile, Good Gamer Entertainment is gearing up for the Chosen Ones Legendary Hero mint day on April 1st and the upcoming launching of its P2E NFT mobile game later this year.