In Wemade's MIR4 game, at present, players can only make money by mining 'Dark Steel' – the main game resource which helps boost the strength of weapons and characters – that can eventually be converted into a listed-cryptocurrency WEMIX. Its market value has also shot by over 11 times to 6.6 trillion won ($5.55 billion) to during the same period.Īcross the world, the popularity of NFT games is also catching on rapidly.Īxie Infinity, an NFT game developed by a Vietnamese unicorn Sky Mavis, has attracted 1.8 million players worldwide, generating $33 million in daily transactions as of August, according to the company. The game has attracted more than 1.3 million players overseas, sending the firm's share price skyrocketing more than 600% since the launch. That didn't stop South Korean game maker Wemade Co Ltd from going ahead with the global release of its NFT-applied game, MIR4, in late August. "What we are saying 'no' to is the application of NFT that can be connected to real assets," the official said. "It's not the blockchain technology that we are banning," an official at South Korea's Game Rating And Administration Committee told Reuters on condition of anonymity as she wasn't authorised to speak with the media. For now, these games are accessible only offshore.
However, South Korean regulators have banned NFT-applied games in the country on concerns these new services could fuel gambling addiction among teens and the very young. The advantage is that these NFTs can be traded for digital money, namely cryptocurrencies. In the gaming world, the various characters, weapons, vehicles and other items that players make use of to accomplish their particular tasks can be NFTs. SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea's mobile and online game producers are luring players with services using non-fungible tokens (NFTs), jumping on a trend the firms see as the future of the sector and sparking a sharp rally in their shares in recent weeks.Īn NFT is a digital asset that encompasses everything from images, videos to text, whose ownership record is tracked on the blockchain and is usually bought with cryptocurrencies.