Gamevil to go global with RPG Republic's NFT-based game Hi Ella in Q1 2022

Kosdaq-listed mobile game developer and publisher Gamevil Inc. has joined hands with local game developer RPG Republic Co. to publish mobile story-telling RPG label “Hi Ella” globally as a blockchain-based play-to-earn (P2E) pastime in the first half of next year.

Under the partnership, the two companies will transform the Hi Ella label into a P2E game with non-fungible token tentatively dubbed C2X at stake, Gamevil announced Monday.

Gamevil plans to provide a technical support for the change and related infrastructure like the blockchain platform SDK.

Hi Ella is a mobile RPG game developed and published by RPG Republic last year. The developer stopped the service early this year and now is preparing to upgrade the 3D modeling quality with Gamevil for its global launch by the first half of 2022.

Korean publishers must take P2E and NFT-applied games offshore as they are banned in the country.

RPG Republic has employed about 120 developers who developed mobile action RPG “Grand Chase M” and now is working on the development of mobile games based on the intellectual property of popular webcomic “Sweet Home.” For global service of its mobile MMORPG “The Great Merchant M,” it has signed a licensing contract with its sibling Com2uS Corp.

Gamevil has been active in building strategic partnership to ride on the burgeoning blockchain-based game market. Under the partnership with Singapore-based crypto firm Terraform Labs that offers digital tokens and runs the Terra blockchain, it aims to build a blockchain ecosystem for its C2X cryptocurrency.

New blockchain-based titles to be added to its lineup from the first half of next year include its collectible RPG “Chromatic Soul: AFK Raid” and Com2uS’s “Summoners War: Chronicle.”

Gamevil shares finished 1.79 percent down at 175,800 won ($147.36) in Seoul on Monday.

[ㄏ Maeil Business Newspaper & mk.co.kr, All rights reserved]