The crypto market continues to witness significant developments. Accordingly, with the momentum in the GameFi sector, South Korean video game publisher Nexon announced that its massively multiplayer online role-playing game MapleStory, which boasts over 400,000 daily active users, has decided to expand its gaming experience within the Avalanche blockchain ecosystem.
MapleStory and Avalanche
According to an announcement dated March 11, known as MapleStory N, the game will be supported by an Avalanche subnetwork within the cloud network of the blockchain ecosystem to progress without a separate application partner, provide more convenience, more support options, and faster market access, and offer users new content creation opportunities. An Avalanche spokesperson commented on the matter:
“Users can build attractive new worlds, expand gameplay, and leave their mark on the MapleStory Universe.”
The game is scheduled for release in late 2024. Angela Son, partnership leader for MapleStory Universe, stated regarding the developments:
“Our partnership with Ava Labs will enable us to create a stable and comprehensive blockchain ecosystem, which will allow us to securely serve various dApps in conjunction with MapleStory N, enhancing our competitive edge.”
Founded in 2003, MapleStory is hugely popular in the Asia-Pacific region with over 180 million registered players. The Web3 initiative MapleStory Universe uses various NFT collections to enhance in-game experiences.
Key Details on the Developments
Similarly, on March 22, 2023, the parent company Nexon chose the Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solution Polygon network to strengthen the blockchain ecosystem. According to Nexon, a Polygon super network created by Polygon Labs will be featured within Maplestory to enable players to earn and collect in-game items as NFTs.
Avalanche network started to attract attention in 2024 partly because of partnerships with traditional financial heavyweights like JPMorgan and Citi for real-world asset tokenization initiatives and new technological deployments in the blockchain ecosystem. Avalanche also encountered record user interest during the Inscription craze, with continued interest in Bitcoin BRC-20 assets. Since their creation in 2023, over 100 million Avalanche Inscriptions have been minted.
