Peter Molyneux has announced that his next game will be Legacy, a play-to-earn blockchain-powered business sim that includes NFTs.
As part of a blog post on the game, 22cans describes Legacy as “an innovative new game that pushes the boundaries of Blockchain Gaming” and ” a creative entrepreneur’s dream come true.”
To start playing Legacy, players must purchase a “Land NFT,” which will allow you to begin your own “blockchain business association” in the game. If you buy an NFT and become a Land Owner, you can then create your own digital buildings and products from thousands of available parts in order to build and expand their business empire. Alternatively, you can become an “in-game business partner” and borrow items from someone who is a Land Owner… although you’ll have to share a cut of your earnings with the them.
Image Credit 22Cans
Crucially, those earnings are a new cryptocurrency called LegacyCoin that exists on the Ethereum blockchain. The Legacy blog says the coin will have many “exciting and innovative utilities”, though the majority of these are yet to be revealed. It should also be noted that Ethereum is based on the proof-of-work system of blockchain, which is considerably energy intensive and is cause for concern among environmental experts.
At present, the main feature of LegacyCoin appears to be in the management of Legacy Keys, which players can use to create the aforementioned in-game business partnerships with one another. Those borrowing keys with other players will join the lender’s virtual business association – an action that will benefit the lender with a portion of the associates earned LegacyCoin. It’s unclear if LegacyCoin will have a real-world value and be tradable with others on 3rd party marketplaces, although as a blockchain cryptocurrency presumably that’s the point. It does apear that LegacyCoin will be given away rather than purchased, though, with 22cans saying that the currency is earned “through various competitive Events.”
As announced yesterday at #IntoTheGalaverse, the first LEGACY Land Presale is now live!
Created by Peter Molyneux and @22Cans, LEGACY is the upcoming blockchain-based business sim game from Gala Games!https://t.co/lUjhDeDhzuhttps://t.co/6CsgeBTKpp pic.twitter.com/f032AuW2PM
— Gala Games (@GoGalaGames) December 12, 2021
According to the blog, Legacy will offer new business owners a number of different avenues to explore. As well as being able to design and make your very own digital products ready for market, players will also be able to trade with others around the world as they “vie for dominance on the open market” and look to further expand their business empire.
Throughout a players’ time with Legacy, they’ll be able to enter into an array of in-game competitions and events, which the developer says will put your design skills and town management to the test as you compete with others for leaderboard positions and “big prizes”.
Molyneux, whose most notable work includes the likes of Black & White, Godus, and Fable hasn’t been afraid to lean into more experimental projects in the past. In 2012, he released Curiosity – a game where players repeatedly clicked a giant cube for months on end just to find out what was inside. While Legacy doesn’t yet have an official release date, it is expected to launch at some point in 2022.
For more on the games industries experiments with blockchain, take a look at Ubisoft’s new Quartz system (which has been intensely criticised by the public) and make sure to check out this article detailing how Steam has banned blockchain games that issue NFTs or cryptocurrency.
Jared Moore is a freelance writer for IGN. You can follow him on Twitter.
