As part of an ambitious plan to regain its former glory as a gaming entertainment powerhouse, renowned software company Atari recently revealed its plans to start an Ethereum blockchain casino in partnership with Decentral Games. To make it stand out from the rest of the industry, the company’s new crypto casino would not feature Atari non-fungible tokens (NFTs) but also offer its users access to several nostalgia-inducing online games. All these would be leveraged by the players to earn even more digital currency. Projections for the venture were pretty optimistic with Atari and Decentral Games looking to exceed $150 million in bets in their first year of operation.
“Atari, and its catalog of classic games, continues to be some of the most recognizable brands in the world. Atari will continue to leverage this notoriety in both gaming and non-gaming-related fields (including hotels and casinos). Most recently, Atari has seen a tremendous amount of success in licensing the Atari-related brands for the use in NFTs,” Atari says.
The company has now followed through with the plans for the crypto casino and it was every bit as high-profile as expected. Last Thursday, the Japanese video game company launched the site in a virtual event that was graced by several artists including DJ, record producer, and electronic musician Dillon Francis.
Huge Auction and High Hopes
The launch event by itself was a pretty huge milestone for the video game turned crypto company. However, it took things a step further through a high-profile auction. Dillon Francis who headlined the launch event was one of the people behind the special non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that were auctioned off during the event.
For this, the DJ partnered and collaborated with MERDA, a renowned visual artist. They then created a total of three NFTs all of which draw inspiration from Gerald the Pinata. These special NFTs were auctioned off on OpenSea and other platforms on Thursday night with the “3D Pixel Gerald” NFT selling for a whopping $17,778 (6.42 ether).
All that points to the seriousness with which Atari is taking the crypto world. In early March, it was revealed that Atari would press on into the crypto space with the formation of a blockchain division, ‘Atari Blockchain’. The launch of the crypto casino sets a strong foundation for further growth for the company in the highly dynamic digital currency and blockchain sectors. it is a very strong start but we will, of course, need to wait a little longer to see how exactly everything pans out.
