Summary

• Dr Disrespect and a team of AAA experience (CoD, Destiny, Halo, Gears of War) aim to create PvP FPS
• NFT Founders Passes on Polygon sold to 10,000 whitelisted applicants
• One perk of the NFT is DAO-like hivemind input into game development
• No clear answer on whether the games will use blockchain technology

The last 12 months have seen a multitude of interesting developments in blockchain gaming; some have been pleasing, but expected, while others have been wholly unexpected. This story is one I’ve been watching for a few months and it could potentially become something significant for our corner of the games industry.

Midnight Society: A Games Studio With NFT Founders Passes

Midnight Society is created by ex-Twitch celeb and beloved streamer, Dr Disrespect (Herschel “Guy” Beahm) who, incidentally, used to design multiplayer levels for Call of Duty. Also in the founding team is former Creative Strategist for Call of Duty, Robert Bowling, Gears of War and Halo game designer, Quinn DelHoyo, and Destiny and Halo art director, Darren Bacon. It is an undeniably strong team.

Their oeuvre is attractive and weaves well with blockchain gaming: they want to make a change to gaming. The mantra chanted is “our audience first” and variations of that, which with any ordinary studio could be pushed aside as hot air, but Midnight Society is already making moves in the right direction on that front. In fact, Midnight Society is dancing around being a fully-fledged DAO, just without the autonomy, and I must say, I’m interested.

I found it difficult to title this article because while it looks as if Midnight Society’s first game — a competitive, multiplayer PvP, first-person shooter — will use blockchain technology, they avoid answering that question (despite asking it themselves.) However, their Founders Pass is an NFT on the Polygon network.

The 10,000 Founders Passes were made available by an application for a whitelist and then sold for $50 if you were approved and they have sold out (I’ll let you do the maths.) There are a lot of benefits to owning a Founders Pass including early access and a procedurally generated Profile Picture (PFP) NFT. However, what interests me — and it is the bulk of the reason I compared Midnight Society to a DAO — is the “voting rights.”

The 10,000 Founders (or rather, the 10,000 holders of the Founders Pass) will be given the chance to vote on key design decisions and game direction while the game is in development and presumably after, too. This goes hand-in-hand with early access and essentially, players are paying to test Midnight Society’s games and push them towards success, but I like it.

Final Thoughts

This could end up being nothing more than the riding of the NFT hype train to a nice treasure trove of free investment, rather than a game studio utilizing blockchain technology to its potential. However, I’m hopeful it’s more than that. There are several hints of more NFTs and benefits to having the Founders Pass NFT that involves blockchain, but it could be cleverly worded.

Midnight Society has a novel and interesting business model, a strong team with great experience, and clear direction. If they integrate blockchain into this upcoming shooter — even if simply cosmetic skins as NFTs — I believe it will not only propel their debut title into several different limelight (which would be lucrative), but it will aid in bringing blockchain gaming to the skeptics.