The Seoul-based game developer, Mantisco, created a popular PvP and PvE, melee combat battle royale set in ancient Asia: Hunter’s Arena: Legends. After success to the tune of 12 million downloads, Mantisco has set its sights on bringing the next iteration of the game to Web3 in a partnership with Immutable X.
While I am a little tired of the battle royale genre, I always welcome innovation on a trend, and Hunter’s Arena cannot be said to have not innovated. As you can see in the video below, it is more like a Japanese MMORPG than what we have come to imagine with the genre “battle royale”. The graphics and combat are of the highest — dare I say, AAA — standard and after the 2020 release’s success, Mantisco has made a bold move.
In a recent press release, Mantisco announced that the next version of the game, Hunter’s Arena: Rebirth, will be a Web3 project. Built in-house in collaboration with the gaming-centric Ethereum layer 2, Immutable X, this unique battle royale will be leaning heavily on the use of blockchain technology.
While specifics on gameplay are still sparse, we do know that the gamer’s characters, skins, weapons, and items, will be NFTs to give the players true ownership. It is unclear whether there will also be a Play-and-Earn element to Hunter’s Arena: Rebirth, but as the vision for the game is to have players competing for “true ownership of in-game assets,” it does fit nicely.
“Aligned with Immutable’s expertise of accelerating the mass adoption of web3 games, we are now spurring the development of brand new games, including ‘Hunters Arena: Rebirth” and other AAA-rated games built with Unreal 5. We focus on players’ motivation, enjoyment, and secured transaction games. Our partnership with Immutable X will be pivotal for us to bring our gaming vision into reality.”
— David Yoon, CEO of Mantisco
Interestingly, almost exactly a year ago, in October 2021, Mantisco began work on a metaverse project called “Carrireverse”, showing their interest in Web3 is not a new revelation. However, I could not find a wealth of information on Carrireverse. The official blog post announces a partnership with Polygon, but there is almost no outside mention of this project.
Mantisco has a clearly large roster of talent in their ranks, creating high-quality games. The company seems to sit in the vast middle ground between indie developer and titan, and this could be an important move for both Mantisco and Immutable X. Presuming the Web3 version follows the standard that Hunter’s Arena: Legends has set, it stands to be one of the most polished projects in the space. That said, it is a 2023 release, which depending on the month of launch, could see it surrounded by almost no equals or several; by December 2023, we will have quite the selection of AAA Web3 games.
