Now, there’s a headline I didn’t expect to be writing today. We are undeniably big fans of Splinterlands — we gave them our 2021 Game of the Year and then partnered with them for our massive giveaway (that is still ongoing). Splinterlands has been flying high within the blockchain gaming scene for 6 months or more and now they have got the attention of a giant who is dipping its toe in crypto waters of late, Warner Music.

Web 3.0 piqued Warner Music’s interest reasonably early, laying some groundwork in the industry by investing in Dapper Labs (of NBA Top Shot fame) in 2019. Then, in 2021 they signed a partnership with Genies, an avatar technology company, to bring WMG’s roster of artists to digital immortality. Now, they’ve moved much closer to our area.

Warner Music Group Partners With Splinterlands

Splinterlands, one of the most successful blockchain games thus far, is a TCG project spread across WAX and Hive. Co-founder and CEO, Jesse “Aggroed” Reich, is now expanding their development reach with a first-of-its-kind partnership.

WMG has announced today that it has drafted in Splinterlands developers to help create play-to-earn (P2E) games for them. Chief Digital Officer and EVP, Business Development, Oana Ruxandra said:

“I don’t think we can underestimate how massive the opportunity around P2E gaming is. Our partnership with Splinterlands pulls focus to our artists and their music as we all work together to develop and maintain tokenized games. As we build, we will be unlocking new revenue streams for our artists while further solidifying fans’ participation in value created.”

Analysis and Thoughts

This is a curious partnership, but one that could become far-reaching. I am extremely familiar with Splinterlands, of course, but I have also worked with WMG on a few occasions and they are an impressive beast.

The concept of generating new revenue streams for artists (and of course WMG) is being taken in a direction I didn’t expect. It appears as if Splinterlands will be developing blockchain games for WMG, whereas I expected WMG to license their artists’ music to blockchain games and projects, including the metaverse. That appears a lucrative avenue to me and perhaps one they will explore.

This is a pairing of two entities I believe in, and as unlikely as it is that Splinterlands would team up with WMG, it’s WMG that could be showered with plaudits if this collaboration proves as fruitful as it has the potential to.