Animoca Brands are the most omnipresent organization in web3 gaming. Their latest partnership is with the arena shooter, Farcana, where they will assist with the game’s tokenomics and go-to-market strategy.

In a recent press release, Animoca Brands announced a strategic partnership with Farcana with a special focus on the game’s economy and its launch which is scheduled for the end of 2023. Animoca Brands is a powerhouse in the space and as far as I can tell, their support of any project is a boon, and an increase to its odds of success.

So, we know who Animoca Brands are, but what is Farcana?

What Is Farcana?

Farcana is a Free-to-Play, web3 arena shooter built on Unreal Engine 5. Farcana is set on Mars in 2077 and players compete for Infilium, the game’s resource. From inception, the game has looked to be Play-to-Earn (P2E), despite the downtrend in that mechanic, rewarding players with Bitcoin for their actions in-game.

Within a short period of time Farcana has developed a strong product and successfully completed a public playtest and onboarded 30k players. Farcana’s appearance into the market with a strong game and sustainable Web3 economy design is clearly welcomed by gamers. We are looking forward to demonstrating how a Web3 economy integration to AAA games like Farcana can revolutionize the gaming industry.

— Ilman Shazhaev, CEO and Founder of Farcana

Perhaps this is where Animoca Brands are so important to Farcana’s future: with the decrease in stock of P2E games, the rewards model has to be attractive and sustainable. No longer is it the case that a game can get players simply by virtue of the term P2E attached, unless it can reward an amount that turns heads. This is unlikely to be the case in a crypto winter, and even less likely to be a sustainable model.

Nevertheless, using Bitcoin as a reward mechanism for gameplay, however few satoshis that reward might be, could be attractive when baked into a desirable game. This all falls back into the age-old issue of “gameplay first, crypto second”. Fortunately, Farcana is already looking to be an attractive and well-fleshed-out project with fast-paced combat and a high skill ceiling, as you can see in the video above. With Animoca Brands behind the team, I’m even more positive about Farcana’s chances.