Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), recently announced the sale of the intellectual property rights for its two games, HV-MTL and Legends of the Mara (LoTM), to Faraway. Yuga has been working with Faraway, which is a Web3 gaming studio, for a while; for instance, Faraway is developing Serum City, which is a Mutant Ape Yacht Club-themed game. With the strategic move, Yuga Labs will focus more on the Otherside platform and Dookey Dash that is a Bored Ape-themed game.
HV-MTL is a game centered around mech-themed NFTs while LoTM is an adventure game connected to the Otherside metaverse. By transferring these games along with their NFTs to Faraway, the company aims to sharpen its efforts on developing immersive 3D experiences in Otherside.
This move also involves the participation of Spencer Tucker, the chief gaming officer of Yuga, in Faraway. Tucker became the new chief product officer of Faraway to maintain the strategic direction of the transferred game titles.
The decision to offload HV-MTL and LoTM reflects Yuga’s response to the current downturn in the NFT market, which has seen significant price drops. The downturn also affected the floor price of the BAYC collection negatively. Despite these challenges, the company continues to manage other prominent NFT collections, like CryptoPunks.
This refocusing is indicative of broader trends in the blockchain gaming industry. In this sector, most companies are prioritizing their most successful and promising projects to optimize resources and maximize user experience.