Animoca Enters Crypto Racing Games By Acquiring Eden Games

Animoca, which is an NFT and metaverse investment firm intend to expand its REVV Motorsport ecosystem using a metaverse-first approach.

Animoca Brands, a gaming and venture capital firm, has completed its landmark acquisition of Eden Games, publishers of the Gear. Club and Test Drive series, as well as other popular racing games.

Eden Games is a French company that was founded in 1998. On April 7, Engine Gaming and Media sold a 96 percent stake in the company to Animoca for $15.3 million.

Animoca intends to improve its REVV Motorsport (REVV) ecosystem with the acquisition by taking a “Metaverse first approach” to new and existing gaming titles, as Animoca chairman Yat Siu tweeted in April 12.

It also intends to launch new blockchain-based racing games. Eden Games has automotive industry partnerships with BMW, Bugatti, Porsche, and others, which should help Animoca build out a more robust product.

The REVV Motorsport ecosystem includes the eponymous racing games, MotoGP: Ignition, Formula E: High Voltage, and Torque Drift on the Ethereum scaling solution Polygon. The games are all blockchain-based and use nonfungible tokens (NFTs).

Animoca will be able to capitalize on Deloitte’s estimated $2 billion in sports NFT transactions in 2022 by incorporating its NFT products into sports.

Yat Siu, co-founder, and chairman of Animoca Brands stated in an April 11 statement that the acquisition would “add value to the REVV community and the racing metaverse” due to its many racing assets.

Animoca has been hard at work developing its racing game ecosystem, hoping to fill the void left by the closure of its F1 Delta Time game on March 15 after losing its license with the Formula 1 racing brand. There has been no word on what new titles may be in the works as a result of the new acquisition.

F1 racing is a popular sport in the crypto industry, with at least eight crypto companies currently sponsoring teams, including exchange Binance, Crypto.com, and Ethereum scaling solution Fantom. From a business standpoint, its popularity makes perfect sense, given that approximately one billion global fans are expected to watch races during the 2022 season.

Animoca Brands is a prominent investor in the NFT and Metaverse sectors. Other investments include The Sandbox (SAND) and Axie Infinity (AXS).