Luke Barwikowski, founder of popular web3 browser-based MMO Pixels, has revealed plans to develop additional web3 games in the Pixels universe – with one of the first to be a Telegram game.
The internal team at Pixels, which encompasses 19 full-time employees, has created a general direction and outline for these new titles. External studios will complete the core development work, with the Pixels team integrating blockchain elements before they are released to the public.
One of these additional experiences is expected to be developed on messaging app Telegram, which attracted tens of millions of players for tap-to-earn title Notcoin earlier this year.
How does Pixels plan to expand?
Pixels has seen a meteoric rise in the past 12 months. Following the game’s transition to Ronin and the release of their $PIXEL token, Pixels is arguably the biggest title in web3, with an active 7-figure playerbase taking Ronin to new heights.
With this sizeable playerbase and large in-house team in hand, Barwikowski and team are now creating a lore bible to distribute to external studios in an effort to bolster future apps and experiments.
“We’re working on a few mobile apps right now, and that’s going to be the next line of distribution that we’re working on.” he indicated. “We’re going to try some cool stuff with incentivized downloads – like, kind of Play-to-Earn on iOS and Android.”
With their recent Chapter 2 release, Pixels are looking to show that not only is play-to-earn blockchain gaming still alive and kicking, but that Pixels can be the standard-bearer for the industry at large.
“We want to be the play-to-earn company, and this feeds into that,” Barwikowski added.
Is Telegram the next haven for web3 gaming?
Messaging app Telegram has become a leading platform for casual web3 games in 2024. As mentioned, games such as tap-to-earn title Notcoin and Hamster Kombat have attracted huge playerbases – with the latter purportedly attracting over 200 million players.
Due to this success, several major web3 projects are exploring ideas for additional Telegram-based experiences – with Pixels the largest player to publicly state their interest in the platform thus far.
“Telegram’s an interesting ecosystem,” said Barwikowski – and with Pixels being the biggest of many others developing on the platform, time will tell if Telegram takes off as the next big hub for web3 gaming.
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