- The Cool Cats NFT project’s next games will include action, puzzles, and endless runner experiences, and they will all be available in nine months.
- While NFT prices are falling, the companies behind these collections are looking for new ways to monetize their intellectual property, and many are betting big on adapting their colorful animal characters for online games.
Cool Cats, a cartoonish blue cat NFT project, was one of the first NFT profile picture (PFP) collections to release a browser game. Cool Cats has now licensed its intellectual property to three more game developers: nWay, iCandy, and Sync Studios.
“Gaming is an immersive content distribution platform that builds emotional connections with the characters and story through engaging gameplay,” Cool Cats CEO Stephen Teglas explained. “Our new games are critical to our ongoing mission of developing Cool Cats into a globally known character brand and a robust storytelling and content company.”
According to an announcement, the three Cool Cats games will be released within the next nine months. While no titles have been revealed, nWay plans to create a “competitive multiplayer arcade game,” iCandy is working on a browser-based 2D endless runner game, and Sync is working on a mobile match-3 puzzle game.
nWay is a subsidiary of Animoca Brands, a prominent blockchain gaming publisher, Web3 investment firm, and Cool Cats investor; Animoca also invested in iCandy. Sync Studios is a mobile game developer that has previously worked on projects based on the intellectual property of Hasbro, Paramount Studios, and Warner Bros.
Cool Cats’ expansion into online games coincides with the focus of other “PFP” NFT collections as game studios and entertainment brands. Yuga Labs, the company behind Bored Ape Yacht Club, has embraced its identity as a gaming company, releasing small-scale, limited-time games like the endless runner Dookey Dash and the pet simulation and social building game HV–MTL Forge while its MMORPG-esque Otherside metaverse develops.
Other PFP collections, such as Pudgy Penguins, have recently found success as social media brands, with viral Instagram Reels and physical plush toy merchandise.
While NFT prices are falling, the companies behind these collections are looking for new ways to monetize their intellectual property, and many are betting big on adapting their colorful animal characters for online games. Cool Cats has also made additional moves to expand its IP since last year. The project signed a media and licensing deal with Creative Artist Agency (CAA) in March 2022 and, earlier this year, revealed plans to expand beyond Ethereum in a multi–chain push that will include customizable, full-body avatars for NFT holders.
