ASX Release
03 April 2019
Animoca Brands collaborates with and invests in “MLB Champions™” developer Lucid Sight
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Animoca Brands becomes Lucid Sight’s exclusive partner to promote, market, and distribute Lucid Sight games in Asia
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Lucid Sight’s portfolio includes the blockchain game MLB Champions™, an officially licensed product of Major League Baseball and Major League Baseball Players Association
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Animoca Brands is developing blockchain licencing relationships with prominent sports franchises (recently announced Formula 1®), positioning the Company at the forefront of the industry and providing a distribution platform to launch blockchain games and NFTs
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Baseball has a strong reach in Asian countries including China, Japan and Korea
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Lucid Sight is the developer of various other titles including Crypto Space Commander (CSC), the PSVR game Herocade, Polyrunner, Star Drive, Z-Strike, and 405 Road Rage
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Lucid Sight VR and AR games have been downloaded more than 1 million times across the Steam, Gear VR, Oculus Rift, Daydream, and PlayStation platforms
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Animoca Brands will seek to implement the assets from Lucid Sight’s games into NFTs for blockchain titles being developed by the Company
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The Company participated in a US$6m round of funding into Lucid Sight, along with Salem Partners, The Galaxy EOS VC Fund, Digital Currency Group, Breakaway Growth, and Frontier Venture Capital
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Animoca Brands will receive a share of net revenues generated by the Games in Asia, as well as a share of net revenues generated by the Games outside of Asia in connection with distribution, publishing deals, and other agreements
Animoca Brands Corporation Limited (ASX: AB1, “the Company”) is pleased to advise that it has entered into a binding term sheet with Lucid Sight, Inc. (“Lucid Sight”) to promote, market, and distribute Lucid Sight’s portfolios of games (“the Games”) in Asia, as well as to implement assets from the Games into the Company’s blockchain titles as non-fungible tokens (NFTs). Additionally, Animoca Brands participated in Lucid Sight’s latest fundraising round. Lucid Sight is the developer and publisher of various virtual and augmented reality games as well as various blockchain games, including the successful flagship title MLB Champions™ based on the Major League Baseball franchise.
Lucid Sight develops and publishes virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) games including the PSVR game Herocade, Polyrunner, Star Drive, Z-Strike, and 405 Road Rage. Lucid Sight VR and AR games have been downloaded more than a million times across the Steam, Gear VR, Oculus Rift, Daydream, and PlayStation platforms. Lucid Sight has also released a number of blockchain games including MLB Champions™, an officially licensed product of Major League Baseball and Major League Baseball Players Association and one of the first blockchain games based on a licensed major sports franchise.
Lucid Sight is also the developer of Crypto Space Commander (CSC), a sandbox massively multiplayer online (MMO) space game that operates in a completely real-time, player-controlled economy. Lucid Sight plans to release a PC version of CSC in 2019.
Lucid Sight will launch “Scarcity Engine” later this year, a developer toolset which helps bridge the gap between blockchain and traditional gaming platforms.
Investment
The Company has participated in a US$6 million (approximately A$8.5 million) round of funding into Lucid Sight, Inc. The amount invested by the Company was not material. Investors in the round included Salem Partners, The Galaxy EOS VC Fund, Digital Currency Group, Breakaway Growth, and Frontier Venture Capital.
Collaboration
As part of the collaboration, Animoca Brands will become the exclusive partner of Lucid Sight to promote, market, and distribute Lucid Sight games in Asia, including MLB Champions™. The Company will receive a share of net revenues generated by the Games in Asia, as well as a share of net revenues generated by the Games outside of Asia in connection with distribution and publishing deals and other agreements brought by Animoca Brands.
In addition, Animoca Brands will have the right to use assets from Lucid Sight original games in at least two of Animoca Brands’ blockchain titles. The use of third party intellectual properties from Lucid Sight branded games is subject to the approval of their corresponding licensors.
By partnering with Lucid Sight - a like-minded pioneer in blockchain gaming - Animoca Brands will continue to consolidate a leading position in the blockchain gaming industry, especially across Asia Pacific. Animoca Brands further believes that this collaboration will confer useful exposure to VR and AR games markets.
This collaboration adds to the Company’s relationships with prominent sports franchises and licensees (Formula 1®, see ASX announcement of 26 March 2019), positioning the Company at the forefront of the industry and providing a distribution platform to launch blockchain games and NFTs.
Yat Siu, co-founder and chairman of Animoca Brands, said: “We are proud to partner with Lucid Sight and its deeply experienced game development team as we continue to work with major brands to create blockchain-based true digital ownership of in-game assets. Baseball is one of the most popular sports in Japan, Korea, and Taiwan - territories that are also pioneers in blockchain adoption - and we see high potential for MLB Champions™ in the region.”
Randy Saaf, co-founder and CEO of Lucid Sight, said: “We are excited to have Animoca Brands as a strategic investor and partner. Yat and his team have been leaders among established game companies who see the potential of blockchain in gaming. We look forward to working together to build a global audience for digital ownership games such as MLB Champions™ and CSC.”
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About Lucid Sight
Lucid Sight, Inc. develops games with digital scarcity and true digital ownership as first principles. Lucid Sight is founded by serial entrepreneurs Randy Saaf and Octavio Herrera along with experienced game developer Fazri Zubair. Lucid Sight is based in Los Angeles and employs 25 diverse and talented individuals with deep game industry experience.
About Animoca Brands
Animoca Brands (ASX: AB1) leverages gamification, blockchain, and artificial intelligence technologies to develop and publish a broad portfolio of mobile products including games such as The Sandbox, Crazy Kings, and Crazy Defense Heroes as well as products based on popular intellectual properties such as Garfield, Snoopy, Thomas & Friends™, Ever After High and Doraemon. Animoca Brands is the exclusive China distributor of CryptoKitties. The Company is based in Hong Kong, Canada, Finland, and Argentina. For more information visit www.animocabrands.com or get updates by following Animoca Brands on Facebook or Twitter.
Contact: press@animocabrands.com