Gala Games, a blockchain gaming platform, has announced a pivot to embrace mobile gaming as part of its strategy going forward in 2023. The platform, which has so far run on the Ethereum blockchain and been bridged to Polygon and BNB, will also be developing its native layer-1 blockchain, Gyri, with GALA as the native token. Gala Games also announced that it will be adding the functionality for millions of users gaming on the platform to burn $GALA for gas, which will drive interactions on the chain. The news was broken in a series of tweets, though the announcements came earlier in the Gala Games discord channel.
Do you want to know more about $GALA's pivot to include mobile gamers from across the industry? Here is a writeup from our CEO on exactly that!
More news incoming soon! Join our Discord at https://t.co/qSszqarMri! pic.twitter.com/0Qa8sMnXz1
— Gala Games (@GoGalaGames) January 8, 2023
Gala Games defines part of its mission as giving gamers ownership of items and parts of the games they play in the ecosystem through the use of NFTs and blockchain cryptocurrency. This strategy has previously limited them to desktop gaming due to strict mobile app store rules. President of Blockchain for Gala Games, Jason Brink, described it as a “hostility of app stores and mobile makers to Blockchain.”
However, on January 6, 2023, Gala Games announced that it had purchased a mobile gaming development studio with 20 million users and would be developing two new mobile studios, one focused on casual games and the other on more competitive games. According to Brink, the thawing of attitudes in the mobile space in recent months has opened new opportunities. The Apple App Store now allows NFTs in games, and Gala Games is seizing these new opportunities with fervor. The CEO of Gala Games, Eric Schiermeyer, revealed on Discord that the mobile gaming studio acquisition saved them the equivalent of 15 years of development.
The studio also announced a migration from the Ethereum network. The new Project GYRI blockchain will be an autonomous network powered by $GALA. All the games Gala offers, including those from their newly acquired studio, will be put on the new blockchain, and players will be able to burn $GALA for gas. According to the CEO, an estimated 6–35% of the total $GALA supply could be burned per year.
These developments may come as a surprise, but users of the platform have been expecting them for a while. Two months ago, Gala Games released a trailer on their YouTube channel, teasing some of their planned expansions for 2023. The teased initiatives include not just an expanded gaming ecosystem but an extension into movies and music. Thus, there are more exciting announcements to expect from Gala Games.
