Nearly 35,000 members of the gaming community have collectively pledged more than $203 million to purchase virtual plots of land in the online world of Ember Sword, an unreleased play-to-earn massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG).
Bright Star Studios, the game’s Danish developer, will sort through the applications before choosing successful candidates to purchase the 6,000 plots of land available in the Solarwood Nation, one of Ember Sword’s four virtual worlds.
Owning land in Ember Sword gives gamers the opportunity to share in trading fees and earn Ember, the game’s ERC-20 token, from economic activity on and around their virtual plots of land.
Ember Sword, which plans to launch pre-alpha testing for virtual land owners and select community members later this year, is following in the footsteps of other play-to-earn blockchain-based games like Axie Infinity that are revolutionizing online gaming.
“We are working to develop a player-driven economy that allows gamers to earn rewards and make money through in-game activities, including the creation of unique, tradable NFT items,” Ember Sword CEO Mark Laursen said in a statement.
Bright Star founder Loren Roosendaal estimates that 70%-80% of applications for the NFT land sale came from individual gamers, but groups including Twitch streamers, virtual real estate firms, and decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) like Yield Guild Games accounted for the rest.
Ember Sword’s most recent land sale comes after a $1.5 million sale in May, which Roosendaal told CoinDesk struggled with technical challenges after demand exceeded Bright Star’s expectations.
In May, Bright Star raised $2 million in a funding round with participation from Coingecko Ventures, Delphi Digital, Animoca Brands, and others.
Roosendaal told CoinDesk that the funding will be used to further the development of Ember Sword and hire additional staff.