Zilliqa Research Pte. Ltd., developers of the&nbsp;<a class="underline" href="http://zilliqa.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Zilliqa blockchain</a>&nbsp;&ndash; a high-performance, high-security and low-fee layer-1 blockchain protocol, today announces that it has completed the spin-off of its gaming division into a new standalone business,&nbsp;<a class="underline" href="https://rtz.gg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Roll1ng Thund3rz</a>&nbsp;(RTz).
The spin-off of Zilliqa&rsquo;s gaming division into Roll1ng Thund3rz marks a significant milestone for the company, as it pursues a strategy of building and incubating internal businesses that demonstrate innovative use cases of Web3 and blockchain technologies, part of a multi-faceted approach to driving growth across all aspects of the Zilliqa ecosystem.
Roll1ng Thund3rz will be led by Zilliqa&rsquo;s Head of Gaming Technology, Valentin Cobelea, who has spearheaded the establishment and development of Zilliqa&rsquo;s gaming division over the past year. Cobelea will serve as co-founder and CTO at Roll1ng Thund3rz, while also continuing in his role with Zilliqa to develop the technical gaming capabilities of the company; the remainder of Zilliqa&rsquo;s gaming division will transition to the new entity from today, which will commence operations immediately.
The new company will continue to work closely with Zilliqa&rsquo;s core and technical teams to facilitate seamless integration with the Zilliqa blockchain, which underpins several of the vanguard capabilities set to feature in Roll1ng Thund3rz games, including the unique Skill2Earn system that rewards players for their in-game play, not how much they pay to participate.
Next month, on March 31, Roll1ng Thund3rz will release its first flagship title,&nbsp;<a class="underline" href="https://w3w.game/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Web3War</a>&nbsp;&ndash; a free-to-play, cross-platform, first-person shooter. Currently in open beta, the game has attracted close to 7,000 players in its pre-release phase, as it has progressively rolled out new content and features to a growing user base ahead of its official launch.
For more information on Roll1ng Thund3rz, visit&nbsp;<a class="underline" href="http://www.rtz.gg/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">www.rtz.gg.</a>
Speaking on today&rsquo;s announcement, Zilliqa CEO Matt Dyer, said:
&ldquo;All of us at Zilliqa are delighted to be able to announce the completion of the Roll1ng Thund3rz spin-off. Gaming in the blockchain and Web3 space has been a key area of focus for us at Zilliqa &ndash; representing an underserved and largely untapped market brimming with potential. Since joining Zilliqa, Valentin [Cobelea] has built a division that has gone from strength to strength, leveraging his significant experience to establish a foothold in a still-developing but highly competitive landscape. Today&rsquo;s announcement is the culmination of a year of hard work by the whole team at Zilliqa, but just the first step on the journey for Roll1ng Thund3rz. We look forward to maintaining a close relationship with the team and contributing to their future success.&rdquo;
Also commenting on today&rsquo;s announcement, Roll1ng Thund3rz co-founder and CTO Valentin Cobelea, said:
&ldquo;It is a great honour for me to be leading Roll1ng Thund3rz and be empowered to pursue a vision for Web3 gaming that truly puts gamers first. Our philosophy from day one has been to &lsquo;build fun games first&rsquo; that leverage blockchain technology to provide genuine utility to the players, not create thinly-veiled financial products that masquerade as games. I&rsquo;m confident that our approach, coupled with our talented team and technical backing, will see Roll1ng Thund3rz be the first business to truly crack the code of Web3 gaming and demonstrate not only the benefits of blockchain technology for this industry, but offer a window into what the future of gaming will look like.&rdquo;

Zilliqa completes spin-off of gaming division into standalone business Roll1ng Thund3rz

Zilliqa announces that it has completed the spin-off of its gaming division into a new standalone business, Roll1ng Thund3rz

press-release

Roll1ng Thund3rz has officially been spun out from Zilliqa as a standalone business with the vision of creating a Web3 gaming ecosystem built around high-quality games, player-first development, and unique blockchain features predicated on providing genuine utility.
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This is a major move towards scaling up the development and growth of products like WEB3WAR and the Gaming Hub, which are the company&rsquo;s first steps towards achieving its vision for the future of Web3 gaming.
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The Roll1ng Thund3rz team is led by its CTO and co-founder, Valentin Cobelea, who has spearheaded the development of Web3 gaming infrastructure and products at Zilliqa together with an experienced team of veteran developers.
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WEB3WAR and the Gaming Hub are the flagship products currently being built at Roll1ng Thund3rz, but the team is just getting started in building towards their vision for a unified Web3 gaming platform.
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We spoke to Valentin Cobelea to find out more about the inception of Roll1ng Thund3rz as a standalone company and what to expect going forward.
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The vision behind Roll1ng Thund3rz
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Spinning out Roll1ng Thund3rz is the next step in the growth of the team behind WEB3WAR, the Gaming Hub, and the various infrastructure that connects high-quality games to the Zilliqa blockchain, Valentin says.
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The vision for the company is to deliver a gaming ecosystem that offers all the benefits of blockchain functionality while remaining focussed on the most important component of gaming - creating high-quality, fun games for players to enjoy.
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&ldquo;We are doing for Web3 what Valve did years ago with Steam - we&rsquo;re building games, the tools for those games, and the hub to unify everything as an ecosystem and manage all of that,&rdquo; Valentin says.
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Like many modern video game marketplace platforms, Roll1ng Thund3rz will be open to third-party developers launching on the Gaming Hub and using their SDKs and other tools to integrate with the Zilliqa blockchain.
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Spinning out the company was the necessary next step in its evolution - it has proven the utility of its products and needs to be able to scale independently as it grows its offering and infrastructure.
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&ldquo;This is the natural evolution of the strategy we had from day one. As a gaming company, we need to be properly structured outside the operations of a blockchain company like Zilliqa,&rdquo; Valentin says.
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&ldquo;It is the next step for our growth as we scale the company and deliver on our vision for a sustainable Web3 gaming ecosystem.&rdquo;
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After incubating within the Zilliqa gaming division and spinning out after successfully demonstrating a viable and exciting use case, Valentin says he can see this model being applied to more projects within other industries.
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&ldquo;Within Zilliqa, we proved ourselves with a good strategy, business model, roadmap, and technical delivery, and then we needed to spin out to continue scaling up. You can see this as a pilot programme for other businesses that can be built up within Zilliqa and deliver on these goals before spinning out as their own business within the Zilliqa ecosystem.&rdquo;
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Valentin will continue to hold his position of Head of Gaming Technology at Zilliqa and the two teams will work closely to ensure blockchain technology is efficiently integrated into Roll1ng Thund3rz products.
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The importance of player experience
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One of the key ways Roll1ng Thund3rz is different to the number of Web3 gaming projects in the blockchain industry is its approach to game development.
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&ldquo;If you take a look at what&rsquo;s happened with other so-called Web3 gaming studios, many have failed because they thought primarily about tokenomics and afterwards about the players,&rdquo; Valentin explains.
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&ldquo;That&rsquo;s not the way to do games or any kind of entertainment, you need to focus on the product and services and have a strong roadmap for delivery backed by a team with proven knowledge and experience.&rdquo;
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Roll1ng Thund3rz not only has a team of veteran developers with experience at triple-A gaming studios, but it also has a firmly player-first approach to design.
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&ldquo;We are building &lsquo;games on blockchain&rsquo;. The majority of our work is focussed on the games and player experience,&rdquo; Valentin says.
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The Skill2Earn system is at the core of how blockchain is implemented in the company&rsquo;s games, with players rewarded based on their in-game skill. This is unlike many models used by other Web3 gaming projects, many of which are focussed on simple play-to-earn models that put more importance on tokenomics than player enjoyment.
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Valentin notes that many people misperceive the benefits blockchain can provide to players, but points out that this technology can bring exciting features gamers would enjoy, such as true ownership over in-game items and cross-game content, and the ability to earn rewards for proving their skill.
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&ldquo;We are fighting a reputation in the Web3 space at the moment, in the same way that people doubted the utility of the internet back in the day - until companies like Microsoft, Oracle, Amazon, and others found a way to use it,&rdquo; he says.
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&ldquo;We have found a way to use blockchain to make gaming a better and more rewarding experience for players.&rdquo;
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For those who may be sceptical of Web3 gaming, Valentin challenges players to try out WEB3WAR and enjoy the experience of a game with blockchain features that puts player experience first.
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&ldquo;Install the Gaming Hub, install WEB3WAR, and try it out. Join the Discord and tell us what you think - we are listening to our players.&rdquo;
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WEB3WAR launch and development plan
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Roll1ng Thund3rz will focus on developing games at a rapid pace and building the Gaming Hub into a unified platform populated with high-quality games and allowing players to buy and sell tokens, trade cosmetic skin NFTs, match with friends, and much more.
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&ldquo;All of our games will be multiplayer, free-to-play, with seasonal content and cross-game NFTs that are owned directly by players,&rdquo; Valentin says.
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Cross-game NFTs are a feature close to Valentin&rsquo;s heart - as a gamer he has always wanted to use cosmetic skins across multiple games and not to have them locked into a single title or ecosystem.
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&ldquo;As we&rsquo;re using blockchain technology and an integrated wallet, your inventory, skins, and other NFTs can be used across other games on the Gaming Hub. For example, if you have a skin for your weapon in WEB3WAR, in our next game you will be able to use the same weapon skin.&rdquo;
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&ldquo;We&rsquo;re planning for all the NFTs that you can earn, trade, or buy in the marketplace to be used in at least two games.&rdquo;
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The 1.0 version of WEB3WAR is set to officially launch on March 31, 2023, but that will just be the first game of many in the pipeline at Roll1ng Thund3rz, and it will continue to receive regular updates and content even as more games are released.
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The second game developed by Roll1ng Thund3rz is also on track to be released in beta this year.
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&ldquo;The second game will be unveiled after the official release of WEB3WAR and will be available in some form to players later this year,&rdquo; Valentin says.
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This game will be a multiplayer extraction looter-shooter game with similar gameplay elements to popular Web2 titles like Escape From Tarkov and DayZ. As with WEB3WAR, it will follow a development cycle focussed on gameplay experience and will receive seasonal content updates.
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&ldquo;We will follow the same cycle as WEB3WAR. The second game is now in alpha. We're going to be in beta, then in open beta and everybody can play it as a sandbox game. Then closer to the full release, we will integrate all the blockchain functionality,&rdquo; Valentin says.
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&ldquo;But while this is happening, we're still going to have seasonal content for WEB3WAR. All the bug fixing and improvements that we do for WEB3WAR will continue on an ongoing basis.&rdquo;
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When asked where he&rsquo;d like to Roll1ng Thund3rz in five years&rsquo; time, Valentin envisioned a complete, unified gaming and entertainment ecosystem that retained its core focus of player experience.
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&ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to see us have at least 10 games, some of which would be developed by other studios. It would be great to have that level of content and around 200,000 player accounts on the Gaming Hub platform,&rdquo; he says.
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&ldquo;The console will definitely be in circulation by then, and it would be great to have a marketplace not only for games and NFTs, but also gaming controllers, keyboards, and merchandise. I&rsquo;d also like to see regular tournaments for both our games like WEB3WAR and third-party titles onboarded onto the Gaming Hub.&rdquo;
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Introducing Roll1ng Thund3rz - A Web3 gaming company that puts players first

Zilliqa has announced the completion of the spin-off of its gaming division into a new standalone business called Roll1ng Thund3rz (RTz).

interview

The full version of&nbsp;<a href="https://www.w3w.game/">WEB3WAR</a>, the skill-based multiplayer first-person shooter developed by Web3 entertainment and gaming company Roll1ng Thund3rz, has a confirmed release date of March 31, 2023.
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WEB3WAR is designed around a unique &lsquo;Skill2Earn&rsquo; mechanic that rewards players for their in-game performance, meaning players with the best aim, strategy, and reflexes will rise to the top of the leaderboard and earn the most rewards for their efforts.
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Rewards and in-game items are tokenised and secured by the Zilliqa blockchain, giving players complete control over the digital assets they have purchased, earned, or traded. These in-game items can be purchased, traded, or earned through gameplay.
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The game is currently in public beta, with players being able to download and try out the game for free as gameplay features continue to be added and refined.
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WEB3WAR&rsquo;s version 1.0 release on March 31 will see the game updated to include blockchain-related functionality such as cosmetic skin NFTs and the ability to earn rewards through gameplay.
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After the official release, players will continue to be able to download and play the game for free from the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.w3w.game/">WEB3WAR website.</a>
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At the heart of WEB3WAR&rsquo;s development philosophy is the player experience. The team at Roll1ng Thund3rz is committed to creating great games that offer unique features secured by blockchain technology, but gameplay and fun are always the priority.
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WEB3WAR has made significant progress over the public beta period, consistently adding many important features, mechanics, and improvements over several months.
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These additions include cosmetic skins and customisation for player profiles, weapons, and characters; multiple match types and maps across FFA and team game modes; a full progression system for unlocking new weapons and attachments; player levels and achievement ribbons, and much more.
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Development on content for WEB3WAR will continue following the full release of the game, including the regular release of seasonal content that players will be able to take full advantage of by purchasing a season pass to unlock new skins, high-quality maps, and other content.
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The WEB3WAR public beta will remain available to play for free as we approach the full release on March 31.
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Play free now at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.w3w.game/">w3w.game</a>&nbsp;to begin honing your skills and get the edge over your opponents ahead of the official release!
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Launch date for WEB3WAR confirmed

WEB3WAR, the highly-anticipated multiplayer first-person shooter from Web3 entertainment and gaming company Roll1ng Thund3rz, is set to launch its full version on March 31, 2023.

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