Animoca Brands Acquires Eden Games For $16M

NFT gaming firm secures more motorsport titles, including F1 Mobile Racing, weeks after closing down F1 Delta Time.

Metaverse and blockchain gaming firm Animoca Brands has purchased French developer Eden Games in a $16 million deal designed to enhance and extend the former’s REVV motorsport ecosystem.

Eden Games was founded in Lyon, France, in 1998 and initially gained fame for console titles like V-Rally and Test Drive Unlimited before moving into the mobile arena with Gear.Club and F1 Mobile Racing. The company also has long-term partnerships with more than 30 brands in the automotive industry, including BMW, Bugatti, Porsche, and Lotus.

Specifically, Animoca hopes to use Eden Games’ platforms and development expertise to build on its existing titles and create new blockchain-based racing games that allow players to buy and trade non-fungible tokens that can be used in races to win REVV utility tokens that have real-world value.

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These include licensed games like MotoGP Ignition and Formula E: High Voltage and original titles like REVV Racing and Torque Drift.

“With its quarter of a century of expertise in building high-quality motorsport video games, Eden Games will enhance and accelerate the development of the REVV Motorsport ecosystem and add powerful value to the REVV community and the racing metaverse,” said Yat Siu, Co-founder and Executive Chairman of Animoca Brands.

“We are excited to start the next chapter of Eden Games by joining Animoca Brands,” added David Nadel, co-founder and head of the studio at Eden Games. “We look forward to producing new experiences that challenge the status quo within the motorsport genre and venture into new frontiers such as Web3 alongside a leader in the space.”

Animoca said that the acquisition would allow it to add additional utility to replacement assets issued to players of F1 Delta Time, which ceased operations last month. However, the company told SportsPro that the purchase of Eden Games was not related to the closure.

It added that the licensing agreement for Eden’s F1 Mobile Racing game was entirely separate from the one covering F1 Delta Time, meaning there was no scope for NFT assets to be reused in the former.

“The acquisition is not a direct response to the closure of F1 Delta Time, rather, it is an excellent opportunity to bolster the entire REVV motorsport ecosystem with the expertise of Eden Games, a world-class developer of multiple hit racing and driving games,” said an Animoca Brands spokesperson.