NFT Racing Game Acquires ‘The Fast and the Furious’ Writer!

“The Fast and the Furious” writer David Ayer is Tokyo-drifting into Web3 with an NFT racing game. He is partnering with Feature.io, an NFT-focused technology platform, to produce an immersive car-racing experience called “Lollipop”. What can we expect from the collaboration?

What do we know about the Lollipop NFT racing game?

The project will run on Layer 2 blockchain Polygon. It will combine “elements of episodic streaming, gaming, and professional sports”. This approach fits into what Feature.io CEO Steven Ilous believes is the future of media entertainment.

While we don’t know exactly how NFTs will play into things, Ilous views Lollipop as an opportunity “to really create next-generation content that is built for how audiences are consuming content these days”. The game will be built on Unreal Engine 5 and presumably feature high-powered cars, death-defying stunts, and the glorious explosions that have made the “The Fast and the Furious” a global phenomenon.

Ayer stated, “I’m excited to be working with the team at Polygon on ‘Lollipop’. As a filmmaker, I’ve always been interested in exploring new forms of storytelling and entertainment, and blockchain gaming is the perfect opportunity to do just that. I can’t wait for players to experience the thrill of racing in this innovative new game.”

The Feature.io team has yet to announce a release date for the game.

NFTs or Digital Collectibles?

Both Ayer and Ilous have been careful to use the term “digital collectibles” in favor of non-fungible tokens, or NFTs. Their goal is appeal to a massive audience and some people still dislike NFTs. For whatever reason, this demographic of people are more willing to purchase an NFT if they’re labeled as “digital collectibles” instead.

Even though we don’t many details about the game yet, we can safely assume players will collect in-game assets as NFTs. From there, they will presumably trade, buy, and sell items using Polygon’s near-zero cost Ethereum-scaling solution. Ryan Wyatt, the president of Polygon, is also excited about the project. He called it, “truly pioneering” in a recent interview.

Is NFT gaming the next big thing?

Many people are betting big on blockchain gaming. In 2021, investors put $3.7b of funds into metaverse and blockchain gaming projects. That number nearly doubled to $7.6b in 2022. So far, 2023 is off to a good start with over $500m invested in the sector during a down year for markets.

Many huge projects are building games right now targeted at NFT gamers. Yuga Labs is working on Otherside, YouTube mega-influencer Dr Disrespect is dropping a first-person shooter game called “Deadrop” soon, and the highest-grossing IP of all-time Pokemon is posting hiring ads for an executive with extensive Web3 experience.

The future seems bright for blockchain gaming. It’s no surprise, therefore, that game developers are tapping into existing franchises to bring their audiences over to Web3. Dom Toretto, the protagonist of “The Fast and the Furious” franchise, once said, “I don’t have friends, I have family.” By bringing David Ayer into Web3, it feels like our family just became a little bit stronger.