Prominent casual and mobile game publisher Zynga announced today that its first blockchain game is called Sugartown, which will utilize Ethereum NFTs. 

In Sugartown, three farm animals have opened a wormhole from another dimension. Creatures called Oras have crossed through this wormhole and turned Sugartown into a fun, gamified world. The game will be released at “a later date” and will be playable via web browsers only, a Zynga representative told Decrypt via email.

Zynga will release 10,000 Ora NFTs sometime later this year, and they will be required for players to enter the game. The Ora NFTs will give players access to the experience and the free-to-play minigames within Sugartown. Players will also be able to lock up or “stake” their Ora NFTs to accumulate Sugar, a non-crypto, in-game currency.

“Our ambition is to empower players through a sustainable Web3 platform full of fun and enduring games,” Zynga Vice President of Web3 Gaming Matt Wolf said in a statement. 

“We created Sugartown to appeal to a native Web3 market,” he added, “but with the ambition of scaling much wider over time while we build a passionate and engaged community of holders we hope will enjoy this experience as much as we loved bringing it to life.”

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'Future-Proof': Why FarmVille Creator Zynga Is Making NFT Games—Starting This Year

Zynga blasted to enormous success and notoriety with 2009’s FarmVille, a Facebook game that quickly amassed 10 million daily users despite the objections of hardcore gamers. Over the years, the firm continued attracting casual players with hits like CityVille and Words With Friends, becoming a major mobile developer in the process. But now, Zynga is building in a space that elicits the same kind of powerful (and often negative) reaction from many gamers that casual and mobile titles have in the...

Founded in 2007, Zynga first made a splash in the gaming industry when it released massively popular casual games like FarmVille and Words With Friends in 2009.

The publisher first revealed plans to make blockchain-based games in late 2021, but hasn’t shared many details on the endeavor since early 2022. Last year, Grand Theft Auto publisher Take-Two Interactive acquired Zynga for $12.7 billion, and signaled plans to work together on future blockchain games.