We’ve learned Sam Bankman-Fried’s cryptocurrency exchange company FTX has acquired Good Luck Games, creators of the PC card-based auto battler Storybook Brawl.
News that FTX has acquired Good Luck Games was confirmed by the game studio this week. The plan for this acquisition is to implement blockchain technology into Storybook Brawl as part of their new studio FTX Gaming.
According to both the press release and news post, the reason why FTX acquired Good Luck Games is that founder Sam Bankman-Fried is a huge fan of their game, which appears to be an unfinished autochess card game blatantly ‘inspired’ by Hearthstone with public domain characters. Any attempts to vertically integrate this game with other crypto platforms to create a “play to earn” experience that barely requires user input but steadily saps their money is merely a bonus.
Here’s the word from FTX:
West Realm Shires, Inc., the owner of FTX US, a leading U.S.-regulated cryptocurrency company, today announced that they have acquired Olympia, Wash.-based developer, Good Luck Games, creator of the popular upcoming card auto battle game Storybook Brawl. Following the acquisition, Good Luck Games will be integrated into FTX Gaming.
“We couldn’t stop playing Storybook Brawl when it became available on Early Access in Steam last summer,” commented Sam Bankman-Fried, co-founder of FTX. “Outside of it being an incredibly fun game our whole office enjoys, with its highly engaging gameplay and free-to-play model, we saw an opportunity to be the vanguard for the ethical integration of gaming and crypto transactions in a way that hasn’t yet been done in this space.”
Developed by a team of veteran designers from Magic: The Gathering, Hearthstone and Elder Scrolls Legends, Storybook Brawl is a lighthearted card-based autobattler game featuring characters from beloved fairy tales and myths. While the game is easy to jump into and simple to play, its wide variety of cards offers opportunities for deep strategy and accommodates different play styles. Although still in open beta, the game has amassed thousands of Very Positive reviews on the Steam platform.
“As we build our team of outstanding artists at GL Games, we wanted to develop ways for both the artists and players to benefit from and feel ownership in the success of the game,” says GL Games CEO Matthew Place. “We found that FTX has a similar mindset in creating the model for digital object ownership done right.”
Storybook Brawl will be featured in the FTX booth at this week’s Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. The game is currently in Early Access on Steam with the mobile version expected to launch this summer.
FTX Gaming will focus on integrating environmentally friendly blockchain technologies as part of FTX’s larger focus on climate and carbon neutrality. To learn more about FTX Climate and FTX’s commitment to carbon neutrality, please visit: https://www.ftx-climate.com/
About Good Luck Games
Founded in 2019, GL Games is helmed by four veteran card game designers and former professional players. Magic: The Gathering Hall of Famer Josh Utter-Leyton and top player Matthew Nass both worked on Elder Scrolls: Legends and Eternal. Magic: The Gathering Hall of Famer Luis Scott-Vargas (commonly known as LSV) has worked at Dire Wolf Digital as well as on numerous other digital and physical games, and is a founder of ChannelFireball.com, one of the premiere Magic websites and event companies. Matthew Place is a Magic Pro Tour champion turned game designer. He’s had many roles during his 18 years in the game industry, including lead initial designer for Hearthstone at Blizzard Entertainment. www.storybookbrawl.com
About FTX Gaming
FTX Gaming is the gaming division of leading global crypto companies, FTX & FTX US, established to help developers create open economy games that players will love for decades. We do that by leveraging FTX’s fullstack of technology and blockchain expertise to safely, compliantly, and seamlessly offer players low friction ways to take ownership of their digital assets.
