Chantal Fouad

DUBAI: Led by game industry veterans; Mythical Games, a new concept of gaming that takes e-gaming to the next level through the utilization of blockchain technology and a web 3.0 based growth and development system, is about to make a presence in Saudi Arabia and Japan.

John Linden, the CEO of mythical games is a passionate video gamer with extensive experience in the field of gaming that allowed him to establish a decentralized gaming application where players can own the assets they develop or acquire in the game and offers the players a secondary market.

Linden shared his gaming experiences and said exclusively to Arab News Japan, “I, and the leadership team here, had the experience of leading globally recognized franchises like Call of Duty. Mythical mission has always been to usher in the next generation of gaming and next generation of gamers. We wanted to provide a holistic ecosystem for all parties as we continue to effectively utilise blockchain technology. After being part of Web 1.0 and Web 2.0 experiences in my previous ventures, it made sense to create a company that introduces and grows with Web 3.0”.

Linden also talked about the spark behind his motivation to create mythical games; his professional experience being president of seismic games and studio head at activision blizzard as well as being a gamer his entire life is what ignited the drive to create such a platform; saying, “In this space, the experiences you get from playing different games with different communities last a lifetime – and that pushed me to be involved in the design process of games to create more unforgettable experiences for the gamer in all of us.”

What adds the edge to mythical games is that it allows gamers to become stakeholders and potentially gain back their time invested in the game as money; and that happens because of having ownership of their digital collections in the game, hence opening new streams of revenues to gamers.

Linden provided an explanation to Arab News Japan as to how players can technically gain back their time as money saying, “From a macro picture, there have been two key transformation shifts that have shaped the way we have operated. Democratisation of game access, aka free to play games, and democratisation of content, where players create user content that can be used in game ecosystems – I believe have been transformational for the industry. At Mythical we wanted to merge these concepts, to make every party a stakeholder; including players, esports and brands, so that they can leverage elements of blockchain technology like NFTs or tokens. This makes all stakeholders have access to this democratised game economy and allows them to own and use these digital assets via what can be called “playable NFTs”.

The platform has currently two games; the inhouse social party game ‘Blankos Block Party’ and an arcade style game created in collaboration with the NFL, titled ‘NFL Rivals’; as well as a racing game that will be added this year.

Linden’s choice to expand to Saudi Arabia and Japan was not a random pick; Japan already having a well-developed gaming industry makes it the perfect market to receive mythical games as it has the needed solid foundation on which to expand and achieve great results and feedback for the platform; as well as the culture’s strong sense of innovation and technology adoption.

Saudi Arabia’s path and vision look very promising as private and public entities are heavily investing in esports and gaming, Linden also mentioned a crucial point that the country is on a track to boost its global digital ranking through their gaming sector, which is a positive and promising sign for the region and gives Linden the confidence to potentially open a shop in the kingdom in 2024.