Author: Zen, PANews

Today, the cryptocurrency event Token 2049 in Singapore has kicked off, with nearly 10,000 project developers, investors, industry experts, and more from around the world flocking to Singapore. Among the list of attendees, there is a chain game project called Infinite Victory, which has participated in global conferences multiple times this year and has consistently made its presence known alongside the Web3 gaming platform Immutable.

From the announcement of the collaboration with Immutable at the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2023 to the joint release of the first game demo at the Gamescom in Cologne. The NFT game Infinite Victory, with basketball as its theme, is the culmination of a decade of effort by its developer, Bit Fry Game Studios.

Bit Fry Game Studios Focuses on Developing Cross-Sports Games

The developer behind Infinite Victory is the independent video game studio Bit Fry Game Studios, founded in 2013. In February 2020, Bit Fry disclosed a $3.5 million financing round, with supporters including 1Up Ventures, founded by Xbox co-founder Ed Fries, and the gaming venture capital firm BITKRAFT Ventures. Additionally, according to public information, Bit Fry's investors also include Dugout Ventures, Alumni Ventures Group, MLB star Ryan Howard, and the late NBA former commissioner David Stern, among others.

Bit Fry's founder, Ben Freidlin, grew up in the 1980s and 1990s. He dropped out of high school and later became a software engineer through self-study, working at Microsoft for several years. He then worked in the financial technology departments of major banks and hedge funds on Wall Street, such as J.P. Morgan and UBS. After many years, Ben, who had always considered himself an artist, decided to establish Bit Fry and embark on his long-time dream of developing sports video games. This not only required him to leverage his technical background but also to take on responsibilities in visual arts and business development negotiations. Ben later invited former MLB star Todd Zeile to join the company. Zeile, who currently serves as Bit Fry's CEO, had a 16-year professional sports career, playing for 11 teams, including the most well-known Dodgers and Yankees.

Bit Fry focuses on developing arcade-style action sports video game series. Unlike other sports game studios, they are the first to bring professional athletes from one sport into other sports in video games. In their games, players can control basketball and football players to play ice hockey, and WWE wrestlers can perform slam dunks on the basketball court. As a result, Bit Fry has signed licensing agreements with several well-known professional sports leagues and organizations, including the NHL, NHL Players' Association, NBA, NBPA, NFLPA, and MLB, among others.

Transition from Traditional Gaming to Web3 Gaming after Failure

Bit Fry's first product was "Ultimate Rivals: The Rink," a hockey-themed game launched on Apple's game subscription service, Apple Arcade, at the end of 2019. As mentioned above, in this game, players can compete not only with NHL players but also with NBA, NFL, MLB, and WNBA players, creating a spectacle of male basketball star LeBron James facing off against female soccer star Megan Rapinoe on the ice, reminiscent of the famous multiplayer brawling game "Super Smash Bros."

In the summer of 2021, Bit Fry launched "Ultimate Rivals: The Court," an action game with an NBA theme, on Apple Arcade. This 3v3 street basketball-style game features 140 characters, including Lebron James, Stephen Curry, Kevin Durant, as well as players from the WNBA, MLB, NHL, and NFL. However, shortly after The Court was launched and failed to make much of an impact, both The Court and The Rink quietly disappeared from Apple Arcade in the fall of that year. There were rumors at the time that Ultimate Rivals wanted to release a PC version on Steam, but ultimately, there were no follow-ups, and the game series came to an end.

Game: Ultimate Rivals: The Court

In October 2021, Bit Fry officially launched the Infinite Victory project and temporarily disappeared from the public eye. It wasn't until March of this year, at the GDC 2023 gaming event, that the Web3 gaming platform Immutable announced a partnership with Bit Fry and stated that they would introduce their Web3 game Infinite Victory onto the chain using the new Immutable zkEVM, with plans for it to officially launch on the IMX platform by the end of this year.

Continuing the NFT Basketball Game Infinite Victory

Infinite Victory is an arcade-style sports game with basketball as its main theme. It inherits the gameplay style of Bit Fry's previous work, especially The Court from the Ultimate Rivals series, and combines basketball, baseball, football, and 6 other sports. When developing the game, Bit Fry drew inspiration from 1980s hockey video game "Blades of Steel," baseball video game "RBI Baseball," 1990s basketball game "NBA Jam," football game "NFL Blitz," and even learned from fighting games like "Mortal Kombat" and "Street Fighter," incorporating some features of fighting games into Infinite Victory.

As an NFT game, Infinite Victory requires players to collect NFTs of sports athletes before engaging in 3v3 battles. Each character has different ability values, signature moves, and rarity. In terms of character actions and on-court performance, Infinite Victory is somewhat similar to Taiwanese basketball-themed idol drama "The Prince of Basketball" and the basketball movie "Space Jam" series, with characters moving swiftly and showcasing skillful special effects, aiming to immerse players in dazzling dunk and shooting performances.

Consistent with real basketball games, the core experience of this game lies in the timed mode, where players need to customize offensive and defensive tactics in fast-paced action, accumulate points, manage time effectively, and defeat opponents. A player's individual score is not only related to the on-court score but also linked to time. Each point a player earns not only increases their total score but also extends the match time, allowing players to stay on the court longer. In addition, excellent defensive skills can also be rewarded, with well-timed blocks and steals adding more time for more opportunities to perform.

Game: Infinite Victory

Currently, Infinite Victory is still in the pre-registration phase for early access, with the beta set to be released soon. Users are required to join the Discord community to qualify for pre-registration. As of September 13th, the Discord community has approximately 7,500 members. As one of Immutable's current flagship games, the results of Bit Fry's "decade-long" effort in Infinite Victory are worth looking forward to, and PANews will continue to follow up.

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