The founder of the popular Web2 game "Palworld" is actually the founder of Coincheck, can you believe it?

Author: Kaori

Recently, an open-world game "Palworld" has become a hit across the internet, becoming the first dark horse game of 2024. Despite some skepticism from Pokémon fans, it firmly holds the top spot in Steam game popularity, with sales exceeding 1 million within 8 hours of launch, and surpassing 2 million within 24 hours, reaching over 8 million in sales in less than 6 days.

In the game Palworld, various magical creatures inhabiting different regions are collectively called "Palu". Players can capture these Palu as companions using Palu Balls, and the captured Palu can not only fight alongside the player, but also transform into weapons, mounts, and even tools. This gameplay is somewhat similar to Nintendo's Pokémon, but Palworld does not emphasize on evolutionary differences, RPG development, and strategic battles. Instead, it focuses on the sense of companionship, allowing players to live and fight alongside their Palu, which is exactly what Pokémon fans have longed for.

As the game's popularity continues to soar, people have become curious about this low-cost game with only four early developers. It was discovered that Takuro Mizobe, co-founder of the game's publisher Pocket Pair, had previously founded a cryptocurrency trading platform, and his X account profile also identifies him as the "Coincheck Founder".

Upon researching Takuro Mizobe's background, it was found that he graduated from the top science school in Japan, the Tokyo Institute of Technology, and later worked as an engineer at JPMorgan. In 2014, he returned to Japan and co-founded a company called "株式会社レジュプレス" with partners. As the chief engineer, Takuro Mizobe utilized his technical background and financial knowledge to create network products, manage legal agreements, and launch Coincheck's trading business.

In less than three years, Coincheck's yen trading volume accounted for about 40% of the Japanese market, making it one of the largest cryptocurrency trading platforms in Japan at the time. Although the name may still be unfamiliar to some, Coincheck was once the most popular trading platform in Japan.

In January 2018, Coincheck was hacked, resulting in a loss of approximately 500 million NEM tokens (equivalent to about 530 million USD), becoming a permanent scar in Japan's cryptocurrency history alongside Mt.Gox. Subsequently, under the supervision of Japanese financial institutions, Coincheck compensated nearly 90% of the users' losses. In April of the same year, the Monex Group announced the acquisition of all shares of Coincheck for 36 billion yen (approximately 335 million USD).

This acquisition led to a complete change in Coincheck's management team, and thereafter, there was no specific mention of Takuro Mizobe in relation to Coincheck. Not long ago, another co-founder of Coincheck, Koichiro Wada, posted on X, stating that due to Pocket Pair, they had almost completely abandoned Coincheck.

"Although I am a co-founder, when I said 'I want to make games', we completely abandoned the development of Coincheck together and started making games." Koichiro Wada, co-founder of Coincheck, commented on Takuro Mizobe's celebration of Palworld's sales exceeding 2 million.

In 2015, Takuro Mizobe founded the game publishing company Pocket Pair, responsible for the planning, development, and operation of Palworld. Given his connection to Coincheck, it may be expected that Palworld could potentially integrate with cryptocurrency. This is not unprecedented, as in September 2020, Coincheck announced a partnership with the blockchain game development platform Enjin to launch Japan's first NFT trading market, "Coincheck NFT", and to create NFTs for the game "Minecraft".

In March 2022, Coincheck NFT announced its support for the NFT land trading on the metaverse platform Decentraland. On the virtual land of Decentraland, Coincheck plans to launch a project to create a virtual city "Oasis KYOTO" in 2035, and announced that the project will be used as a place for communication and community development between artists and fans.

In October 2022, Coincheck reached a strategic partnership with Animoca Brands. Animoca Brands will be responsible for IP and content development as a blockchain game producer, while Coincheck will play a role in distribution and community development in the Japanese market, and both parties will create a community for creators and users.

Animoca Brands has always been focused on the game and NFT tracks in the crypto VC. If the popularity of Palworld continues, it may be expected to see whether Palworld will enter the cryptocurrency field in the future.

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