Yuga Labs, the makers of Bored Apes Yacht Club (BAYC) NFTs, have appointed Spencer Tucker as its Chief Gaming Officer. While NFTs from the BAYC and Mutant Apes collections are amongst most popular ones, Yuga Labs is now looking forward to carve a niche into the blockchain gaming sector as well. This is the first time that the 2021-founded Yuga Labs has hired someone dedicated to lead its gaming-related plans and initiatives. As per a Zipmex report, the worldwide gaming business is anticipated to increase to $314.40 billion (roughly Rs. 25,04,800 crore) by 2026 from $173.70 billion (roughly Rs. 13,84,100 crore) in 2020.
The new chief of gaming at Yuga Labs specialises in game development, designing, as well as Web3 gaming. Previously, Tucker was the President of Games at Scopely and served as Senior Vice President of Product at Gree International Entertainment.
“I am beyond excited to join the Yuga Labs team and to continue building toward the new era of interoperability and community-empowered growth in the Otherside metaverse. Web3 is revolutionising gaming, entertainment, and community in much the same way the shift to mobile revolutionised communication,” Tucker said in an official statement.
Yuga Labs is also working on an interoperable metaverse project called the ‘Otherside’, and as part of his new role, Tucker will also be overseeing this initiative.
As of March 2022, the estimated market cap of Yuga Labs’ NFTs stood at around $8.1 billion (roughly Rs. 64,600 crore) that represented 42.6 percent of the $19.1 billion (roughly Rs. 1,52,200 crore) market cap of Ethereum’s top 100 NFT collections, a DappRadar report said.
The company parents popular NFT series including Bored Ape Yacht Club, CryptoPunks, and Meebits, but now wishes to move beyond the NFT sector.
“Yuga is more than that. Gaming is one of our main focus areas. We are uniquely situated to revolutionise the way we all think about Web3 gaming through core principles such as ownership, utility, community, and storytelling,” said Nicole Muniz, CEO of Yuga Labs, commenting on the development.
The company, which has already roped-in specialists associated with Google, Oculus, Twitter, Apple, and Dune Games, among others, is aiming at expanding its team to 100 full-time employees by the end of 2022.
The company was recently accused of manipulating buyers into investing in its digital collectibles. The trigger point for this lawsuit is backed by an analysis on how the ApeCoin attained its all-time-high of $26.70 (roughly Rs. 2,100) before slipping down by 82.5 percent to trade at $4.66 (roughly Rs. 400) by June-end.