Activision CEO moves to the world of blockchain gaming

Activision CEO moves to the world of blockchain gaming

20 December 2022

The worlds of mainstream business and esports are getting more and more entangled by the day. One major sports event after the other is getting its own esports version as more and more talent is discovering the opportunities of gaming and virtual sports every day. The growth is so fast that even blockchain gaming and Web3 technology have entered the arena in the past few years. More than a few experts feel that “the blockchain” will become the next big thing in gaming and international esports, and Daniel Alegre is one of them. The current President and Chief Operating Officer (CEO) at Activision Blizzard, from hugely popular titles like Call of Duty and Hearthstone, has announced that he will be moving to Yuga Labs, the startup behind the Bored Ape Yacht Club, one of the highest-profile projects of last year’s NFT explosion.

Yuga Labs? Bored Ape Yacht Club?

Despite generating hundreds of millions in sales in just a few months’ time, you’d be forgiven for now knowing what we’re on about here. What is the Bored Ape Yacht Club and who is Yuga Labs. We’ll briefly explain before continuing with Alegre’s career move and why it could be a significant step for the international esports industry as a whole.

At the moment of writing, Yuga Labs is the biggest NFT (Non-Fungible Token) company in the world. An NFT is a type of blockchain token that allows for the certification of a unique digital good, with the idea of granting such goods the same property rights as any other traditional/physical item. A good example of this is an exclusive Counter-Strike: Global Offensive skin, worth say $10.000. Minting this skin on a blockchain would allow the player in question to not only own and sell the skin in CSGO itself (as is possible already), but also outside of the game. Complete ownership of a virtual item, in other words. The Bored Ape Yacht Club is a collection of such NFTs, though the images in this case represent profile pictures (avatars) of cartoon apes. During the height of last year’s NFT craze, some of these BAYC NFTs sold for millions of dollars.

Alegre sees massive opportunities

At Yuga Labs, former Activision CEO Daniel Alegre will be focusing on the young company’s considerable ambitions in terms of blockchain gaming and metaverse development, while also moving the company as a whole into a more mainstream position. In that sense, the fact that the President of the biggest independent company in the gaming industry is now joining the Web3 universe can only be interpreted as a huge vote of confidence for the future of blockchain.

“Since exploding onto the scene with Bored Ape Yacht Club in 2021, Yuga Labs has quickly made a name for itself through a powerful combination of storytelling and community-building,", said Alegre in an official statement, "The company's pipeline of products, partnerships, and IP represents a massive opportunity to define the metaverse in a way that empowers creators and provides users with true ownership of their identity and digital assets”.

News