Asphalt Gamers Will Compete for an Array of Limited-Edition Digital Collectibles

SINGAPORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Epik Prime, connecting brands and digital platforms to offer immersive digital experiences, announces today an exclusive partnership whereby Gameloft will launch its first ever NFT activation powered by Epik Prime for an in-game tournament on Asphalt 9: Legends, the latest game in the Asphalt racing franchise, which recently crossed the 1 billion download mark across the series.

Beginning July 5^th, gamers will compete for exclusive trophies and an array of limited-edition digital collectibles (NFTs). Users will be able to store and explore their NFTs inside of their Epik account.

Epik’s blockchain-powered capabilities present a low-risk opportunity for brands to explore the NFT space by licensing their IP and creating unique digital assets for purchase. Epik has created a unique NFT solution whereby any brand can be featured in games. Epik and Gameloft for brands worked together to create this branded in-game experience.

As their first foray into this technological partnership, Epik has opted to feature its own brand as the in-game advertising. This collaboration is an exciting event for the entire mainstream gaming and collectibles industry and a historic leap forward for the mass adoption of blockchain technologies.

"Epik is excited to partner with the legendary Asphalt franchise through its latest game, Asphalt 9: Legends for the first Gameloft NFT activation,” says Epik CEO Victor David. "Together we will clearly demonstrate how NFTs could be incorporated natively in-game to create new immersive digital experiences for players."

Epik will be making something possible which has never been done before -- opening up entirely new doors for, not just the blockchain industry, but for the gaming industry as well, allowing for major gaming companies to engage with their audience in an entirely new way. Sharing limited edition collectibles with its loyal fans and communities so that they can have something to take to their virtual homes, and hold onto, or trade, for years to come.

Epik’s NFT platform optimizes the user experience by removing unnecessary latency associated with public blockchain transaction confirmations. By utilizing a hybrid on-and-off chain solution, whereby transactions (purchases, transfer of items) are conducted off-chain in real-time, Epik minimizes the frequency of on-chain transactions, thus incurring less gas and less energy usage for every transaction that occurs on the Epik system. The only time an on-chain transaction occurs is when a user transfers an NFT item out of the Epik system, such as onto a cold wallet or another marketplace.

Additionally, Epik utilizes Huobi’s ECO Chain (HECO) HPoS consensus mechanism to ensure low transaction cost, low transaction delay, and high transaction concurrency to provide additional eco-friendly benefits. HECO Chain is an EVM-compatible public chain with an efficient and low-cost on-chain environment for DApps, smart contracts, and digital assets like NFTs.

About Gameloft for brands 
With a monthly audience of 250 million active players, 300 million impressions, and an average playtime of 27 minutes per day per user, Gameloft for brands offers advertisers a unique level of visibility and engagement with their audiences. To date, Gameloft for brands has delivered more than 10,000 campaigns for prestigious brands such as Air France, Coca-Cola®, Ford, FOX™, Ferrari, ING, Netflix, Procter & Gamble, Samsung and LEGO, in over 40 countries around the world (North America, Latin America, Middle East, Africa, Europe, Asia, etc.) and our work has been honored with over 50 awards from marketing organizations.

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About Epik Prime 
Epik Prime brings together the world’s leading brands and most popular digital platforms to offer truly unique and immersive digital experiences to millions of fans worldwide. The company works with thousands of brands to broaden their reach, increase fan engagement, and generate new monetization opportunities with unique and highly desirable digital collectibles, including NFTs. This includes Viacom, Warner Music, Garena, Tencent and Universal. Epik’s proprietary platform and partner ecosystem is expanding rapidly and has quickly become the premier location for global brands to enter new avenues for revenue growth.