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Sequoia Games Brings Augmented Reality to Board Games Using Algorand Blockchain
The Catan-style game combines a physical board with NFT-backed characters that can be bought and sold between players on Algorand’s blockchain.
By Eli Tan
Updated May 11, 2023, 5:46 p.m. Published Oct 19, 2021, 4:06 p.m.
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We’ve heard of digital basketball cards as collectibles, but what about board game characters?
Sequoia Games has tapped Algorand as the digital ledger behind its new Flex NBA product, a National Basketball Association-licensed board game that uses augmented reality.
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The company said Tuesday that Flex NBA is a turn-based board game with similar mechanics to Catan that’s played with a physical board in combination with a mobile app.
Players assemble their own roster using “Flexagons,” which are physical collectible tiles that represent different NBA players also expressed digitally on the game’s companion app.
The Flexagons are brought to life within the app through augmented reality technology and can be upgraded to create more value within the game.
“There is a missing bridge between the ‘old school’ [board games] and the technology that exists today, a bridge that also connects our need to own something physical in a world that is moving too far into the digital,” said Sequoia Games founder Daniel Choi. “In today’s gaming landscape, we either have 1960s board games or mobile apps and PS5s. There is no reason these worlds need to be separate.”
Sequoia Games inserting augmented reality into a traditional board game setting is one of many recent examples of companies using blockchain to reimagine gaming.
Solana-based Genopets is combining the virtual world of GameFi with physical wearables that reward steps.
Also, European fantasy sports platform Sorare has used NFTs to revamp its fantasy soccer product, raising $680 million to expand into other sports.
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