Warner Music Group has entered into a partnership with blockchain gaming developer Splinterlands. 

The deal will see the two companies collaborate to give select WMG artists opportunities to create and develop play-to-earn (P2E), arcade-style blockchain games. Splinterlands currently operates the world’s most popular blockchain game ‘dapp’ (decentralized app), called Splinterlands.

It follows the major’s partnership with The Sandbox on a music-themed world in the metaverse.

Oana Ruxandra, chief digital officer & EVP, business development, WMG, said: “I don’t think we can underestimate how massive the opportunity around P2E gaming is. Our partnership with Splinterlands pulls focus to our artists and their music as we all work together to develop and maintain tokenised games. As we build, we will be unlocking new revenue streams for our artists while further solidifying fans’ participation in value created.”

Jesse “Aggroed” Reich, Splinterlands co-founder and CEO, said: “Warner Music Group is a leader in the music industry. They are innovating the music industry to meet the standards set by Web 3.0 community members. We're thrilled to be working with them and I look forward to new collaborations at the intersection of gaming, music, crypto, NFTs, defi, and blockchain.”

By leaning into arcade-style gaming, Splinterlands and WMG will produce mobile-friendly, accessible games that can facilitate wider adoption and foster community building more easily than traditional play-to-earn games.

Blockchain games are rapidly increasing in popularity, currently making up half of the entire blockchain industry’s usage according to DappRadar. Play-to-earn games specifically tap into blockchain technology to give players rewards, such as NFTs, that hold real-world value. Players can trade, sell, or lease anything they earn in-game.

Splinterlands was founded in 2018. The company’s fantasy-themed collectible card game, Splinterlands, currently boasts 1.8m registered users, 450,000 daily users, and recently passed a historic one billion battle milestone.

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