KUALA LUMPUR, March 27 — Malaysia’s gaming industry has achieved a major milestone with the launch of Soulbond: Rebels Arise, the country’s first blockchain-led massively multiplayer roleplaying game (MMORPG) utilising non-fungible tokens (NFT).

Many Malaysians would be unaware that the launch represents a historic moment for the local gaming industry, especially in terms of game development, as it is the very first game of its kind to be developed entirely by Malaysians.

The company behind it, Metabond, is led by founder Datuk Clifford Hii, and utilises the expertise of Jeremy Choo, the driving force behind Eximius, a strategic action shooter developed by his game development studio, Ammobox.

"It has been quite a journey to get here today, not only for us personally, but for the entire Malaysian gaming community and also the local game development industry.

"When people talk about digital games in Malaysia, e-sports come to mind. People have a misconception that Malaysians only love playing games, they don’t know how to develop them,” Hii said at a media conference after the launch of Soulbond, which took place during the Future Trends event at PJPAC @ 1Utama Shopping Complex here yesterday.

Meanwhile, Jeremy Choo, who was unable to attend the launch, shared that one of the toughest challenges he faced as a Malaysian game developer was the doubts people had that a Malaysian company could actually be good at making games.

"As a Malaysian involved in game development, I’m always happy when we are able to accomplish something important that will not only be entertaining to players, but also help the local industry progress,” he said.

The game is still under development, but the minting of its first game-related NFT offering, the Ren Empire, began with the Student Privilege List on March 19, and public sales will begin on March 27.

Metabond is expected to proceed with four more game-related NFT offerings in the upcoming months before the game is completed.

Soulbond, while being the first blockchain-led Play2Earn MMORPG utilising NFTs, is actually the second MMORPG developed by a Malaysian company.

The first Malaysian MMORPG, Fung Wan Online, was created by Phoenix Games Studios and launched in 2003. It shut down three years later in 2006. — Bernama