Strong IPs Are Bringing Normies into Web3
Gabby joined a YGG Global Hangouts stream to discuss how Abstract and Pudgy Penguins are helping YGG carve out a niche for itself in Web3’s casual gaming market.
Among Web3-native IPs, Pudgy Penguins is one of the few that have managed to cross over into the mainstream. The steady leadership of CEO Luca Netz has seen the project grow from a nearly abandoned NFT collection into a beloved brand expanding through physical collectibles, apparel, and community experiences. This broad appeal has also made Pudgy Penguins an excellent partner for a new wave of casual Web3 games, including YGG’s first release, LOL Land.
Recently, YGG co-founder Gabby Dizon joined a Global Hangout session to discuss the thinking behind positioning LOL Land as a Casual Degen title with YGG Community Manager FallenCorpsez. During their chat, Gabby streamed a live session of the game to demo its gameplay loop and spoke about the rationale behind partnering with Pudgy Penguins and Abstract for its debut game.
The following is an excerpt from the livestream, where Gabby explains how YGG’s relationship with Pudgy Penguins began. Fallen shares his thoughts on how merchandising deals with retailers such as Walmart have helped Pudgy Penguins break into popular culture.
Listen to the full recording on X.
YGG Global Hangout x LOL Land
Gabby (8:03): We've used Ethereum. We've been on Polygon. We got on Ronin last year. The story with Abstract started with our conversation with the Pudgy Penguins team. For those that don't know, the Pudgy Penguins community and Abstract are very linked together. They have the same CEO, Luca Netz. During the YGG Play Summit last year, we were talking to the Pudgy team, and basically, we had the opportunity to get into licensing some of the Pudgy Penguins for our game.
We thought that this was a really good opportunity for us, because working with the Pudgy community means that we can extend our reach to a lot of people who fit the Casual Degen profile. I don't know if a lot of the Pudgys are gamers. They seem like they love the Web3 community. They're very degen. One thing led to another, and then we were able to end up licensing Pudgy Penguins for our game, and that led us to being on Abstract.
FallenCorpsez (9:07): I've had some friends who aren't in the Web3 space. Pudgys has put their stuffies in Walmart and stuff, so they're like, “Hey, have you seen this penguin before?” Because they know I'm a degen, they're kind of like, “What is this? And how does this tie into this Web3 thing?”
I think Pudgys is really doing a good job with their IP of bridging that casual gap of people that just like these cute little stuffy things, and then piquing their interest. My fiancée loves Squishmallows and stuff like that, so she loves the idea of Pudgys. She loves these cute little penguin creatures. It's a perfect conversation starter on what Web3 is and how we can tokenize this IP with NFTs and blockchain technology.
You can listen to the full recording on X.
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