Hong Kong-based gaming firm Animoca Brands, has partnered with Middle East animations, comics, and games production company Manga Productions, for Web3 industry across Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
Animoca Brands said in a statement on Thursday that both have announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for a strategic partnership to collaborate on a range of initiatives to activate Manga Productions’ unique content in the Web3 ecosystem, grow the regional blockchain industry, and facilitate cross-access of intellectual properties.
The partnership will enable Animoca Brands and Manga Productions to collaborate closely across several major areas, initially focusing on co-creating Web3 pilot projects across Animoca Brands’ extensive ecosystem and leveraging Manga Productions’ high quality content portfolio in the Middle East.
Furthermore, Animoca Brands will utilize its operating and industry resources to provide educational and vocational opportunities to local talent in relevant fields.
Animoca Brands has already begun preliminary discussions with universities in Saudi Arabia to develop introductory blockchain courses.
“We are incredibly excited to join forces with Manga Productions on this partnership to leverage our respective complementary strengths,” said Yat Siu, Co-Founder and Executive Chairman of Animoca Brands.
“This partnership is one of our first significant steps in expanding into the Middle East, one of the fastest-growing Web3 ecosystems and a region rich in cultural heritage that can be adapted to various forms of virtual content,
“We look forward to bringing the various initiatives with Manga Productions into life, and we expect to see more activities in the region through investment and strategic collaboration,” he added.
According to the statement, Animoca Brands will explore the feasibility of a dedicated regional game publishing platform with local partners, including Manga Productions, to bring high-quality blockchain game titles to the Middle East and Northern Africa (MENA) region and support the global distribution of content produced by Manga Productions and other Arabian producers.
It sees the MENA region as a vibrant hub for technology innovation and blockchain adoption.
It opines that the strategic partnership announced on Thursday marks an important milestone in Animoca Brands’ mission of advancing global digital property rights and onboarding mass users into Web3 virtual economies.
For Manga Productions, this partnership represents the first step toward applying blockchain technology to its comprehensive content portfolio and advancing its cultural initiatives in an interoperable virtual world.
“We are delighted to announce our partnership with Animoca Brands and taking our IPs beyond content and into various applications and experiences.
“With this partnership, we believe that this will further develop the creative industry in the region through Web3 applications as well as expand our portfolio within online and offline activations of IPs,” he added.
Manga Productions is a subsidiary under the Mohammed bin Salman Foundation “Misk” and was established to inspire heroes of tomorrow through animation, video games, and comics.
The firm aims to be a regional and global pioneer in producing creative content and deliver purposeful content that contributes to building creative and ambitious talents through development programs and internships further to develop the entertainment content industry in the region.
It aims to build and develop a high-quality content industry in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the Arab region and support and nurture young talents in the Kingdom in comics, animation, and video games.
The firm has previously partnered with local and international entities such as TOEI Animations, SNK, Square Enix, Kadokawa, TellTale, WildWorks, SparkXR, Sumitomo group, and more.
Animoca Brands, is a leader in digital entertainment, blockchain, and gamification that is working to advance digital property rights and contribute to the establishment of the open metaverse.
The company develops and publishes a broad portfolio of products including the REVV token and SAND token; original games including The Sandbox, Crazy Kings, and Crazy Defense Heroes; and products utilizing popular intellectual properties including Disney, WWE, Snoop Dogg, The Walking Dead, Power Rangers, MotoGP™, and Formula E.
It has multiple subsidiaries, including The Sandbox, Blowfish Studios, Quidd, GAMEE, nWay, Pixowl, Forj, Lympo, Animoca Brands Japan, Grease Monkey Games, Eden Games, Darewise Entertainment, Notre Game, TinyTap, Be Media, PIXELYNX, and WePlay Media.
Animoca Brands has a growing portfolio of more than 380 Web3 investments, including Colossal, Axie Infinity, OpenSea, Dapper Labs (NBA Top Shot), Yield Guild Games, Harmony, Alien Worlds, Star Atlas, and others.