Board games like Medici, Tigris & Euphrates and Abandon Ship are the latest to be added to the blockchain-powered tabletop gaming tablet PlayTable. Blok Party, the company behind the tabletop tablet, struck a deal with German board game designer Reiner Knizia. As a result his most popular board games will now appear for the tablet when it launches within the next few months.
Blok Party already has the rights to popular titles like Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride and Love Letter. Together with a series of social multiplayer games all these titles will be available for PlayTable at launch.
PlayTable uses blockchain technology to store data on individual game pieces. The 8Hours Foundation is responsible for bringing all elements together. They've partnered with blockchain company VeChain to create an RFID system that creates a link between digital content and physical items for their tablet-based board games.
PlayTable is open to incorporate user generated content on its platform. During the first year Blok Party will have in-house developers doing most of the work, but in 2021 they want to release an software development kit. This will allow third parties to create and probably even sell their games.
Technically any toy can be made into an interactive piece for a game. By for example attaching a sticker with a built-in RFID tag any object can become part of the board game, ranging from toys to blocks of wood or an empty bottle. Thanks to that tag all kinds of statistics and gameplay characteristics are associated with that toy. The developers even promised that the Amiibo characters from Nintendo, the Disney Infinity figurines and those from Skylanders are all compatible with the PlayTable.
In addition it will even be possible to have toys 3D printed. Players can also use these figurines for their games on PlayTable. To make this process more accessible for everybody, the company partnered with a toy printing company called ToyBox. Each figurine has an RFID chip and linked Virtual Integrated Metadata (VIM) on the VeChain blockchain.
When players use these toys on the PlayTable console, the system will for example store their actions, progress, and experience points. I expect many evenings of Dungeons & Dragons becoming much easier to manage.
Last year VeChain has signed several major partnerships, including one with German car manufacturer BMW and the Chinese branch of Walmart. The company is working together with a variety of strategic partners, including DNV GL and PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PwC). The blockchain startup also has partnerships with companies like Renault, NTT DoCoMo, DB Schenker and 23 more companies. Last year one of their projects even got approval from the Chinese president Xi Jinping and French president Emmanuel Macron.
