Michael Katz is the latest leader from the traditional gaming industry to the 8Hours Foundation advisory board
Another high profile gaming industry leader has entered the non-fungible token (NFT) gaming sector, to promote brand new products and provide strategic advice.
Michael Katz, who has occupied several top roles across a variety of major gaming companies in his 25 years within the video game entertainment sector, has been appointed as a member of the 8Hour Foundation advisory board. Karz was formerly the president of SEGA in the US, as well as the former president of the Atari Video Game Division. He was also Mattel’s marketing director.
The 8Hours Foundation is a gaming ecosystem provider. The organisation hopes Katz’s participation in the board encourages the adoption of several brand new products it has launched under the brand, VIMWorld. The 8Hours Foundation’s advisory board also has former executives from several mainstream gaming franchises such as the Call of Duty, Guitar Hero and Tetris.
WIMWorld is an NFT ecosystem that provides a framework of authentication for owners to store and build value with different connections among gaming entrepreneurs.
A representative from the foundation stated that Katz’s value in the industry is unmatched, as he has played an important role in some of the most successful product launches in the history of gaming.
“With extensive experience working at the head of Atari, SEGA and Mattel, we are confident Michael’s advisory will prove indispensable for our future success, having already led major gaming companies to new heights and product areas,” they said.
NFT marketplaces are a fast-emerging community for gamers. Recently, the Korean blockchain gaming company, PlayDapp, also launched an NFT marketplace of their own, providing a pathway into digital assets for the country’s multi-billion gaming industry.
The platform, called the PlayDapp MarketPLAce, provides free support for coin to coin trading between in-game items that are based on NFTs.
The development of PlayDapp’s marketplace was led by Koh Kwang-Wook, a founding member and former CTO of Item Bay.
During the time of their launch, the platform supports items from CryptoDozer and DozerBird, two collecting games that are powered by Ethereum. In the 24 hours after their launch, the games attracted 201 users and 30 users respectively.
South Korea is home to the fourth largest gaming industry in the entire world. It represented 14.3 million Korean Wons (approximately $12.1 billion) in 2018 and the sector has grown at an average annual rate of seven percent in the past 10 years.