Turner Sports launches new season for Blocklete Golf mobile game

Turner Sports’ Blocklete Games, a gaming franchise built on the Flow blockchain, is debuting the second season of Blocklete Golf on mobile. Coinbase cloud helped provide the infrastructure.

The title is one of the first interactive sports games to feature nonfungible tokens (NFTs) available on mobile. The game, now available in Beta on iOS and Android, is built on Dapper Labs’ Flow blockchain to provide the infrastructure for minting NFTs.

Players can use a basic credit card or fiat (U.S. dollar) transactions for the purchase of digital assets. Turner Sports hopes to win over sports game fans while steering clear of hardcore gamers who don’t like blockchain games.

At its core, Blocklete Golf is a traditional golf management game that lets players select a golfer and play through rounds of dynamic courses in head-to-head matchups or tournaments. It uses the Flow blockchain infrastructure that enables a play and earn model empowering fans to collect, train, trade and compete with unique digital avatars in the form of NFTs as they have the potential to earn rewards in Flow blockchain-stable coins.

Players manage the career of their digital athlete — called Blockletes — and can increase its attribute levels, and therefore, utility and value, based on in-game performance.

Blocklete Games lets fans own, improve, and challenge others with digital athletes as well as sell them using an open marketplace.

The new season will soon launch a new Pro Shop providing players with access to NFT accessories and similar items to build upon and personalize their individual Blockletes. The art also looks better.

“Blocklete Golf is the first in what we envision being a franchise of play and earn games that we intend to build to provide users compelling gameplay and beautiful NFT products,” said Yang Adija, senior vice president at Turner Sports, in a statement. “We have been at the forefront of the NFT and blockchain movement in sports and believe that we have a real opportunity to serve sports fans via this new avenue of digital athletes. We’re equally excited for this debut on Flow, the blockchain where sports NFTs live.”

Turners Sports, a division of WarnerMedia, launched Blocklete Games in the fall of 2020 with the free online game with Blocklete Golf, a golf simulation game in which fans play against each other, as they shoot for targets on virtual courses using their unique Blocklete golfers.

Since that initial launch, the overall NFT market has soared, reaching $10.7 billion in the third quarter of 2021 according to data from market tracker DappRadar. This growth is partly fueled by the rise of sports-related NFTs like NBA Top Shot. Blocklete Golf is the first game to be launched under the Blocklete Games banner with more expected to roll out in the future. But blockchain games have also run into fierce resistance from hardcore gamers.

Meanwhile, Coinbase Cloud will provide the secure node infrastructure for Turner Sports to run Blocklete Golf on the Flow blockchain and offer fans a seamless, secure way to buy, sell, and trade collectible NFTs. As a trusted infrastructure partner, Coinbase Cloud will enable Turner Sports to partner with other leaders in the space to expand experimental engagement and blockchain participation for young fans and gamers.

“It is thrilling to see innovative companies branch into the crypto space to unlock new ways to engage with the technology,” said Joe Lallouz, head of product at Coinbase Cloud, in a statement. “NFTs have been instrumental to the growth and mainstreaming of the crypto ecosystem over the past year. We’re excited to work with Turner Sports, enabling them to use blockchain technology to deliver new experiences to fans and drive innovation in sports entertainment.”

Originally appeared on: TheSpuzz