Parallel Launches on Epic Games Store, Expands NFT Game Reach

Parallel, a competitive card game that integrates non-fungible tokens (NFTs), made its debut on the Epic Games Store this Wednesday, significantly broadening its potential user base. The Epic Games Store, a major platform in the PC gaming market, boasted a user base of 270 million by the end of 2023, including 75 million monthly active users.

Developed by Parallel Studios and heralded as GG’s 2023 game of the year, Parallel has evolved from a closed to an open beta earlier this year, now making a significant leap onto a major gaming platform. The game, which utilizes Ethereum and the layer-2 scaling network Base for minting NFTs, offers a rich mix of tokenized and non-tokenized in-game cards.

Gamers downloading the free-to-play title from the Epic Games Store will receive an exclusive bonus of five “Apparition Packs,” which contain non-NFT cards, enriching their gaming experience.

Parallel Studios isn’t just expanding the game’s availability—they also raised $35 million in funding this March and have introduced the Parallel’s Planetfall expansion. With ambitious plans to venture into mobile gaming and a robust commitment to esports, the studio is setting the stage for substantial growth. The first year of the Parallel League is expected to feature over $500,000 in prizes, with aims to escalate the prize pool into the millions in the coming year.

Franklin Fitch, Head of Partnerships at Parallel, expressed enthusiasm about the launch: “Parallel going live on Epic opens us up to millions more players worldwide,” he stated. “But we don’t plan to stop there. As we roll out more ways to access and play Parallel, we also plan to scale our competitive prize pool into millions of dollars next year.”

Parallel’s expansion reflects a growing trend of integrating blockchain technology into mainstream gaming platforms. Moreover, Parallel Studios is also developing Colony, a generative AI-driven simulation game on the Solana blockchain, showcasing the firm’s continued innovation in the gaming sector.