Gaming and Metaverse powerhouse, Animoca Brands has acquired Notre Games for an undisclosed sum.

Animoca Brands has acquired 100% of Notre Games s.r.o (Notre Game) which is a game development and publishing company know for its Scratch Wars, an innovative hybrid physical collectable card mobile game.

The Transaction was in both cash and shares of Animoca Brands. The consideration amount was not considered material, and the shares of Animoca Brands were issued at a value of A$4.50 each.

Founded in 2016, the Prague based Notre Game is currently working on a new play-to-earn NFT game based on the success and game mechanics of Scratch Wars titled Scratch Lords.

What is Scratch Wars? A focus on novel games and innovation, Notre Game’s Scratch Wars is a physical-virtual hybrid mobile collectables card game with scratchable paper cards that are unique, scannable, and provide play opportunities both online and offline.

Made available to the Czech Republic and Slovakia, Scratch Wars has generated over €2 million (A$3 million) in sales of the games scratch cards in physical stores.

Also insightful was the fact that the games hybrid model allowed it to achieve a conversion rate of 12% of new users, meaning 12% of users who downloaded and used the app went on to buy a physical card at their nearest retail store and scanned the cards into the Scratch Wars app.

Why Acquire Notre Games?

Notre games are a perfect match for Animoca Games given its past and future titles. Animoca brands will allow the company to “expand its products to the global market and access the considerable networks, resources, and know-how within the wider Animoca Brands group”.

The acquisition also helps Animoca Brands to bolster its open metaverse development efforts given the experience and talent of the game studio.

Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of Animoca Brands, commented: “We were impressed by the innovation and boldness that Notre Game demonstrated with its physical-virtual hybrid game model. The company has a solid team with strong leadership and the kind of experience and mindset that we are looking for in our mission to contribute to the establishment of the open metaverse.”

Jiří Mikoláš, CEO and game designer of Notre Game, said: “Thanks to the vision of Animoca Brands, we now have the opportunity to show our ideas to the whole world, marking an important culmination of our game development efforts after years of hard work.”

What’s Next for Notre Games?

Notre Games will continue to be operated by its existing staff and management following its acquisition.

Notre games are highly focused on bringing to market Scratch Lords, a title highly inspired by the Scratch Wars concept but inclusive of NFT integration and trading.

Scratch Lords should be expected for available in the third quarter (Q3) of 2022, later this year July – September.