How Mythical Games CEO John Linden Became a Polkadot Convert

John Linden didn’t start out as a Polkadot fanatic. In fact he wasn’t even a blockchain fanatic. But the emergence of web3 and the use cases it spawned, no least GameFi, kick-started a chain reaction. It was a sequence that was to lead the Mythical Games CEO from Activision Blizzard, where he worked on the Call of Duty and Skylanders franchises, to become President of Seismic Games and finally onto GameFi.

From Ethereum to Polkadot

While Linden wasn’t exactly late to blockchain – as a tech entrepreneur and self-confessed geek he saw its potential earlier than most – it took time for GameFi and subsequently Mythical to emerge. The first seeds of Mythical Games were sown in the Ethereum ecosystem, but before long Linden and his team began eyeing more fertile pastures.

The primary reason the Mythical Games CEO gives for migrating chains – no easy feat when there are hundreds of thousands of users to take with you – is the desire to build a gaming ecosystem on an open, decentralized infrastructure. “For this [GameFi] economy to work worldwide it has to be open,” he recounts. “I’ll admit that some of the first things Mythical did weren’t very open. We were trying to bring these concepts into the world of gaming but we were also working with the app stores. So there were a lot of things we had to do that were still closed.”

Mythical’s GameFi debut began life on a permissioned sidechain, but as Linden acknowledges, “We wanted to take things further and to give players the concept of ownership but do so in a very protected, safe way.” The company started looking for a partner that could help them become fully decentralized over time before eventually settling on Polkadot. In May of this year, the hard work of porting everything over to the Polkadot ecosystem began in earnest.

Why Polkadot?

“Polkadot does a couple of things for us,” explains John Linden. “It’s by far the most decentralized structure in the world I think for building apps. It does a lot of things really well.” He goes on to cite such features as the ability for DAOs to change protocol rules to suit their model, adjusting protocol fees and controlling staking settings while retaining robust relay chain security.

Despite the daunting task of migrating 800K wallets to Polkadot, Linded is excited about the opportunities that lie ahead, speaking passionately about the prospect of building upon the security and decentralization of the Polkadot ecosystem. He also praises its governance model, and mentions Mythical working with wallet developers to integrate seamless user experiences for token swaps and voting, adding, “We’re not just thinking about GameFi. We’ve also been thinking about SocialFi.”

While Linden appears genuinely delighted to have found a new home on Polkadot, the move hasn’t just boosted Mythical Games: it’s also benefited Polkadot which has inherited one of the most innovative GameFi companies around, complete with one of the best performing games of the year: NFL Rivals.

Touchdown on Polkadot

The runaway success of NFL Rivals has been instrumental in driving Mythical Games to a $1.25B valuation and accounts for why there’s so much anticipation surrounding the company’s entry into the Polkadot fold. With over 5 million downloads to date, NFL Rivals has posted e all-star stats that make it a legit GameFi hall of famer.

Arguably, NFL Rivals has proven a hit despite having web3 features, as opposed to because of which, proponents have long argued, is the ultimate goal. Make a great game in other words, enhancing it with blockchain components where required, and players will make a beeline for it. It helps that NFL Rivals is one of the few apps to have been licensed by the NFL, allowing it to feature officia players of the world’s most famous football league.

The format of the game has also been instrumental in its success, tasking players with creating their own dream team replete with top football stars, each represented as an NFT. Coupled with the arcade football gameplay and PvP competitiveness, it’s made NFL Rivals irresistible to those whose favorite sporting moments take place in the end zone. The game is now routinely rated as one of the best web3 sports games on the market.

Where Next for Mythical?

For now, John Linden appears to be enjoying getting to grips with Polkadot and its architecture, particularly its ability to foster the sort of open environment he’s always envisaged for Mythical Games. While NFL Rivals remains the company’s flagship release, they’ve set their sights on attempting to repeat the magic with Blankos, another mobile game that moves away from sports but retains the intense PvP competitiveness. 

There are signs, too, that Mythical is looking forward to collaborating with more partners, leveraging its full-stack platform to help third parties release web3 games. For now, Mythical’s Polkadot honeymoon is showing no signs of letting up as the company explores the possibilities afforded by its new gaming playground. If it can replicate its success with NFL Rivals, there’s the potential for millions more players to be onboarded to GameFi, elevating the fortunes of Polkadot, Mythical Games, and John Linden in the process.