Pixowl is an independent mobile developer with 10's of millions of downloads under its belt, all thanks to its highly popular The Sandbox series of games. The studio was just purchased by the publisher Animoca Brands for an upfront consideration of $4.875 million in cash and shares. The thing to understand is that The Sandbox is among the world’s largest independent user-generated content platforms and gaming ecosystems, and while it is no Minecraft or Roblox, it surely has a lot of potential to find just as much success.

First I would like to mention that this acquisition does not mean Pixowl has given up on its plans to create a blockchain version of The Sandbox. So make sure to keep an eye out for the world’s first title to include a marketplace for user-generated non-fungible tokens. After all, the CEO of Pixowl has clearly stated that blockchain is particularly relevant to The Sandbox because it has so many individual creators, which makes sense. This way each player should be able to own and sell the items they create in the game world, which sounds pretty cool. Let's hope Pixowl can deliver.

I suppose the general idea behind this purchase is that Pixowl’s highly experienced development team will somehow enhance Animoca Brands’ operational base and mobile/blockchain development capabilities, which sounds like a good enough reason to me, especially after perusing Animoca Brands Play Store catalog. It's clear the company could use all the help it can get when title after title is just a popular brand slapped on the same old tired clones we've all seen before. So maybe some new blood in the company will help to revitalize its current catalog. I suppose only time will tell.

PRESS RELEASE