In a week marked by significant downturns in both traditional and crypto markets, Fractional Uprising Studios has emerged as a beacon of excitement and engagement, and a welcomed distraction, for gamers.
If you're not familiar, FU Studios' OpenSeason is a third person shooter. If it reminds you of Fortnite, it should. The game is built on the unreal engine, and lives on the Epic Games Store. Except in OpenSeason players choose their favorite meme or NFT persona (currently Milady, Remilio, Freddie (of Sanko fame), Bored Apes, Doge, Pepe, Goblins, CryptoPunks, Joycat (of Mog fame), RetroDoge, and Kanpai Pandas - and the team says more characters are imminent) as their ingame character. The game is free to play, requiring only an invite code, and players earn rewards for themselves and the communities they represent in battle.
Unprecedented Engagement
According to a representative from FU Studios, the introduction of ranked matches, in partnership with Sanko.tv, has been met with legit enthusiasm. As of this morning, there have been 128 ranked matches and an additional 1,650 unranked matches played, and over 9,200 overall game plays. These numbers are a testament to the game's appeal and the power of community, with players spending a combined 56 days gaming so far this season. Btw you can see a ton of great gameplay stats on the OpenSeason website and the integrated leaderboards on Sanko.
Communities United....Against Other Communities
Gaming has always been a sanctuary, especially in turbulent times. As financial markets faltered this week, gamers have found solace and a sense of community in OpenSeason. While tribalism can breed negativity, the community rivalry in OpenSeason has been friendly thus far. Ok, mostly friendly. The first week of ranked play saw Milady and Remilio, off to a strong start, with respectable showings from Doge and Bored Apes, but it was Freddie Sanko, the newest character in OpenSeason, who came in hot, locked in, and topped the leaderboard.
UPDATE: at time of press we are seeing Joycat (Mog) and Kanpai Pandas, both of which were kinda losers in last week's competition, coming out strong in early play! It probably is not a coincidence that the team announced the 10% of weekly rewards will be sent to the communities behind these ingame characters. Competition + rewards = engagement.
The Power of Ranked Matches
The success of ranked matches goes beyond mere numbers. It signifies a new chapter for web3 gaming. FU Studios took two big steps this past week, one is what they call Skill2Earn, where most rewards are paid based on skilled play (adios play2earn zombie farmers), and the other is launching their Game Pass invite code system. This means new players simply need to make a one time connection to their Epic Games account, enter their invite code, and play - free. There's no web3 or crypto or NFT anything required, unless you want to receive rewards that is. But they've made that easy too.
The FU Studios team definitely has good friends. Their deep partnership with Sanko.tv has amplified the reach and visibility of these matches, drawing in more players and viewers alike, especially with Freddie Sanko as a playable character. I've also seen loud support from the Doge community, with two playable characters and my favorite neighborhood in the game - Such Wow City. I've also seen big BAYC community members hyping the game, and something about MOGGED being the new noscoped.
Looking Ahead
The team says scaling player support is their top priority. They are adding regional servers to address latency issues, and will continue their hourly drip of more game passes. There's a big new character imminent and they also say to look for more info on the FU Token. The dev who I dm'd with said they launched the token and then went so heads down into shipping death match, sanko, and ranked matches that they didn't talk much about token design and affiliate and community rewards. Bullish tbh.
Oh and if you're wondering how to get your favorite character in the game, afaik there are two ways: the biz dev route and the community funded route. Sproto Gremlins just kicked off the community funded route. Once they've got 5 ETH in they'll get their character in game, plus all the contributors get to generate invite codes and earn extra rewards. I dig this route because community ownership. But you can also just DM the team on X and get after it. If you've got the treasury, why not? Better ROI than some conference party.
Which feels like a good time to disclose that I hold the FU Studios Game Pass Pro NFT, and a bag of $FU Money. This is not a paid article. I just like the game.
Like the article and want to support my team? Use my invite code: giggle-tape-smart
See you in beanland.
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