Finnish social entertainment company Sulake, a pioneer of social gaming and virtual communities in the 2000s, will finally launch a Habbo server for Web3.
Finnish social entertainment and video company Sulake is to bring the popular online game, Habbo, to the metaverse with a fully integrated Web3 server, dubbed Habbo X, later this year. This comes after Habbo began introducing NFT features to the platform in January.
Habbo X: a fully web3 @Habbo Hotel focusing on NFTs, play-to-earn and tokenomics 👾
Read the game design blog here ➡️ https://t.co/HdLc4oLEu0
Jump into our Discord and tell us what you think about it all – we want to hear from you! ➡️️ https://t.co/kuuCmbLHjN
— Habbo NFT (@HabboNFT) April 21, 2022
Founded in 2000, the company is best known for the creation and development of the Habbo and Hotel Hideaway games, which were popular online hangouts for teens in the early 2000s.
Before metaverse social gaming platforms like Roblox, Decentraland and The Sandbox, there was Habbo, a virtual hotel and multiplayer experience in which players – represented by customized avatars – could design rooms, play roles in organizations and even buy and sell decorations known as “furni” and other items.
Currently, there are more than 120 million user-generated rooms in Habbo’s nine language communities and 850,000 monthly active users.
In a game design reveal, Habbo outlined its plans to focus on play-to-earn and tokenomics, where players will be able to buy, own or resell NFTs issued in-game. Players will also be able to own their virtual rooms and avatars as NFTs and create their own play-to-earn games.
At launch, Habbo X will serve as a space where the Habbo and NFT communities can socialize. The last hotel, Habbo Turkey, was launched in 2012 for Turkish speakers.
“Habbo has always been at the forefront of creating virtual communities for gamers and social creators, and we want to be the spearhead with the adoption of new blockchain technologies,” said Valtteri Karu, CEO of Sulake, in a statement. “Our goal is to keep Habbo as a social pioneer of the endless possibilities available in the Web 3.0 metaverse.”
Digital entertainment company, Azerion, acquired Sulake and the Habbo franchises in January of last year.
“The launch of Habbo X will be the result of our efforts to introduce new and existing Habbo residents to the innovative features made possible by Web 3.0 technology,” said Jurriaan van Teunenbroek, vice president of games and content at Azerion, in a statement. “With this new technology, we can reward our Habbo players and content creators in a way that was not possible before.”
Like other early Internet platforms, Habbo is beginning to realize the value of its pre-metaverse status. For example, IMVU started in 2004 as an avatar creator on AOL Messenger, but has morphed into an avatar social metaverse platform with more than 7 million monthly active users.
While Habbo is not as popular as it was in the mid-2000s, perhaps its participation in Web3 could help restore it to its former glory.
Who didn’t play Habbo Hotel?