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Footwear and clothing giant Nike has hinted that it may soon be adding a collection of non-fungible sneaker tokens to Epic Games’ massively popular online game Fortnite.
The move would mark a potentially huge opportunity for Web3 adoption by traditional gamers, given that Fortnite has had over 242.9 million active players in the past 30 days, according to Active Player.
Great catch with the @dotSWOOSH reference. @FortniteGame integration would be the biggest thing that’s ever happened with NFTs
— Jalazo.eth (@nft4dummies) June 16, 2023
In a June 16 announcement posted on Nike’s social media, the firm said the “ultimate sneaker hunt will begin” on June 20.
In the short accompanying video, the Fortnite logo and the Nike Air Max logo are shown front and center against a backdrop of clouds floating across the sky.
The video then cuts to revealing the name of the “Airphoria” sneaker hunt and closes with the Nike logo for its web3 platform. SWOOSH next to the Unreal Engine logo from Epic Games.
On 6.20 the ultimate Sneakerhunt begins. ️️ pic.twitter.com/QgMyA1uXRT
— Nike (@Nike) June 16, 2023
Details are scarce at this stage, however members of the NFT community have speculated that Nike may have created an NFT-related game using Fornite Creative 2.0, which essentially allows users to create their own virtual island game maps using Fortnite assets.
“I remember that Fortnite recently launched Fortnite Creative 2.0, which has a powerful self-build map mode similar to building games in ROBLOX. My guess is that Nike may have used this mode to create the game. Two years ago, Nike also made a game on ROBLOX, but it wasn’t merged with NFT at the time.[s]”, @clone_news_cn noted.
While it’s not 100% confirmed whether NFTs will be part of Airphoria, . SWOOSH suggests that this is possible, while Epic Games is also taking a friendly stance towards NFT games.
Related: Sotheby’s Auctions Dmitry Chernyak’s Goose NFT from 3AC Collection for $6.2M
Nike’s NFT division has been ramping up efforts lately to break into the traditional gaming space.
June 1st . SWOOSH has announced that its NFTs will be integrated into games developed by EA Sports, the company behind the hugely successful FIFA football game franchise in particular. However, it hasn’t been confirmed which EA Sports games will eventually have the Nike NFT.
EA SPORTS @dotSWOOSHhttps://t.co/hNxxdaMgRL pic.twitter.com/NH8vp0fWoQ
— EA SPORTS (@EASPORTS) June 1, 2023