TAITO Corporation is entering the mobile eSports arena through a partnership between TAITO, Next Gaming, and Celer Network’s mobile eSports platform, CelerX. BUST-A-MOVE Real Money Tournament is the first mobile eSports title from this joint collaboration introducing the original bubble shooter game, BUST-A-MOVE (also known as PUZZLE BOBBLE) as a 100 percent skill-based, real money competition on mobile devices. In 1994, TAITO defined the bubble shooter game genre by introducing BUST-A-MOVE onto the arcade scene.
Recently, Next Gaming reimagined BUST-A-MOVE in a skill-based video slot machine format that stars Bub and Bob (the twin dragon co-stars), which can soon be found in U.S. casinos this year. And with mobile game revenue expected to surpass the $100 billion mark in 2020, Michael Darley, CEO of Next Gaming said, “we wanted to bring a version of our game, and others to follow, to a larger audience by tapping into CelerX’s expertise in game distribution, network, compliance, and security. The benefits of running on a layer-2 blockchain game platform provides an extra level of security and peace of mind for our players, especially when playing for real money in the iGaming and eSports markets.”
To achieve this, TAITO, Next Gaming, and the team at CelerX, worked jointly to introduce a version of BUST-A-MOVE that is 100 percent skill-based and integrated it with the CelerX SDK, enabling fans of the BUST-A-MOVE franchise to wager real money to test their skills against others. The game comes complete with leaderboards, regular tournaments, and the ability to directly challenge other players in a head-to-head competition.
The collaboration team is working on featuring a series of mobile eSports games based on TAITO’s game titles that are loved by generations around the globe.
“On its 25th anniversary, we’re honored to bring BUST-A-MOVE Real Money Tournament to the fans where they can test their skills in a real money competition directly from their personal mobile devices. We are excited to see Celer’s advanced layer-2 blockchain scaling solution is powering this initiative.” said Dr. Mo Dong, co-founder of Celer Network. Additional games are expected to be released in the second half of 2020.
“We have been working closely with Next Gaming to introduce skill-based video slot machines and are even more excited to extend the experience to the mobile eSports platform on the Celer Network,” said Tetsu Yamada, president and representative director of TAITO Corporation.
The iOS version of BUST-A-MOVE Real Money Tournament is now available within the Arcade Win mobile app and as a single title game release using real money and free in-game tokens within 37 U.S. states and Canada. Additional markets will be announced. The Android version of Arcade Win can be downloaded directly from CelerX’s website.