As an open-world game, “Palworld” has recently become popular across the internet, with sales exceeding 8 million in less than 6 days. It has been discovered that one of its co-founders, Takuro Mizobe, was previously the founder of the well-known Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Coincheck.
Recently, the open-world game “Palworld” has become a sensation across the internet, becoming the first breakout hit game of 2024. Despite facing some criticism from Pokémon fans, it firmly holds the top spot for game popularity on Steam. It sold over 1 million copies within 8 hours of launch, and over 2 million within 24 hours. In less than 6 days, it surpassed 8 million in sales.
In Palworld, the magical creatures inhabiting various regions are collectively referred to as “Palu.” Players can capture Palu as partners using Palu Balls, and these partner Palu can not only fight alongside players but also transform into weapons, mounts, and even tools. This gameplay is somewhat similar to Nintendo’s Pokémon games, but Palworld focuses more on the sense of companionship and living and fighting together with the character Palu, which is something that Pokémon fans have long desired.
With the game’s increasing popularity, people have become curious about this low-budget game with only four early developers. It was discovered that the co-founder of Palworld’s publishing company, Pocket Pair, Takuro Mizobe, had previously founded a cryptocurrency trading platform. In his X account profile, Takuro refers to himself as the “Coincheck Founder.”
Investigating Takuro Mizobe’s resume, it was found that he graduated from the top science university in Japan, Tokyo Institute of Technology, and subsequently worked as an engineer at JPMorgan Chase. In 2014, he returned to Japan and co-founded Kabushiki Kaisha Réjupuresu. As the chief engineer, Takuro Mizobe used his technical background and financial knowledge to establish online products and manage legal agreements, launching Coincheck’s trading business.
Within three years, Coincheck’s yen trading volume accounted for approximately 40% of the Japanese market, making it one of the largest cryptocurrency trading platforms in Japan at the time. Although you may still be unfamiliar with this name, Coincheck was once the most popular trading platform in Japan.
In January 2018, Coincheck was hacked, resulting in a loss of approximately 500 million NEM tokens, equivalent to around 530 million US dollars. Along with Mt.Gox, it became a permanent scar in the history of Japanese cryptocurrency. Subsequently, under the supervision of Japanese financial institutions, Coincheck compensated users for nearly 90% of their losses. In April of the same year, the Monex Group announced the acquisition of all shares of Coincheck for 3.6 billion yen, approximately 33.5 million US dollars.
This acquisition allowed Coincheck to be completely taken over, and the founding management team withdrew entirely. Since then, there has been no specific mention of Takuro Mizobe in relation to Coincheck. Recently, another co-founder of Coincheck, Koichiro Wada, also posted on X, stating that they had almost completely given up on Coincheck due to Pocket Pair.
Koichiro Wada, co-founder of Coincheck, commented on Takuro Mizobe’s celebration of Palworld surpassing 2 million in sales, saying:
“In 2015, Takuro Mizobe founded the game publishing company Pocket Pair and was in charge of game planning, development, and operations for Palworld. Considering his connection with Coincheck, it is possible to expect the integration of Palworld with cryptocurrency. This is not unprecedented. In September 2020, Coincheck announced a partnership with the blockchain game development platform Enjin and launched Japan’s first NFT trading market, ‘Coincheck NFT,’ at the end of that year, establishing NFT for the game ‘Minecraft.’
In March 2022, Coincheck NFT announced support for the NFT land trading on the metaverse platform Decentraland. On Decentraland’s virtual land, Coincheck plans to launch a project to build a virtual city, ‘Oasis KYOTO,’ by 2035, and announced that this project will be used as a place for communication and community development between artists and fans.
In October of the same year, Coincheck and Animoca Brands entered into a strategic partnership. Animoca Brands, as a blockchain game developer, will be responsible for IP and content development, while Coincheck will serve as a distributor and community developer in the Japanese market. Both parties will also establish communities for creators and users.
Animoca Brands has always been interested in games and NFT in the crypto VC space. If Palworld’s popularity continues, we can perhaps expect the possibility of Palworld entering the crypto field.”
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