Yuga Labs, the company behind the NFT collection Bored Ape Yacht Club (BAYC), has sold the intellectual property (IP) for two of its games, HV-MTL and Legends of the Mara, as part of its efforts to refocus the organization.
In a post on April 17, Yuga Labs announced that Web3 gaming studio Faraway had acquired the IP. They also revealed that their chief gaming officer, Spencer Tucker, would join Faraway as the new chief product officer to ensure continuity between the games at the new firm.
HV-MTL is a mech game focused on nonfungible tokens (NFTs), where players can manage and level up their NFTs and local environments. On the other hand, Legends of the Mara is an adventure game that is part of the Otherside metaverse, which was launched on April 30, 2022.
Yuga Labs and Faraway have had a close working relationship, with Faraway previously developing a game called Serum City based on the Mutant Ape Yacht Club theme.
The decision to hand over the gaming IP to Faraway is part of Yuga’s plan to “unshackle” the team. This initiative was introduced when co-founder Greg Solano returned to Yuga as the CEO, replacing Daniel Allegre in February this year.
“We want to unshackle the BAYC team at Yuga as much as possible to execute against its vision. More focus, more agility,” wrote Greg Solano in a post on Feb. 22, announcing his return to the organization.
This announcement comes at a time when NFTs are experiencing a market-wide downtrend, with the BAYC collection being one of the hardest hit. As of now, the floor price of the BAYC collection is 11.7 Ether (ETH), equivalent to $35,400 at current prices. This represents a staggering 92% drop from its all-time high of 153.7 ETH on May 1, 2022.
Earlier this year, Yuga Labs faced backlash from NFT holders and the community when it announced the acquisition of the controversial Moonbirds collection and the appointment of its creator, Kevin Rose, as an adviser.