The Phantom Beast Palu Outside the Game: The Rebirth of Japan's Largest Exchange
The popular Web2 game "Phantom Beast Palu" was co-created by the founder of a famous Japanese trading platform.Author: Rhythm BlockBeats
Recently, an open-world game called Palworld has taken the internet by storm, becoming the first breakout hit game of 2024. Despite some skepticism from Pokémon fans, it has firmly held the top spot on Steam's game popularity chart, selling over 1 million copies within 8 hours, surpassing 2 million in 24 hours, and exceeding 8 million sales in less than 6 days.
In the game Palworld, various magical creatures inhabiting different regions are collectively referred to as Pals. Players can capture Pals using Pal Balls to make them companions. These companion Pals not only fight alongside players but can also transform into weapons, mounts, and tools. This gameplay is somewhat similar to Nintendo's Pokémon, but Palworld does not delve deeply into evolutionary differences, RPG development, or strategic battles. Instead, it emphasizes the sense of companionship in living and fighting alongside Pals (players fighting side by side), which is precisely the kind of gameplay Pokémon fans have longed for.
As the game's popularity continues to rise, curiosity about this low-budget game developed by only four early developers has grown. Some have discovered that Takuro Mizobe, co-founder of the game's publishing company Pocket Pair, previously founded a cryptocurrency trading platform, and his X account bio also claims he is the "Coincheck Founder."
Upon researching Takuro Mizobe's background, it is found that he graduated from Japan's top science university, Tokyo Institute of Technology, and after graduation, he joined J.P. Morgan as an engineer. In 2014, he returned to Japan and co-founded Reju Press, where as the chief engineer, Takuro Mizobe utilized his technical background and financial knowledge to create web products and manage legal agreements, launching Coincheck's trading business.
Image source: Coincheck documents
In less than three years, Coincheck's trading volume in yen accounted for about 40% of the Japanese market, making it one of the largest virtual currency trading platforms in Japan at the time. You may not be familiar with this name, but Coincheck was once the most popular trading platform in Japan.
In January 2018, Coincheck was hacked, resulting in the loss of approximately 500 million (around 530 million USD) NEM tokens, becoming a permanent scar in Japan's cryptocurrency history alongside Mt. Gox. Subsequently, under the supervision of Japanese financial institutions, Coincheck compensated users for nearly 90% of their losses. In April of the same year, Monex Group announced the acquisition of all shares of Coincheck for 3.6 billion yen (approximately 33.5 million USD).
This acquisition allowed Coincheck to be fully taken over, with the founding management team stepping down. After that, news about Coincheck did not specifically mention Takuro Mizobe. Recently, another co-founder of Coincheck, Koichiro Wada, also posted on X, stating that they had almost completely abandoned Coincheck due to Pocket Pair.
"Although I am a co-founder, when I said 'I want to make games,' we completely abandoned the development of Coincheck together and started making games," commented Coincheck co-founder Koichiro Wada when Takuro Mizobe celebrated Palworld's sales surpassing 2 million.
In 2015, Takuro Mizobe founded the game publishing company Pocket Pair, responsible for the planning, development, and operation of Palworld. Given its connection to Coincheck, there may be potential for Palworld to integrate with cryptocurrency. This is not without precedent; in September 2020, Coincheck announced a partnership with blockchain game development platform Enjin to launch Japan's first NFT trading market, Coincheck NFT, by the end of the year and created NFTs for the game Minecraft.
In March 2022, Coincheck NFT announced support for NFT land trading on the metaverse platform Decentraland. On Decentraland's virtual land, Coincheck planned to launch a project to create a virtual city called Oasis KYOTO by 2035, announcing that the project would serve as a venue for communication and community development between artists and fans.
In October of the same year, Coincheck formed a strategic partnership with Animoca Brands, where Animoca Brands would be responsible for IP and content development as a blockchain game producer, while Coincheck would play a role in distribution and community development in the Japanese market. Both parties would also create communities for creators and users.
Animoca Brands has been particularly focused on the gaming and NFT sectors within crypto VC. If the popularity of Palworld continues, there may be expectations for its potential entry into the cryptocurrency space.
