Pac-Man NFTs to Fuel Pokémon Go-Like Scavenger Hunt in Tokyo

Flickplay, an NFT interactive character platform, has teamed with Bandai Namco Entertainment—one of its investors—to launch a Pokémon Go-style scavenger hunt to celebrate the 45th anniversary of classic arcade game, Pac-Man.

Set to debut in February 2025, the partnership will begin with the release of two series of exclusive Pac-Man digital collectible “toys.” One series will only be available to those in the Japanese neighborhood where Pac-Man was first seen in 1980, Shibuya.

Flickplay is a platform full of character NFTs that can be imported into games. For example, the platform launched a Bratz Dolls collection earlier this year. These “Digi-Dolls” can be played with in Flickplay experiences—i.e. GIF creation and Tamagotchi-style character widgets—and have since been integrated into Ethereum metaverse game The Sandbox as playable characters.

The first Pac-Man collection is planned to launch during the four-day DIG Shibuya Festival in Japan, as part of a location-based event akin to Pokémon Go. The scavenger hunt will take place from February 8-11 at over 40 locations in Shibuya City. The collectibles will have a limited supply, so completing the hunt quickly is crucial.

Once the Pokémon Go-style event begins, Flickplay will announce specific locations in Shibuya City for players to visit. Once within a predesignated radius of the location, fans will have the opportunity to exchange Diamonds—Flickplay’s in-app currency, granted through an Experience Pass—for the Pac-Man digital collectibles.

The second collection will not be tied down to those in a particular location, opening it up to a worldwide audience via the Flickplay store. More details and dates have yet to be announced.

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Interested parties will be able to purchase an Experience Pass, as part of a pre-sale. This will grant users enough of the Flickplay’s in-app currency to unlock the full Pac-Man collection in Shibuya City. Plus, users will be given a Pac-Man digital collectible right off the bat without needing to do any legwork.

On top of all this, Flickplay claims that participants in the event will be gifted a “Mystery Super Rare item.”

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“Looking ahead, it’s in our 2025 roadmap to make the experience of taking digital toys seamlessly from one ecosystem to another accessible to regular consumers,” founder and CEO of Flickplay, Pierina Merino, told Decrypt.

At the time of writing, Flickplay has yet to decide which chain the Pac-Man NFTs will be deployed on. For now, there are no confirmed game integrations for the Pac-Man collectible toys, but the company is on the lookout for ways to give holders more utility.

“We are actively scouting for great games where we could pilot deeper interoperability with our characters as a step toward introducing a broader ecosystem approach,” Merino finished.

Edited by Andrew Hayward