PixelRealm, a Web3 gaming ecosystem, has partnered with Neon EVM to enable Ethereum-based games to run on Solana without having to recode them. This means developers can deploy existing Ethereum codebases to Solana, reducing development time and costs.
The partnership comes as blockchain gaming is seeing a resurgence in interest, with nearly $580 million invested in 2024, according to Rootdata. PixelRealm is backed by Binance Labs and Polygon Studios and currently serves over 120,000 players.
The collaboration will launch Kugle, a mobile game featuring collectible virtual pets, NFTs, and a player-driven animated universe called KugleWorld.
Steven Leaton, Head of Gaming at Neon EVM, said:
“Time to market is crucial in the video game industry. In the video game industry, especially in the P2E or casual gaming space, time to market is crucial and the window to capture players’ attention is often narrow. If the game development and code writing takes a lot of effort, it delays updates, new items, gameplay and new content, which risks causing a loss of players.”
Leaton added that this highlights the importance of streamlining the development process and reaching new audiences more easily, something every Web3 game creator aspires to achieve.
Neon EVM is an environment built on the Solana ecosystem that is fully compatible with the Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM). This allows deploying EVM-based decentralized applications on Solana.
Samuel Plesnik, CEO of PixelRealm, emphasized:
“At PixelRealm, our mission is to bridge the gap between traditional gaming and Web3 technologies. Deploying on the Neon EVM network allows us to deliver high-speed, low-cost gaming experiences that are critical to widespread adoption.”
Plesnik concludes by saying that a developer-friendly architecture is needed to create a “plug EVM into Solana and play” environment.
