Mega Cat Labs launches CBA Not Shots, the first NFT Trading Card series from the Cat Basketball Association on the WAX Blockchain.

In an attempt to catpatalize on the current NFT Hype, Indie game developer Mega Cat Studios has launched an NFT division under the name Mega Cat Labs.  For the company's first product they have  partnered with the Cat Basketball Association to release CBA Not Shots. These highly curated trading card moments from the recent CBA season highlights cats doing cat things with a basketball. Cards include rare highlights from CBA All-Stars like Kyrie Purrving and LeYarn James. 

“In the wake of so many big companies and celebrities jumping into the NFT space, we wanted to see how the world would react if one of the top feline themed indie video game developers in the greater Pittsburgh area joined the battle,” James Deighan, CEO, said. “There should be no confusion among press or fans, we are really jumping in tail first into the litter box that is the NFT space. We really hope our collaboration with the Cat Basketball Association can be the next big NFT collectible. I mean that Beeple guy has to spend his money somewhere, am I right?”  

Regarding the technical details about Mega Cat Studios foray into the blockchain collectible world Deighan jested, “ I think we chose the WAX Blockchain because when we started this project we were just a bunch of confused gamers in regards to NFTs and thought it was the PAX blockchain. However, we may have made the right choice as the WAX blockchain is home to some of our favorite brands doing NFT collectibles like Street Fighter and William Shatner. 

The studio is optimistic that fans new and old will appreciate the company’s recent commitment to Non-Fungible Tokens. 

Deighan added “Over the past few months my team and I have really enjoyed seeing the growth of the NFT space. We are launching Mega Cat Labs as a way to introduce our fans along with many in the retro gaming community to NFT collectibles. Though we are launching this on April Fools Day, CBA Not Shots is a real NFT trading card series live right now on WAX. Though it is shrouded in parody our first NFT series is really a heartfelt ode to the awesome NFT projects we have been inspired by.

For a limited time the Mega Cat Labs team is giving away an April Fools edition pack for early adopters. They also have limited edition Cat Can Packs with super rare variant cards available for purchase and hope the NFT collectible community are excited to buy them.

Deighan stated “Somebody’s got to pay for our cats’ expensive grain-free food habits and maybe we could actually fund our next nifty retro style indie game this way ” 

Check out the official CBA Not Shots page for more info on receiving your very own CBA Not Shots Pack for free. The team also plans on auctioning off a few retro inspired 3D NFT items on platforms like OpenSea in the upcoming weeks. Probably even make their own crypto currency centered around memes for good measure. 

About Mega Cat Studios: Based in Pittsburgh, PA, Mega Cat Studios is a creative first video game developer with a retro ethos and a culture of innovation. They made the ridiculous decision a few years ago to build a company around making “modern” 8-bit/16-bit retro cartridges and collectible items. Since then, they have gotten very odd looks from their families when mentioning what they do for work. 

About Mega Cat Labs: Pretty much the same as above but this time on a blockchain. They expect even more odd looks from their families when they say they sell digital collectible items to people with computer money. 

CBA Not Shots page 

BitMovio Secures Pre-Seed Funding, Launches Closed Beta of Blockchain-Enabled Platform to Disrupt Video Entertainment Industry

BitMovio (www.bitmov.io) today announced the close of a $600K pre-seed round of equity funding with participation from Silicon Valley-based IMO Ventures, Basis Set Ventures, and BlockCentury, and Boston-based NorthBay Solutions, the Play Labs Fund, and Seraph Investments.

With a hybrid blockchain architecture and support of both fiat currency and crypto tokens, BitMovio creates a transparent marketplace enabling independent film producers and professional streamers to have complete control of their content distribution, flexible and instant monetization, and engaging audience interaction. The marketplace will initially focus on gaming, events, sci-fi, fantasy, horror and thriller-themed content for millennials and Gen Z audiences.

BitMovio was co-founded in early 2018 by Simon Zhu and Riz Virk during the MIT Play Labs summer accelerator program. Its advisory board includes technology and entertainment industry leaders: Bill Guttentag, two-time Oscar winner and lecturer at the Stanford Graduate School of Business, Namrata Ganatra, Senior Director of Engineering Payments at Coinbase, Jerry Kowal, former Head of Content Strategy at Amazon Video & Netflix, and Sheau Ng, former Head of Technology, R&D and IP at NBC Universal. Zhu was previously an Executive Director at Vobile (HKEX: 3738), a technology Emmy winning company serving many top Hollywood Studios. Virk, in addition to running the Play Labs accelerator at MIT, was a founding member of Theta Labs, Inc., a leading crypto currency-based blockchain for decentralized video.

Simon Zhu, Co-founder and CEO of BitMovio, said: “We’re focusing on the intersection and power imbalance between today’s content distributors and the millions of content creators and consumers around the world. Our vision is to transform the power concentration and inefficiency within the video entertainment industry. We recognized early on that the existing video entertainment distribution approach hasn’t offered content creators the flexibility and freedom to create, publish and monetize their content in the market, nor has it provided consumers with the best means to directly support their creators and be involved in content creation process.”

Riz Virk, Co-founder of BitMovio, Executive Director of MIT Play Labs and an independent film producer, said: "We believe that blockchain technology has the ability to fundamentally change the video entertainment industry by breaking this pseudo monopoly, among gated-providers such as Netflix and Amazon, and replacing the model with a decentralized community-run marketplace especially for independent film producers and professional streamers."

BitMovio provides a decentralized video streaming marketplace that leverages blockchain’s built-in incentives for peer-to-peer bandwidth sharing that drastically reduces streaming costs and enhances the viewer experience at the edge of the network. The marketplace also offers smart contracts that simplify the complex and often onerous supply chain of content rights management and distribution with built-in consensus mechanisms that enable autonomous execution of agreements for content creators. Its distributed ledger technology enables instant and transparent reporting and royalty payout, giving each participant equal opportunity in the value chain. In its initial release, BitMovio will support Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Theta tokens.

The marketplace creates a community that connects forward-thinking content creators with passionate consumers for storytelling and engagement, without editorial censorship from distributors. BitMovio enables fundamentally new ways for content creators to engage and monetize audiences, and involve audiences in the creative process. As BitMovio's platform progresses in development, it offers creators numerous ways to monetize content, such as through gifting, transactions, subscriptions, advertising, and crowdfunding to bring unprecedented flexibility, transparency and immediacy to content creators and consumers.

Bill Guttentag, founding advisor at BitMovio and two-time Oscar award winner, said: “Blockchain has the power to create transparency and accessibility to the video entertainment space, and bring a new dimension to watching streaming content. BitMovio's platform will bridge blockchain and the free marketplace for video entertainment in a truly unique and innovative way. We’re excited about what the technology will bring to content creators and audiences globally.”

Jerry Kowal, advisor at BitMovio and former Head of Content Strategy at Netflix and Amazon Video, said: “There’s no question that the platform that will ultimately disrupt centralized market-leading OTT services, such as Netflix and YouTube, will be built upon blockchain. BitMovio is trailblazing an exciting path forward toward creating a decentralized content community meant for everyone.”