Toy Tuesday: Is Nukotoys the next wave in gaming?

Players in the colliding worlds of kids’ products and entertainment seem to be constantly finding new ways to enhance kids’ interaction with brands, leading to the emergence of completely new play patterns. An interesting example is that of Nukotoys, a startup company that’s trying to apply “Silicon Valley models” to its business with rapid prototyping, interactive technology, nimbleness, financial efficiency, and scalability.

The company is planning to make game cards with embedded chips, containing skills or tools that help players with their game. It’s an excellent integration of the play patterns that we see in both computer games and in trading card games. The social media like integration adds another dimension to the play pattern.

In games from Nukotoys, special trading cards will give kids additional powers or skills that they will be able to utilize in-world, as well as trade those cards with real-world friends, who will automatically become part of their in-world social networks.

Richard Garfield, who developed Magic: The Gathering for Wizards of the Coast, is credited with being the creator of the hugely successful genre of trading cards. He is designing the overarching card system for Nukotoys.

During the time I spent at Wizards of the Coast, we often speculated about what would be the next “wave” in gaming, with role playing games (Dungeons & Dragons), miniatures (Warhammer), and trading card games (Magic: The Gathering, Pokémon) being the first waves. With an intriguing concept and extensive cross platform integration, perhaps Nukotoys’ game system will be the next wave.

Read more about Nukotoys here.