Story, the world’s IP blockchain, and Verse8 today announced an exclusive collaboration to integrate Story’s Layer-1 network Story as its exclusive IP licensing backbone, bringing user-generated 3D games fully on-chain with Moonbirds and Azuki IP.
Verse8, a first-of-its-kind, AI-native game creation platform that enables users to generate high-fidelity, multiplayer 3D games from simple natural language prompts with no coding required.
This collaboration ushers in a new era of user-generated, AI-driven gaming fully onchain, where every character, world, and storyline created in Verse8 is immutably registered and managed through Story’s decentralized IP network.
The partnership introduces a new category of AI-native gaming within the Story ecosystem, and serves as a milestone example of programmable IP in dynamic, remixable environments.
Verse8 is a next-generation AI game creation tool that enables anyone to build and publish 2D and 3D multiplayer games with just a simple prompt. Co-created by Jake Song, cofounder of Nexon and widely recognized as the “Father of Lineage”, one of the most successful and highest-grossing MMORPG IPs in Korea’s history.
The platform is distinguished by its proprietary technology that can generate full 3D assets from a single image. Despite being in beta, Verse8 already engages thousands of creators and over 500,000 monthly active users (MAU), positioning itself as a new standard that is redefining the game development paradigm.
To showcase the power of this model, Verse8 will provide support for two of Web3’s most iconic IPs: Moonbirds and Azuki. Both collections will be registered on Story, and their IP will be natively available inside Verse8’s AI-driven game builder.
Players can remix, customize, and build with these IPs as “IP Legos,” assembling characters, quests, and game mechanics using the familiar building blocks of beloved onchain brands.
Game creators can monetize their worlds through in-game purchases or branded expansions, with revenue automatically split between the creator, the original NFT holder, and the Brand / IP owners via programmable royalties.
For example, a player could design an Azuki-themed cyberpunk battle arena with custom avatars and lore, then offer premium content like exclusive weapons or missions, while ensuring a share of that revenue flows back to Azuki’s creators and NFT holders.
This marks the first time IP holders of these NFT collections can seamlessly bring their IP into an interactive gaming format, with all usage rights, attributions, and revenue shares enforced via smart contracts on Story in the future.
The partnership will debut at Origin Summit in Seoul on September 23, 2025, in the coming months, users will be able to launch community-made games featuring Moonbirds and Azuki characters powered by Verse8’s AI engine and Story’s onchain licensing system.
Building the future of IP-native games
Verse8 represents a breakthrough in how IP can be activated and extended across user-generated gaming experiences. With zero-code interfaces and real-time rendering, players can build expansive game worlds, storylines, and playable quests simply by describing them in natural language. By integrating with Story, all IP used in these environments becomes traceable, licensable, and governed by clear onchain rules.
The platform joins a growing ecosystem of Story-powered applications—including Aria (music IP as real-world assets), Poseidon (AI training data layer), and the IP Portal—cementing Story’s role as the programmable IP layer for the AI era.
A Convergence of AI, IP, and On-Chain Creativity: The Verse8–Story integration comes at a pivotal moment in the evolution of digital entertainment and intellectual property. Valued at over $80 trillion, IP is one of the world’s largest asset classes yet remains largely fragmented and illiquid. As artificial intelligence advances, the need for verified, rights-cleared data and content has become critical. AI-driven applications require infrastructure that can trace contributions, enforce licenses, and automate royalties in real time.
Meanwhile, institutional capital is searching for the next wave of real-world assets and crypto is rapidly evolving from speculative trading to programmable ownership of assets like IP. Story sits at the center of this convergence of AI, IP, and capital by making intellectual property a programmable digital asset on-chain. By integrating with Verse8, Story is demonstrating how on-chain IP can unlock new markets for creative content and fuel interactive ecosystems where creators, communities, and IP holders all share in the value they co-create.
Through Story every user-generated game asset or story element on Verse8 can be tokenized and governed by a Programmable IP License (PIL), meaning creators get automatic attribution and compensation whenever their content is remixed or used by others. Verse8’s choice of Story as its exclusive IP backbone ensures that even as players conjure up entire 3D worlds with a text prompt, the underlying artwork, characters, and music are secured by enforceable on-chain licenses. This protection not only gives IP owners confidence to allow their content in user-generated games, but also empowers creators to innovate without legal uncertainty.
S.Y. Lee, cofounder at Story, said in a statement, “IP isn’t meant to sit still. With programmable infrastructure, it becomes interactive, remixable, and composable and ready for a world where culture is built by communities and powered by agents. Verse8 shows what this future looks like: a platform where anyone can create multiplayer games using the IP they love, with onchain rails that respect rights, trace value, and unlock new markets.”
Kevin Lee, CEO at Verse8, said in a statement, “Story gives us the missing layer we needed: trusted licensing infrastructure that works in real time, at scale, for user-generated content. With Story, every interaction in Verse8, whether it’s remixing characters, building quests, or sharing games, can now respect rights, share value, and evolve IP organically. It’s not just content creation, it’s IP-native worldbuilding.”
Spencer Gordon-Sand, CEO of Moonbirds, said in a statement, “Moonbirds is such a strong IP. Our community is full of forward thinking technologists many of whom have been at the forefront of AI. We are one of the few brands who immediately and actively leaned into the AI wave we see shaping how IP grows and is utilized in the coming years. We are excited to see Verse8 expand the way that our community can engage with the IP they co-own alongside us and use the platform to further expand its growth and utilization.”
Zagabond, founder of Azuki (CEO, Chiru Labs), said in a statement, “Azuki has always believed in empowering our community to co-create stories. With Verse8 and Story, that vision continues to be realized. Fans can now build entire playable worlds with Azuki IP onchain, and I’m excited to see the endless possibilities created from the community.”
Story is a Layer-1 blockchain purpose-built to make intellectual property programmable. Backed by $136 million from a16z, Polychain, and Samsung Ventures, Story launched its mainnet in early 2025 and has quickly become a leading infrastructure for tokenized IP.
The network enables creators, developers, enterprises, and AI labs to register content as on-chain assets with embedded rights, turning media, data, and AI-generated works into legally enforceable digital property.
Verse8 is a fully AI-powered game creation platform that allows anyone to build, publish, and share high-quality 2D and 3D multiplayer games using simple natural language prompts.
Azuki Labs is a brand born at the intersection of art, technology, and internet culture. What started as a web3 project has evolved into a global community of artists and builders shaping original characters, stories, and experiences together.