In Brief:
- Azuki said its IP is now registered and remixable on Verse8, the AI-native game creation platform.
- Licensing runs through Story’s Layer-1, which records attribution and splits revenue between creators, NFT holders and IP owners.
- Verse8 reported more than 800,000 monthly active users while still in beta.
Azuki IP is live inside Verse8’s game builder. The project said on X that its IP is “now registered and remixable” on the platform, where users generate multiplayer 2D and 3D games from natural language prompts.
That makes good on a collaboration first announced Sept. 23, 2025, when Story and Verse8 said Azuki and Moonbirds collections would land in the builder. Story handles the licensing side, registering and managing IP usage on its Layer-1.
Azuki IP is now registered and remixable on @Verse_Eight.
@AzukiView on X ↗
How the licensing works
Assets built in Verse8 get registered, attributed and governed on-chain through Story’s programmable licensing system. Creators can pull Azuki characters into new environments, customize them and monetize through in-game purchases or branded expansions.
Revenue splits automatically. Programmable royalties route payment to the creator, the original NFT holder and the brand.
Verse8 pitches the setup as “IP Legos,” with users assembling characters, quests and game mechanics out of the pieces. There’s no coding requirement.
Kevin Lee, CEO of Verse8, said Story provided “the missing layer we needed” and described it as “trusted licensing infrastructure that works in real time, at scale, for user-generated content.” He said remixing characters, building quests and sharing games can now respect rights, share value and evolve IP organically, calling it IP-native worldbuilding.
The platform
Verse8 was co-created by Jake Song, the Nexon co-founder who developed the Lineage MMORPG. Planetarium Labs backs it alongside other industry partners.
The platform uses proprietary technology to build 3D assets from a single image, and runs a generative agent called Agent 8 for code, art and audio. Despite still being in beta, it reported thousands of creators and more than 800,000 monthly active users at the time of the September announcement.
Story launched its mainnet in early 2025 and has raised $136 million from a16z, Polychain and Samsung Ventures. The partnership debuted at Origin Summit in Seoul, the event Story hosted with Blockworks and Korea Economic Daily during Korea Blockchain Week.
The IP argument
S.Y. Lee, co-founder of Story, said “IP isn’t meant to sit still.” He argued that programmable infrastructure makes IP interactive, remixable and composable, and that this suits a world where culture gets built by communities and powered by agents. Verse8, he said, previews that future by letting anyone build multiplayer games with IP they love on rails that respect rights and trace value.
Moonbirds is part of the same integration. Spencer Gordon-Sand, CEO of Moonbirds, called it “such a strong IP” and pointed to a community that includes technologists working at the front of the AI wave.
For Azuki, the move extends a long-running position on community authorship. The collection has leaned on derivative work and fan-built canon since its early days, and this puts a payment rail underneath it.
Zagabond, founder of Azuki and CEO of Chiru Labs, said: “Azuki has always believed in empowering our community to co-create stories. With Verse8 and Story, that vision continues to be realized.”
He added: “Fans can now build entire playable worlds with Azuki IP onchain.”
