Hash Rush Wins Best Innovation Award at Gamescom 2018

RIGA, Latvia, Sept. 14, 2018 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Hash Rush returned from this year's gamescom event as the winner of the Best Innovation Award. As a Best of gamescom 2018 Award recipient, Hash Rush shared the stage with big-studio games like Marvel's Spider-Man (PlayStation), Super Mario Party (Nintendo) and Ori and the Will of the Wisps (Xbox). Hash Rush is also the first game to win this award, this being the category's first year at gamescom.

Released in alpha on July 31, 2018, Hash Rush is a real-time strategy game that allows gamers to compete with each other for cryptocurrency and other rewards such as new skins and boosts. Players work to establish Crypto Crystal mining colonies on their planets. They can attack enemies to gain more Crypto Crystals, and in turn defend their own Crypto Crystals from threats by building and strengthening their mining colonies. These colonies help players build wealth and progress up leaderboards. Players can buy, sell and trade items using the in-game marketplace and RUSH Coin cryptocurrency.

"It is an honor to be recognized at gamescom, and that the award was for innovation is a testament to the unique offering we bring to the gaming landscape," said Kristaps Vaivods, co-founder and CEO of VZ Games, the studio behind Hash Rush. "Blockchain technology represents new opportunities for gaming, especially when it comes to in-game currency. Traditional game currency only exists and has value within the game itself. RUSH Coins, on the other hand, have a real-world value and can be used to make purchases with value outside of the game. But players aren't just rewarded with RUSH Coins in our game. They're also able to earn Ethereum, based on their in-game performance, generated from our own mining farm! Cryptocurrency is the key to expanding the players' experience from the walls of the game to a broader marketplace. We're excited to see that others are beginning to recognize this potential."

Gamescom is the largest computer and video game trade show in the world. This year's event hosted around 370,000 visitors from 114 countries, including 31,200 trade visitors. Hash Rush beat six other nominees in its category and was also nominated for "Best Indie Game."

These honors came in the same week that Jethro Naude, chief game economist and CFO, won Best Tech Demo Pitch at the Blockchain Futurist event in Toronto, Canada, beating 400 applicants and six finalists. Naude pitched the technology behind Hash Rush to a panel of investors and industry experts, winning a $30,000 dollar services prize for the game.

"Hash Rush is still only in alpha, but the attention it has gotten so far is incredible," said Rob Nicholls, lead game designer of Hash Rush. "With our beta coming up soon and the full launch soon after that, we're ready to change the industry."

The Hash Rush beta will launch on September 28, 2018 and will end on December 19, leading into the launch of the early access phase. The Hash Rush team plans to launch the mobile version in Q3 2019. For more information, visit hashrush.com.

About Hash Rush
Latvian studio VZ Games is leading the way in video gaming and cryptocurrency mining integration with their flagship title Hash Rush, a free-to-earn PC and mobile title. The team brings together talent from the likes of Microsoft Games Studio, Ubisoft, CCP Games, NVIDIA and Xbox, bringing over 100 years of combined industry experience. VZ Games is supported by VZ Mining, responsible for the cryptocurrency reward pool paid to players, and VZ Chains, developers of the RUSH Network – an Ethereum-based scaling solution that facilitates gasless transactions between players using a custom sidechain. Hash Rush was born on Ethereum but scales with the RUSH Network. For more information, follow Hash Rush on Telegram, Twitter and Discord and visit hashrush.com.

About gamescom
Gamescom, an annual convention held in Cologne, Germany, is the world's largest gaming event, hosting over 370,000 visitors from over 114 countries. Vendors and game developers from around the world to exhibit upcoming games, game-related hardware and more. Learn more about this year's conference at gamescom.global.

SOURCE Hash Rush