Nice Gang launches PvP combat with arena mode in F2P mobile RPG Eighth Era

Nice Gang, the indie game studio bringing free real-world collectible trophies to players, announced PvP combat for mobile RPG Eighth Era.

The squad-based role-playing game was co-developed by Perfect Day Games. Marking the official product launch of Eighth Era, the game is now available with a full single player campaign, PvP and player-versus-environment (PvE) modes on iOS and Android devices worldwide.

In the latest update, players will now be able to compete against each other in asynchronous combat once they have reached level 9. They can build a dream team, master tactical strategy, and compete for glory on the world stage with a roster of over 50 distinct heroes in the new Eighth Era Arena Mode.

Jason Wasserman, CEO of New York-based Nice Gang, showed me Nice Gang showed me details of the offerings at GDC 2025 in an interview.

“We are incredibly excited to wrap our soft launch phase and launch Eighth Era fully,” said Wasserman. The introduction of PvP gives our players one of their most requested features – a chance to compete head-to-head in thrilling battles against each other,” said “This new Arena Mode not only adds a deeper level of strategy and competition but also brings our gaming and collectible communities together in a whole new way, giving players even more ways to earn physical collectible trophies each month.”

Eighth Era is a futuristic adventure game where players must lead their squad through legendary battles to defeat the evil supercomputer, Harmony. The game takes place 10,000 years in the future, where players must join forces with The Collector’s Society, a ragtag crew of treasure hunters, to battle Harmony’s minions who she has sent back in time to control all of history and dominate the past, present, and future.

“What’s interesting about this is — besides retention, besides monetization — we’re seeing great marketing potential with this too. So users can unbox their coins when they win them, and they can show them off to friends. One of the next things that we’re working on with these guys is that we’re going to be putting, like, NFC chips in these so that you can unlock stuff in the game.”

He added,”We have a registry, which is a cool concept, where you’ll be able to go on. Each one of these coins has a unique number. You’ll be able to go on the registry, put in your username, and then put in your collection so that you can see your collection versus other players in the game.”

So far, the game has 4.8 stars out of 5, partly because it’s so unique with physical collectibles, Wasserman said.

“We’re trying to bring as many unique things as possible to the game because you need to stand out in this market,” Wasserman said.

Playing the game

You play the battle in turn-based strategy gameplay with a squad of diverse RPG characters. You control five team members in battle, with three in your main party and two in your reserves. You can recruit a roster of over 50 distinct heroes with unique abilities and build a dream team to save the Eighth Era.

You can upgrade your characters with epic abilities and loot earned from beating challenging bosses in each Era. And you can compete with Players Worldwide for Physical Collectibles and become a Legendary Collector in weekly tournament events to win IRL collectible trophies.

If you finish in the top 10 on any of the tiered leaderboards, you can win physical collectibles.

The collectible coins come in three different types right now, with different colors and either gold plated or silver plated. The mint for the coins is an investor, NGC, a subsidiary of Certified Collectibles Group, grades the coins and confirms their authenticity.

They’re graded so that players and creators can sell them on eBay if they wish, or they can collect them. And they know that they’re not just some tchotchke, he said. If you play in a tournament and finish in the top 10, you get a coin. Within a couple of days or so, the coin is shipped to your house. The winnings are free, but players can also buy a team coin, which is available at level three.

The game melds RPGs and fighting games, with a tag-based systems. The game’s twist on the combat is the ability to swap, where you can build up a charge meter and you can swap in back line units to do ultimate attacks on the enemy team.

Players will play through multiple chapters with a narrative campaign. They can level up with tournament points and then get paired with higher-level players in matches. Depending where they land, they can get a gold coin, silver coin or colorized coin in tournaments. Players have a chance to win at any level and they can trade coins if they wish.

New updates

In addition to the new PvP mode, the Eighth Era update will bring new patch updates to the base game, including head-to-head PvP against other players from around the world in asynchronous combat. Players who reach level 9 will unlock the new Arena Mode and the ability to climb through the Arena Leagues to become the ultimate champion.

Each new season brings a new set of highlighted factions that will receive big stat bonuses. Take advantage of these bonuses to dominate the Arena Leagues. Players who climb the Arena Leagues to earn loot at the end of each Arena season. They can also win real-world collectible trophies by claiming the highest ranks in weekly tournaments — tiered for new, returning, and advanced players.

And there will be more heroes and collectibles to win in Season Two. Starting late April, players can compete against players from around the world to win freshly minted, limited-edition coins featuring playable season two characters. Players who finish in the top ten get a coin delivered right to their door.

The next limited-time Era Vault event will offer players the chance to unlock a special player price for an American Silver Eagle with eagle-in-flight privy mark, which is the official silver bullion coin of the United States. In Eighth Era’s two weeklong tournaments, gold gilted coin winners who achieve first place in the level 41-60 bracket will additionally receive an American Silver Eagle with eagle-in-flight privy mark while supplies last.

Eighth Era is the first free-to-play title from Nice Gang, and its trophy coins are certified by Numismatic Guaranty Corporation (NGC). These are not Web3 items, and the collectibles are shipped worldwide for free.

Founded by a team of entertainment, gaming, and collectibles veterans, Nice Gang has also partnered with the United States Mint to give players the chance to unlock a special price for the American Silver Eagle.

Origins

Founded in 2022, U.S.-based Nice Gang has reached more than 145,000 downloads worldwide on iOS and Android devices. The team includes Wasserman (formerly of 20th Century Fox / Disney), Vincent Nguyen (King Games/ 20th Century Fox), Mark Salzberg (founder of Certified Collectibles Group), and Josh Adam (Goldman Sachs).

Cofounder Nguyen, formerly of King, came up with the idea to create a video game to emphasize his art style and the games that he grew up playing. And one of the things that they decided to do to differentiate the game, besides the art style and the narrative and the gameplay, was to figure out a way to bring esports-like competition and reward system to the masses.

Perfect Days has about 35 people, while Nice Gang has about nine people, mostly in Seattle. The company has raised $13 million to date.

The company will mint 250 coins of one type, 50 of another, and five of the best coins. Once the tournament is over, those coins never get minted again. Over time, those numbers will scale up. And over time, the company can apply the basic model to new games and genres.

The company investigated whether it should do this as a Web3 game, as everyone was doing that in 2022 when the company was getting started. But over time the team decided not to do the game on the blockchain. It’s possible down the road, but not now because of the friction around blockchain games. By contrast, it this case, the player gives the company a home address and every so often collectibles arrive in the mail.

“We created a squad RPG game with Perfect Day as our developer,” Wasserman said. “The concept that we had was to get players into the game, get them into leaderboards, into competitions — the beginners, intermediates, and advanced — and within a few hours of playing the game, get them into their first tournament.”