Reality Gaming Group looks at current activity
This is a guest post from Jake Scott, the community manager at one of our launch sponsors Reality Gaming Group.
Welcome to the first in a series of articles about the latest blockchain and video game crossovers that we hope will be of interest to you as a gamer, tech enthusiast, industry professional or as a crypto trader.
This week, we’re discussing gaming-related ICOs.
The ‘ICO’ has been a big part of the cryptocurrency scene for as long as many of us can remember...
Yes, that buzz-word topic of 2017-18, the ‘ICO’ has been a big part of the cryptocurrency scene for as long as many of us can remember…
There have been incredible success stories, scams, regulatory woes, failed sales and plenty of drama to boot. The funding model has allowed new ideas to gain the boost required to begin work in situations where traditional funding models, such as the ‘VC Route’, were unsuitable.
There are often individuals or groups who have brilliant ideas but no access to the funding required to get a project up and running. It is worth remembering that Ethereum itself – the project that championed the utility of smart contracts and which has been the ‘Token-Father’ to numerous ICOs – was originally released via an ICO.
Although crypto ICOs have experienced a rough ride over the past few years, the level of interest in these new opportunities has been evident with the amount of media coverage and investment.
2017 was clearly the ‘year of the ICO’ but are we going to see this continue or has investor interest actually started to fall?
Speeding up
2017 saw an incredible $3.88 billion raised by ICOs and with 2018 already showing over $1 billion invested, it’s likely that 2018 will be on track to exceed this amount by the end of the year as big players move into the scene.
The Telegram ICO has reportedly raised over $850 million in one stage of funding already.
Big name companies have been getting involved in the issuing of their own blockchains with their specific cryptocurrencies and we are seeing multiple use cases becoming apparent. Atari have seen the potential benefit of this and recently announced that they would be launching their own ICO with an ‘Atari Token’ (link to news).
The combination of a blockchain, virtual currency and video games seems an entirely plausible grouping on paper and indeed seems to be that way in reality.
Gamers are already a demographic that is accustomed to the concept of a virtual currency, virtual economies and digital asset trading. It comes as no surprise that the use of a blockchain and associated tokens to securely regulate the transfer of gamer’s digital assets is something that has been seized upon by hopeful entrepreneurs and established companies alike.
Three gaming ICOs
A secure means of transferring ownership of a digital asset without relying on a central party is just one feature that is being brought to gamers via blockchain based projects but there are many other applications that we believe are going to be implemented in more platforms as the industry develops.
Whatever gaming platform we look at, the success of virtual economies surrounding video games has shown that players care about the items that their avatar wears or the weapons that their character carries into battle. If we can make these economies more transparent, efficient and less prone to fraudulent activity with the addition of a blockchain system, it’s a win for everyone.
So what ICO’s have we been looking at?
One ICO that has caught our eye is Terra Virtua, an entertainment focused VR platform combining Netflix-style subscriptions for games with payable content and premium, pay-per-play events.
All transactions made on the platform will utilise Terra Virtua’s own blockchain and the currency (TVT) can also be used to ‘own’ zones, enter attractions, trade rare in-game items, experience one-off content and it also allows users to hire developers for a Terra Virtua project of their own!
Those of us who own a VR headset will understand that most of the games currently available to consumers are very short in playtime. We think Terra Virtua are addressing a good issue here, allowing users to subscribe to a platform that aims to offer high quality entertainment content and access to multiple video games. Instead of paying higher prices for short playtimes, Terra Virtua promises a platform that will deliver on all entertainment needs without lots of separate, and more costly, transactions.
If they can deliver a platform that lets VR users access high quality content, involve their friends and comes with a secure economy – we think they are onto a winning thing.
Date of ICO: Pre-sale currently underway, main ICO date has yet to be announced (likely to be around April 2018), we’re staying tuned and we’ll update the page as soon as we hear anything!
We’ve also been looking at an interesting AR game project called Mossland.
Mossland is an augmented reality gamified platform for owning and trading virtualized real-estate based on the mechanics of Monopoly and Pokemon Go. It’s an interesting game concept and something that we could see some gamers absolutely loving.
The Mossland team also aims to make their digital assets fluid and allow them to be transferred to other location-based games or services via their ‘Moss Chain’ a blockchain dedicated to AR/VR assets. Although no partner-games have been announced at this early stage, we’d expect there to be others available if this model proved successful for these Korean developers.
With an economy partly inspired by Lordmancer 2, the developers of Mossland have seen the potential benefits of involving a blockchain in their project and jumped right in. Players will be able to trade landmarks and potentially profit from their in-game success all via their dedicated Moss Chain.
If you’re interested, you can even register your favourite landmark right now to get 10 Moss Coin for free! With their roadmap showing soft launch in Q2 2019, it will be a while before we get a chance to see their finished product, but as a concept – we’re very interested to see where this game can go!
Date of ICO: Ongoing until the 17th April or if hardcap reached.
Finally, we’ve looked at a much-loved project named Gizer that has already delivered a product to users at an early stage in development – before their ICO even began!
The team at Gizer are providing a social mobile platform that is every gamer’s must-have companion app. With Gizer, users are able to create teams, compete in (and create) tournaments for their favourite games, communicate with other gamers, build up their Global Gaming Identity (GGID) and even attract sponsorship or employment via the ability of users to offer their services through the platform.
As mentioned, the app is available to iOS and Android users and there have been tournaments running on the platform already. The team is extremely dedicated and passionate about their project and they have already signed several important partners including Omnia Media and Tapjoy.
Date of ICO: Ongoing from 15th March to 20th April or if hardcap reached.