Quick take:
- Leading cryptocurrency exchange platform FTX.US has launched a gaming unit for game publishers.
- The Crypto-as-a-Service platform will allow game developers to offer in-game items and NFTs.
- Gamers continue to resist the push by mainstream game developers to embrace NFTs.
FTX’s North American subsidiary FXT.US has launched a new unit dedicated to gaming tokens. The platform has leapt into the blockchain gaming world with a Crypto-as-a-Service platform that will allow game developers to offer non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and in-game items to users.
According to Bloomberg, FTX.US started recruiting a completely remote-based team this month in readiness for the announcement. The company wants to encourage more mainstream game developers to offer NFT and in-game items to players, thereby growing the blockchain gaming ecosystem.
Last November, FTX said it will collaborate with two partners to invest $100 million in a project that will integrate Solana blockchain with video games.
An FTX spokesperson told Bloomberg in an email that FTX.US was launching a gaming unit because the company sees video games as an exciting application for crypto.
“There are 2 billion+ gamers in the world who have played with and collected digital items, and can now also own them.”
The announcement comes amid conflicting views from game developers about embracing NFTs.
While some game makers like Ubisoft have defied community backlash to push with their plans of offering in-game items, others like GSC Game decided to listen to their fans, walking back its plans to add NFTs to their gaming ecosystem.
The blockchain gaming model allows players to benefit from their playing experience by earning the game’s native token and other in-game items like weapons and skins.
However, some gamers have called it a ploy by greedy game developers to add another stream of making money from the community instead of focusing on improving the quality of the games offered, the fun, and adding advanced features.
Others are unwilling to move into a market that has been highlighted by endless scams and financial crime, also citing the carbon footprint some platforms leave when minting NFTs and in-game items.
Amy Wu, head of FTX’s $2 billion venture capital fund seems to agree that some studios are making tradeoffs in offering in-game items to accelerate the financial campaign at the expense of creating quality games.
Wu said that it would be difficult to try to map the potential future of play-to-earn gaming until studios start publishing quality P2E blockchain games.
“I wouldn’t have been able to predict kind of how fierce the animosity has been with some gamers against NFTs and it’s unfortunate, but it’s interesting,” Wu told the Decrypt gm podcast.
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