Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite and other popular game titles, has announced it will enter the crypto space. The news puts Epic Games at the forefront of the movement to bridge traditional gaming economies with blockchain-powered solutions.
What better way to bridge the gap between different generations than through gaming?
The Epic Metaverse is Coming, but It’s Not What You Think.
In the future, you will be able to live in a world where there is no difference between the real world and virtual reality. This is called the “Metaverse.” The gaming industry has already made great progress towards creating this metaverse, but their solution is dependent on blockchain technology.
Epic Games will now use blockchain technology to improve upon existing approaches in order to bring us closer than ever before to realizing our shared dream of living in an immersive online universe where we can meet with friends, interact with strangers, or even become something new entirely by using artificial intelligence (AI) systems.
What Epic Games is creating, then, is not its own online world—but a bunch of tools that will allow other creators to make content easily.
The Metaverse, according to Epic Games, is not one game world, but rather a collection of multiple virtual environments that are interconnected by user-created content.
In order for an overarching metaverse to emerge and grow, various companies must work together on open standards. As long as there isn’t a shared vision of what the overarching Metaverse should be like or how it might function, no one can fully embrace these new standards.
In order for blockchain technology to succeed, it must become faster and easier-to-use. Ideally, every building block of the overarching Metaverse should be based on open standards.
To cope with this overwhelming complexity, there would be a need for a standardized way to describe things—such as objects, locations, sounds, and how these different things interact with one another.
Crypto and Gaming
The online gaming industry was valued at $56 billion in 2022, and it is expected to grow to $132 billion by 2030.
With the introduction of blockchain technology and smart contracts, developers are now able to create crypto games that can be played without third-party interference.
These games allow users to engage with one another, share their experiences in real time, make money playing together, or even create their own tokens for use within the game’s universe.
The concept of ‘’skin’ economies (where players can buy skins for weapons) has been around since at least 2001 with the release of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive. However, this is only scratching the surface of what’s possible with cryptocurrencies in gaming.
Players have already been rewarded with tokens through various giveaways; now they’re able to trade their skins on platforms such as OpenSea or Rarible (a decentralized marketplace).
Users can also take advantage from buying/selling these digital assets using cryptocurrency instead of fiat currency.
Epic Games, Blockchain Gaming
Epic Games is one of the largest video game companies in the world. They create games like Fortnite and Unreal Tournament. The company was started in 1991 by Tim Sweeney.
Following Steam’s announcement that it would remove all Blockchain games from its store, Tim Sweeney, CEO of Epic Games, announced that his game store would welcome those titles.
Epic Games wants to welcome innovation in the areas of technology and finance—but blockchain-based games must follow relevant laws. In addition, they need to disclose their terms and obtain a rating from an appropriate group so that users have adequate information about what is expected when playing them.
This doesn’t mean that developers can simply launch their play-to-earn games on the Epic Game Store. Rather, self-publishing is currently being tested in closed beta and Epic Games chooses which games will be made available based on a case by case basis.
Epic Games’ entry into the crypto space is good news.
Having Epic Games on board is a huge deal for crypto. Their expertise in gaming and large user base could be a driving force in making the blockchain more accessible to mainstream audiences.
The company could also help bring more users into the crypto space through their other products, such as Fortnite, which has already shown significant success.