Some Key Gaming Players on Tezos

As many of you know, the Tezos ecosystem is abundant with talent. Some of that talent has been focusing on a critical area: gaming. The gaming scene on Tezos has been in overdrive with more and more games being built on Tezos. In this article, we’re going to highlight a few of those building games on Tezos and why they’ve chosen Tezos as their blockchain of choice.

Blockchain Gaming? #

It seems like slapping blockchain across anything has become an undeniable trend and buzzword. Contrary to popular belief, there are some actual benefits behind all the noise.

Being a gamer myself, I’ve enjoyed spending time through the years playing popular games such as Call of Duty, Fallout, and even TCGs like Yu-Gi-Oh and Pokémon. However, games like Call of Duty or Fallout present a problem. All of the achievements and progress you obtain in the game either gets stored on a hard drive or a server that you do not own. The consequence of this is that you are bound by the will of whoever owns the hard drive or server and that they keep running the server or hard drive because if they decide to turn it off, then all the hard work you’ve done in the game will disappear.

Reclaiming that ownership of data or game play is a genuine problem. Luckily, blockchain enables a solution for just that in that the game play data or data in general lives on the blockchain and as long as the blockchain is functioning then that data will never be lost. Even better, there are several teams on Tezos pioneering the efforts to make Tezos a home for this web3 gaming revolution.

Let’s learn more about some of the teams behind the blockchain gaming movement on Tezos.

Ubisoft #

Ubisoft, the gaming giant behind popular games like Assassin’s Creed, Tom Clancy franchise, and Far Cry has utilized Tezos for its Ghost Recon Breakpoint game. This came in the form of NFTs also known as “digits” in-game.

In most games, you have to go through a centralized marketplace to acquire in-game items, cosmetics, and gear. Once you purchase those said items, they live within the game. This presents a few problems. First, if the game disappears, so do your items. Second, if you switch consoles or devices then you will probably lose those in-game items. Lastly, those in game items, cosmetics, and gear are usually not free to trade in that you can’t trade with anyone for any price, and are bound by the limits that the game owner has set.

The cool thing about what Ubisoft did with “Ubisoft Quartz” is by utilizing blockchain in the form of digits, in-game purchases are fully-owned and transferable by the players. This allows these items to live on forever on the Tezos blockchain and are able to be sold on secondary marketplaces such as Rarible or OBJKT. Further, the user can set their own prices and sell it to whoever they wish to without being bound by anything.

Block Born #

Block Born is a gamified platform on Tezos created by the bright minds behind the Misfits Gaming Group. Misfits is a well-known e-sports organization with millions of people in their social followings and partnerships with the likes of Intel, Ellesse, and popular streamers like Hiraku.

Dipping their toes headfirst into the gaming scene on Tezos, Block Born has a dedicated $10M budget for deploying resources and capital into Tezos-based gaming projects. Backing popular Tezos-based games like Emergents TCG, Circuit Breaker, Tezotopia, and more; Block Born has been busy furthering the gaming scene on Tezos.

Will Pazos, SVP of Block Born was on our TezTalks Live show recently and shared some additional insight into Block Born’s strategy.

We essentially exist to help foster the gaming activity that happens on Tezos. This is both in a competitive sense with our battle pass and tournament software we’re building and also more from a funding perspective. We have a $10M fund with the Tezos Foundation targeting small indie projects, games, and anyone who is touching anything gaming on Tezos.

On the product side, it’s building tools to empower game developers to attach things like battle passes and tournaments to take their games to the next level. Doing this adds that user engagement element, a reason for someone to come back every day to play. It’s hard enough to build a game, it’s also tough to go out and create all the tools necessary to make that game interesting outside of the core game loop.

As part of the incubator piece and funding side, we’re working to put together a launchpad… We’re looking at creating a platform where people can open up their games and see user-generated content.

The Sutuverse #

The Sutuverse is a web3 playground including AR, VR (“virtual reality”), and WebGL experiences designed by Stu Campbell (Sutu). If you’ve been around and active in the Tezos community for some time, you’re probably aware of the NEONZ PFP collection. They are a limited collection of 10k cyberpunk avatars.

Owning a NEONZ grants a user accessibility into the Sutuverse and the ability to use their avatars, customize their experiences, and race to set new record times for speed runs in games like Circuit Breaker. The cost is about 5 tez to play and players do not have to own a NEONZ to play as they will be provided a default character without the perks of owning a NEONZ.

Creating something fun, simple, and with minimal barriers to entry as possible- is key. That’s exactly what Sutu has accomplished and exemplifies yet another great example of the standard that has been set for gaming on Tezos.

Head over here and give the game a go today!

Tezotopia #

Tezotopia is a real-time NFT strategy game built on the Tezos blockchain by GIF.Games. Players are given the ability to grow resources or battle for them through characters within the game. Additionally, collected NFTs within the game are tradable on Tezotopia’s marketplace or others such as OBJKT.

If you’ve ever played Raid: Shadow Legends, Tezotopia is quite similar in that regard. Players are motivated to create buildings on the land to generate resources, create more buildings, and build an army. Resources that get earned within the game can be traded for tez or used to buy other items to help players in battle. Additionally, staking GIF (the governance token of GIF.Games) allows players to earn different rewards.

Head over to Tezotopia and start playing today!

Looking Forward #

We have barely even just scratched the surface in a vibrant ecosystem of gaming applications built on Tezos. From incubators like Block Born supporting Tezos-based gaming teams, heavy hitters like Ubisoft, unique metaverses, and several blockchain-based games, Tezos is making a bright home for gaming applications. As Tezos continues to evolve and grow, there is no doubt the gaming landscape will continue to follow its trajectory.

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