“Epic Games Store will welcome games that make use of blockchain tech provided they follow the relevant laws, disclose their terms, and are age-rated by an appropriate group,” Sweeney tweeted. In October, after Steam banned the sale of games featuring NFTs or cryptocurrency integrations, the Epic Games Store announced that it would welcome such games that follow its regulations. However, Epic Games is more open to NFT-based games than its primary PC gaming marketplace rival, Steam. You can use your items to play the game on multiple platforms, but only within Fortnite. In-game items like character and weapon “skins” cannot be resold or used in other games, which are potential benefits of NFT-powered experiences. That said, the free-to-play game Fortnite-which some view as a proto-metaverse-currently has its own closed ecosystem. Siu told Decrypt last fall that he views Facebook and Tencent as “threats” to an open, interoperable metaverse, and that Animoca is “kind of in a hurry” to bring the metaverse to life before tech giants take over. That kind of open ethos aligns well with that of crypto builders, such as Yat Siu, co-founder and executive chairman of leading metaverse investor Animoca Brands. “The metaverse is a term like the internet,” said Sweeney in Seoul. In November, Sweeney said at a conference in Seoul that the metaverse “has the potential to become a multi-trillion-dollar part of the world economy.” He also said that it shouldn’t be owned by a single company, echoing Epic’s legal battles against Apple and Google for their respective closed, “walled garden” mobile app ecosystems. The company has discussed its philosophy towards the budding metaverse in the past, and has appeared open to NFTs, but has not specifically said whether its metaverse plans will be based on blockchain. However, it’s unclear whether Epic Games plans to tap a blockchain network, NFTs, or cryptocurrency for its metaverse plans. The firm’s Unreal Engine is widely used across the video game industry, as well as for film, TV, architecture, and more, plus it owns studios focused on lifelike human avatars, 3D item and environment scanning, online communication, and more. For example, Facebook’s vision of the metaverse could be a closed ecosystem, while other announcements around the metaverse may simply be focused on tapping VR and AR technology for immersive experiences.Įpic Games has gradually built and acquired much of the technology needed to bring its metaverse vision to life. For builders in the crypto space, the metaverse signals an array of interoperable, overlapping environments built on blockchain networks, using NFTs to represent user-owned items like avatars, virtual land, apparel, and more.īut often when major tech and gaming companies announce their aspirations for the metaverse, it’s unclear whether a crypto element is included. However, “metaverse” is still a nebulous term. The metaverse is believed to be a revolutionary upgrade that people will use to shop, socialize, play games, and even work, and hype around the metaverse has swelled in recent months after Facebook rebranded its parent company to Meta. What is the metaverse ? It’s the vision of a future, more immersive internet in which users interact in 3D spaces using avatars. Last week, The LEGO Group announced a partnership with Epic Games to build out a kid-friendly, LEGO-themed metaverse world. That round also included $200 million from Sony. “This investment will accelerate our work to build the metaverse and create spaces where players can have fun with friends, brands can build creative and immersive experiences, and creators can build a community and thrive,” said Sweeney, in a release.Įpic Games last raised funds a year ago, announcing a $1 billion raise in April 2021 at a valuation of $28.7 billion.
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