Epic Opens Gates to Blockchain-Based Games, but Conditions Apply

Epic Games store has announced its decision to allow the exchange of cryptocurrency as part of the deal. But this is only under certain conditions.

This comes in the wake of rival store Steam banning blockchain in its present system. Epic probably wants to lure a particular segment of gamers with this move. Tim Sweeney, the CEO of Epic Games, said that they welcome any innovation in the areas of finance and technology. Hence, they invite gamers to use blockchain technology, though, of course, with strict compliance to age appropriateness and other regulatory issues. He added that blockchain technology is a distributed transactional database. It follows a decentralized business model that incentivizes investment in hardware, expanding the database’s capacity. Its utility needs to be acknowledged whether or not the result is positive. 

In yet another tweet, Tim Sweeney explained that blockchain as a concept and the use of blockchain NFTs are two different things. The decision taken by Epic Games is not to involve NFTs as he feels the market is flooded with decentralized tech foundations and scams. Though Epic is not banning blockchain-based transactions as Steam has, Sweeney is still not open to gamers using NFTs or other digital objects for transactions. Epic is neither going the Fortnite way of embracing NFTs nor the Steam way of banning blockchain.

The world is poised for two different visions of Metaverse. One world is the actual foundation of Metaverse, while the other is a shared digital world with no element of blockchain technology. How the future of gaming pans out is yet to be seen. Some feel that blockchain games are going to be the next big thing in the market. Yet others feel this is just a cult and might not encompass the larger audience anytime soon.