Forte, a Ripple-backed blockchain startup aiming to increase and speed up the adoption and integration of blockchain technology in the gaming industry, are talking with more than 40 developers about bringing XRP to the $42 billion gaming industry.
As previously reported by IIB, Ripple and Forte launched a $100 million fund to integrate blockchain with the gaming industry and leverage XRP as a settlement currency.
Forte May Deploy $100M Fund With Over 40 Developers and Existing Games with 50,000+ Users
Now, just weeks after the establishment of this fund and following the Game Developers Conference in San Francisco, Forte co-founder and COO Kent Wakeford says the startup is already in active discussions with more than 40 developers.
Speaking in an interview with Modern Consensus, Wakeford said:
“Response has been strong. This has been an incredibly successful GDC for us. We met with over 40 game developers and are in active discussions to deploy the $100 million fund. We’re looking at existing games with existing items and existing audiences over 50,000 registered users.”
Adding to this, he said that their platform will utilize non-fungible tokens (NFTs) so that gamers can experience a sense of ownership with their items, as well as buy and sell them using XRP to settle transactions.
However, while focusing on XRP for payments, Wakeford also said their Forte platform will integrate the Interledger Protocol so that it’s interoperable with other blockchains, and so that payments can be routed across different digital ledgers.
The Forte platform is open to working with any developer building on blockchain, including leading smart contract platforms like Ethereum (ETH), EOS (EOS), Tron (TRX), and others.
Explaining how and why they want to be blockchain agnostic, Wakeford said:
“We built sidechain technology to allow for the portability of these games. We’re trying to make this as easy as possible so developers can focus on making great games and designing great game economies. We want to take the challenge and complexity away from them and make blockchain seamless in the background. We don’t want the consumer to have to jump through a bunch of hoops.”
The Blockchain Gaming Industry Is Set To Explode
According to Wakeford, the $43 billion gaming industry is an ideal market for the early adoption and experimentation of blockchain technology.
He says that the implementation of this technology will bring about new game dynamics and peer-to-peer economies, stating:
“The blockchain ledger shows the provenance of every item, where it’s traded, who owns it, and tracks payments. Now developers can participate in the aftermarket and every trade in perpetuity. That opens up a whole new market for any game with items where consumers invest their time or money to collect them.”
To end the interview, Wakeford was asked how long it will take blockchain to reach mass adoption, to which he replied that he would be shocked if in 5 years from now games didn’t have some element of blockchain technology.
He added:
“From an economic perspective, it makes all the sense in the world and also from a consumer perspective. If you’re a consumer buying these skins, wouldn’t you want to own them?”
When do you think some aspect of blockchain technology will be widely adopted in video games? Will Ripple’s XRP become the standard crypto used to transact NFTs? Let us know what you think in the comment section below.
