Counterparty wallet and API provider IndieSquare and EverdreamSoft, the Swiss company behind the trading card game Spells of Genesis, have teamed up to develop a blockchain gaming platform.
The new platform, expected to be released in September, will allow developers and companies to build games on the Bitcoin blockchain through the Counterparty protocol. It will include a game optimized mobile item collection app and an app developer interface for token management.
“By combining IndieSquare’s Counterparty API services with EverdreamSoft’s easy to use dashboard for game management and asset registration, we will enable a new wave of developers to utilize blockchain game items planting the seed for a generation of games and applications with interoperable assets and items,” the companies said in a joint release.
IndieSquare and EverdreamSoft have also announced plans to form a new joint venture that will focus on “allowing interoperability of game items between different games.”
Already, Force of Will (FoW), a popular Japanese card game serving users from more than 30 countries, has committed to joining the new blockchain platform. The move will enable its 100,000-player community to trade game items on the Bitcoin blockchain via Counterparty.
The FoW’s upcoming online simulator, Force of Will Battle Simulator is scheduled to be released in September and will have its game items tokenized and running on the blockchain, similarly to Spells of Genesis.
“The borderless nature of blockchain technology inspired us,” said Eiji Shishido, CEO of Force of Will. “The concept of Force of Will is ‘connecting the world’ and there is much similarity there.”
“FoW is not an online game currently but we wanted to bring in a new value to the game industry. We wanted to offer FoW players a whole new experience and the new value proposition based on the cutting edge technology,” said Shishido.
Blockchain technology in the gaming industry
According to Koji Higashi, Counterparty’s community director and the co-founder of IndieSquare, “gaming is one field where applying blockchain technology makes a lot of sense and regular users can immediately benefit.”
Higashi said that interest in the technology for the industry has significantly increased in recent months, but also noted that the entry barrier for game developers who are not familiar with blockchain is still very high.
He hopes that the new platform, which combines Counterparty’s stable infrastructure with EverdreamSoft’s token management interface, will lower the entry barrier for both small indie game developers and bigger game companies.
According to Shaban Shaame, founder of EverdreamSoft, “blockchain asset give the ability to create a ‘digital capital’ arising from owning digital game asset.”
“Giving players ‘true ownership’ of their digital assets is a significant advantage for a game publisher over another game,” said Shaame. “I think in few years no one will likely buy something in an online game that doesn’t give ownership back to the purchaser.”