The massively multiplayer metaverse will incorporate an NFT marketplace
Virtual gaming development company Star Atlas today announced that it would be expanding its blockchain-driven massively multiplayer metaverse on the Solana protocol. Blockchain mechanics will be coupled with traditional game mechanics to provide a unique gaming experience.
Star Atlas is an AAA title game from the team who built Multichain Ventures. They have been building decentralised applications for the last four years, after first getting involved in blockchain in 2013. Star Atlas wants to encourage monetisation of players’ time in the virtual world and therefore embrace self-sovereign ownership of assets through the implementation of NFT asset ownership and marketplaces.
Star Atlas Co-founder and CEO, Michael Wagner, explained, “Star Atlas will provide the most powerful opportunity in human history for players to realize economic benefits through the extraction of in-game virtual earnings into real-world income. This integration optimizes Star Atlas’ long term goals by plugging into Solana’s thriving community, ecosystem, and best in class technology.”
Star Atlas chose Solana for its “web-scale blockchain” launched in 2019 which makes it capable of powering a myriad of decentralised applications. Solana has a processing speed of over 50,000 transactions per second with sub-second finality for an average fee of just $0.00001.
Solana Co-founder, Anatoly Yakovenko, commented, “Having Star Atlas integrate into Solana opens up the possibility for a new standard of blockchain gaming. Bringing the traditional gaming experience on-chain and allowing players to own in-game assets as non-fungible tokens and giving an avenue for in-game monetization. This is an exciting integration.”
Since their Mainnet Beta launch in 2020, Solana has seen considerable growth with 8.3 billion transactions taking place on-chain, over 54 million blocks being created, at least 350 active validators distributed around the world and more than 100 projects spanning DeFi, blockchain gaming and Web3 verticals have integrated with Solana, including USDC, USDT, Chainlink, Audius and Terra.
The Star Atlas metaverse is based in the year 2620, when different space factions are struggling for territories, resources and political domination. Players will be able to earn rewards while influencing the outcome of the intergalactic conflict. The use of Unreal Engine 5’s Nanite graphics technology allows for cinematic quality visuals.
The native in-game currency will be the ATLAS token, which can be used for operating expenses, such as mining equipment and fuel costs, and will serve as the predominant currency within the NFT marketplace. At least 80% of ATLAS will be rewarded to players for in-game activities, with the development team retaining zero stake of the token supply. Star Atlas are also giving away 2,500 ATLAS tokens to the first 15,000 users that sign up.