Polygon, an Ethereum scaling full-stack solution bringing mass adoption to the Ethereum platform, has today announced the launch of Polygon Studios — an NFT-centric gaming hub designed to facilitate seamless access for web 2.0 game developers to integrate web 3.0 elements and NFTs into their platforms, providing the best of both worlds.
NFTs have exploded in popularity recently, permeating mainstream culture in everything from music to art. And now, they’re on the verge of major adoption from web 2.0 gaming giants including Nvidia, Activision, and Riot Games to name a few.
More than 60% of today’s NFT and blockchain-based web 3.0 games, including Decentraland, Sandbox, Somnium Space and Decentral Games have chosen Polygon’s PoS chain as the preferred scaling solution. Now, Polygon will extend plug-and-play Software development kits (SDKs) for web 2.0 game developers such as Ubisoft, Electronic Arts, Atari, and others, enabling them to integrate blockchain attributes into non-blockchain games. The studio will leverage Polygon’s $100 million treasury fund to provide investment, marketing, technology, and community support.
Polygon Studios will also serve as an innovation hub, helping a swathe of celebrities, fashion houses, large commercial and consumer brands, and artists launch their own custom NFT models and marketplaces. Serving as a proof of concept, the newly minted NFT artist, Beeple, recently chose to build his latest NFT marketplace WE.NEW on Polygon.
Moreover, NFT marketplace OpenSea — which recently raised $100 million at a monumental $1.5 billion valuation — has already ported over to Polygon’s efficient Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain to eliminate transaction fees and negate carbon emissions.
In fact, multiple web 3.0 projects already leverage Polygon’s ultra-low fee environment as a carbon-neutral, sustainable base of operations to scale their games and mint NFTs. This includes iconic gaming brand Atari, who forged a partnership with Polygon in February, harnessing the protocols’ speed, scalability, tooling, and community to bootstrap development of Atari’s seamless entry into the web 3.0 gaming and NFT space.
The studio follows in the footsteps of its parent company, Polygon, which has found major success as a scaling solution for the Ethereum network, garnering support from the likes of billionaire serial entrepreneur, Mark Cuban. Polygon is also an integral member of the Blockchain Game Alliance, a consortium of blockchain and gaming firms, including Ubisoft, AMD, and Consensys, committed to promoting blockchain within the game industry.
Originally devised as a framework for building and connecting Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks, the Polygon ecosystem has evolved into a thriving nexus for development, allowing for scalability and interoperability between Eth-based projects. Today, that ecosystem branches out to another environment altogether: the metaverse and NFT gaming.
For the Polygon team, it was a natural progression to create a central hub where these projects could obtain technical guidance and community support, as well as collaborate and coalesce to form a larger gaming ecosystem, where cross-chain compatible projects can harness the potential of interoperability and the metaverse.
Shreyansh Singh, Head of Gaming & NFT at Polygon, said:
“We believe Polygon Studios will become a lynchpin to foster the entertainment and technology of the future, helping facilitate this new paradigm shift that we are currently witnessing in the NFTs and gaming world. It’s our hope that this venture will be mutually beneficial in aiding the development and modernization of the gaming sector, and, vice-versa, bringing blockchain games up to a high standard of AAA games.”
“Web 2.0-based games are ripe for innovation. Their monetization models have only taken them so far, and the revenue potential offered by blockchain and NFTs vastly outweigh blockchain adoption hurdles. Polygon Studios aims to make that adoption process even smoother,” Shreyansh Singh, Head of Gaming & NFT of Polygon added.
Monetization stands as the number one problem with prevailing service-based games. Conversion rates remain low for standard Free-To-Play (F2P) monetization, and the typical season pass model doesn’t allow for price discrimination based on usage. Moreover, developers often miss out on Player-to-Player transactions that already occur on black markets (e.g., Gold Buying, Character Boost), which also cause poor player experiences (in-game imbalances, loss of accounts/items, and customer support issues).
Over 80% of digital game revenue is F2P, but a mere 2.2% of F2P gamers actually spend money. Regardless, the F2P industry still generates $87 billion annually. By capitalizing on this revenue potential, ownable in-game items could grow the market by well over $50 billion per 1% of converted players.
Blockchain-enabled player economies increase the likelihood of a player converting with potential resale, and lowers the perceived risk of investing time and money in-game. Players who spend anything in a F2P game have higher engagement and retain longer, and game developers unlock additional revenue streams to support and earn royalties through secondary transactions between players.
“Enriching players’ lives and providing them with the full benefits of the technology is at the core of our development goals. We’re excited to be welcoming established studios who see the potential of Web 3.0, NFTs, and the metaverse and shaping the future of entertainment and gaming together,” said Sandeep Nailwal, co-founder and COO of Polygon.
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