FTX, the cryptocurrency exchange, will launch its own gaming division. The structure is designed to facilitate publishers’ adoption of cryptocurrencies, blockchain and NFT into their products, according to Bloomberg.
FTX Gaming will operate through the company’s U.S. subsidiary and will debut with a crypto-as-a-service platform (“cryptocurrency as a service”), the agency says. With it, game studios will be able to issue tokens and offer NFT support.
According to the publication, in February the division began hiring remote workers for the team. The emphasis, reportedly, is on programmers with experience working with the Unity game engine.
“We are launching FTX Gaming because we view games as an interesting use case for cryptocurrencies. There are more than 2 billion gamers worldwide who play and collect digital items, and now they will also be able to own them,” a exchange spokesperson said.
Supporters of merging the cryptocurrency and gaming industries argue that digital tokens and NFTs provide greater ownership rights to earned in-game items, Bloomberg notes.
However, traditional publishers have faced criticism along this path, as in the case of Ubisoft. Users considered this an entanglement with a space prone to scams, fraud and a high carbon footprint, designed for profit rather than entertainment.
According to Amy Wu, head of the previously created the $2 billion FTX venture fund, the reaction of some gamers to NFTs was surprising to her.
“This is disappointing, but deserves attention,” Wu said.
In her view, it is too early to say what Play-to-Earn games should look like. More studios need to develop high-quality products using digital assets, rather than “making compromises that truly offer the worst uses of this content in exchange for profit,” Wu added.
As a reminder, in January the investment volume in the GameFi sector reached $1 billion or a quarter of the total for all of 2021.