The Epic Games Store, one of the biggest online gaming stores for PC, will test if blockchain games have enough appeal over the course of the next 12 months.
Crypto-based games have been barred from or excluded from the majority of traditional gaming marketplaces despite their funding and publicity. As a result, one of their biggest testing grounds is now the store owned by the Fortnite developers.
there are currently five crypto games available on the market and “near to 20” more are in the works. Epic neither produces nor publishes any.
Blankos Block Party, a social multiplayer game by Mythical Games, made its debut at Epic’s store in September as the first blockchain game on the market.
Although Epic isn’t providing usage statistics, Allison stated that the game is “very well-played” and that the metaverse platform Core, another cryptocurrency game in the store, “does pretty well.”
there will be additional cryptogame releases on the Epic Games Store in 2019 and the first few months of 2024, “and then we’ll really know” how the scene will develop moving forward.
In order to enable users to ostensibly make money while playing, crypto games offer to contain digital assets in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs), which players can buy, possess, and sell.
Yet, detractors claim that many of the games in the sector are frauds and are plain uninteresting to play.
In late 2021, Valve’s Steam, the top PC gaming retailer, started to prohibit crypto games. Later, co-founder of Valve Gabe Newell told Eurogamer that the environment was “sketchy” and full of fraud.