What the game giant Valve prepared for eSports players – new facts of the future blockchain platform
Last week a number of mass media including Cryptonewmedia, Coin Times, The Coinage Times, Forklog and others distributed unexpected news: the game giant Valve is going to launch its blockchain platform. That was reported to the journalists on condition of anonymity by an employee of the Corporation.
According to his info, the platform will work on the basis of the existing Steam market and with the help of it the corporation will be able to track the achievements of each player and statistics, in particular – titles, ranks, discounts for other apps. The best players will be encouraged by the company. Thus the company is going to raise eSports players chosen from best gamers and ensure the full life cycle of a player.
Can we trust this information? What does this news mean for the game industry? And how a corporation can assimilate its project now? Find out in our research.
The screenshot of a vacancy for Blockchain Business Development Manager on the official website of the company supports the words of Valve’s employee. At the time of writing this article, the vacancy from the company’s official website has already disappeared. However, Google managed to indextie it.
The screenshot appeared on several platforms
The news mentions the long-standing statements of the Corporation: Valve announced its intention to launch a blockchain platform in 2015, and the ban on accepting bitcoin on Steam in 2017 may indicate its intention to release its own cryptocurrency.
Why does Valve need such a platform?
The global eSports market is growing, and it is growing significantly: according to the Global Sports Market Report, the volume of the market will reach $905.6 million by 2018, which is 38% more than in 2017. 77% of this amount, that is $694 million, will come for brands, which is 44% higher than last year. The global audience of the market, including eSports players and spectators, will come in at 380 million users. By 2020 the volume of this market can reach $1.4 billion – which means it can grow almost twice in two years, – concludes the analytical company in its report.
Let’s look at the blockchain market. According to Grand View Research, the global market of cryptocurrencies could reach $7,59 billion by 2024. The capitalization of cryptocurrencies for June, 2018 is about $300 billion. Even in comparison with the impressive volumes of eSports market the figure is impressive.
The game industry has already thought about the introduction of blockchain into its infrastructure. There already exist blockchain projects for eSports players, for example, Asura Coin, Eloplay, Gilgam. Even at the presale stages of their ICO, they collected millions of dollars. So we can conclude that having developed its own platform based on blockchain and thus presenting unique opportunities for eSports, the Corporation can get a huge profit. It will not likely to miss this opportunity.
An anonymous posted screenshots of the future Valve platform on one of the most popular gaming forums. Administrators deleted the issue quickly, the articles about the future platform also disappeared on some platforms. But users managed to save the page with screenshots.
They imply that the platform will be called Steam Stars. It will be working on the basis of a smart contract, which will ensure the protection of eSports players’ income within the platform. As the insider assumed, the company will also issue its own token with ST ticket. Gamer’s income, issued in cryptocurrency, will be distributed among investors, his team and himself. The profile of the player will also contain the schedule of games with an announced cash prize and his achievements.
The vacancy of a BBDM or a Project Manager, not a developer – may mean that the Corporation is not going to develop a solution on its own, but it cooperates with an involved team. Which is the usual tactics for the Corporation. Despite the high financial indicators (in particular, in 2017 the turnover amounted to $4.3 billion) the staff of the company is growing slightly – it comprises about 400 people.
Thus, the development of the future platform is kept away from the Corporation’s affairs. Speaking about similar solutions on the market, we have recently come across one fresh project – Game Stars. If you look at its White Paper attentively, it demonstrates all the functionality that is expected on the future Steam Stars platform from Valve Corporation.
The Game Stars project unites eSports players and those who want to earn on them: players take part in games and receive financing for development. Their sponsors, in turn, receive bonuses from the income of eSports players. This is also demonstrated by Steam Stars’ screenshots. One of the most important ideas of Valve – smart contracts is realized in Game Stars.
It turns out that the market already has a ready-made solution which can help to realize many ideas of the game giant. Is this project related to Valve Corporation? We’ll continue to follow this story.
To know more, click here!
