Tony Pearce is the co-founder of Reality Gaming Group, a developer of blockchain games and NFT projects ranging from mobile shooter Reality Clash to Doctor Who: Worlds Apart and digital collectibles from Floyd Mayweather Jr. We caught up with him to get the latest developments in his company, the wider NFT situation and his view on the future of gaming in general.
Throughout his 25 years in the games industry, Pearce has worked at the forefront of new formats, from 16-bit computers to mobile games and now, blockchain. Building from a base concept of wanting to create an augmented reality mobile game that Pearce describes as, “Pokemon Go meets Call of Duty”. That game went on to be released as Reality Clash.
“By raising money through cryptocurrency and creating our own token, suddenly we entered the world of blockchain, so it was kind of accidental,” recalls Pearce.
Reality Clash wanted to give consumers the choice of buying ‘non-trantradable’ weapons from the App store, or buying a tokenised gun they could use, trade or sell. “The only way that idea could work was because of the blockchain”.
Tokenising the world
With more NFT-based projects in the pipeline, Reality Gaming has now produced four games – one of which is Dr Who: Worlds Apart. With the game yet to release, the community has already purchased in the region of half-a-million collectible cards. Pearce reveals that, “Cards can sell for as little as 50 cents, but we’ve had cards sell for $4,000”.
“Cards can sell for as little as 50 cents, but we’ve had cards sell for $4,000”
Tony Pearce, Reality Gaming Group
In the process of building these games, the company has created its Digital Asset Trading (DAT) platform that can tokenise any item, from in-game weapons to real-world items, music and art. As Pearce says, “If anyone wants their stuff tokenised, we can do it.
“The great thing about NFTs is you will always, forever get a revenue share”. Thanks to Smart Contracts, every time one of their NFTs is resold, the original owner gets, ‘a kickback’. “Secondary sales revenue will continue for life”.
The future
Pearce outlines a future where players will be free to either sell their in-game assets or transfer them to a new game once they’ve finished playing the original. “This is the game changer… It will happen”.
The impassioned co-founder is understandably bullish about the prospects of crypto in games. Comparing blockchain with mobile and social gaming, Pearce says that, “I’ve never seen a marketplace take off so fast!”
What’s his vision for the future? “AR, VR and the Metaverse… and ownership”.
See the video above for the full interview.
Steve is an award-winning editor and copywriter with more than 20 years’ experience specialising in consumer technology and video games. With a career spanning from the first PlayStation to the latest in VR, he's proud to be a lifelong gamer.
