Blockchain-based PC game distribution platform Ultra has announced it will go live globally on Tuesday 25th April.
The ‘blockchain Steam’ project was originally announced in 2018 and has been in development ever since, accelerating its early adopter project in 2023. As well as enabling users to buy and resell PC games, Ultra features its own NFT marketplace, esports platform, and also integrates the Theta blockchain streaming technology.
Everything runs on its own Ultra blockchain, which is based on the EOS.IO SDK and backed by its own native UOS token. This can be used for payment or users can simply pay with traditional debit and credit cards.
At launch, Ultra will feature a mixture of web2 PC games as well as dedicated web3 games. Highlighted titles include The Walking Dead Definitive Series, Lords of the Fallen and WRC7 in the former case and Cards of Ethernity, Cross the Ages, and MARS4 in the latter.
“The PC gaming distribution market is running out of steam and ripe for disruption. We believe there’s much room for improvement for both ‘traditional’ PC games and emerging web3 ones, and blockchain technology allows us to address critical issues such as high fees for developers and lack of true ownership for players,” commented Ultra co-CEO Nicolas Gilot.
“This is still only the beginning for us but, by addressing these issues, we want to help create more meaningful, more transparent relationships between communities. I can’t wait to see this vision start to come to fruition after five years of development and listening to the needs of developers and players.”
This article was first published on BlockchainGamer.biz.
Data fiend and editor-at-large Jon Jordan has been writing/speaking about the games industry since 1999. He's always been a man who's a step ahead, gaze firmly fixed beyond the horizon, rarely content with the here-and-now. So he's particularly pleased the rest of us are finally catching up – but he knew we eventually would.