Following the Activision Blizzard acquisition announcement, Microsoft CEO and chairman Satya Nadella stated that gaming “will play a key role in the development of metaverse platforms.”
Tag: Xbox
Nifty News: YGG partners with 8 P2E games, Ice Cube and Quiznos drop NFTs
Decentralized gaming guild Yield Guild Games (YGG) has partnered with, and invested in, eight new play-to-earn (P2E) blockchain games.
YGG lends out nonfungible token (NFT) gaming assets to Guild players so that they can earn rewards from a long list of P2E games without having to front the costs of purchasing the NFTs themselves. The guild boasts assets from widely popular games such as Axie Infinity and Splinterlands.
In an announcement shared with Cointelegraph on Nov. 16, YGG revealed that it had backed eight games with “strong play-to-earn models” including Influence, CyBall, Thetan Arena, KOGs SLAM!, MOBOX, Aavegotchi, DeHorizon and Genopets.
Sarutobi Sasuke, YGG’s head of partnerships, emphasized that the guild seeks out games with strong community involvement and “fair gaming economies.”
“The team reviews the gameplay and game economics to ensure that the games have a robust and fair game economy that rewards players adequately for the time and effort put in by them,” he said.
YGG has snapped up a wide range of NFT assets from the games such as tokenized plots of land and avatars. While some of the gaming projects are in their formative or pre-launch stages, others are already on the market such as Aavegotchi and Mobox.
Aavegotchi is an Ethereum-based NFT project inspired by the popular Japanese virtual pet game Tamagotchi. Mobox is a Binance Smart Chain-based gaming platform that builds yield farming structures into its games. According to Coingecko, Aavegotchi (GHST) and Mobox (MBOX) have a market cap of $145 million and $340 million each.
Microsoft gaming exec cautious of NFTs
While many popular brands and companies have jumped wholeheartedly on the NFT bandwagon, Microsoft’s head of gaming Phil Spencer said he is cautious about integrating the tech with the Xbox Store.
During a Nov. 17 interview with Axios, Spencer stated that, while NFT gaming is on the “up,” he has witnessed a lot of unsavory behavior in the sector:
“What I’d say today on NFT[s] is, I think there’s a lot of speculation and experimentation that’s happening, and that some of the creative that I see today feels more exploitive than about entertainment.”
He conceded that not every NFT game is exploitative and that the sector is “kind of in that journey of people figuring it out.”
“And I can understand that early on you see a lot of things that probably are not things you want to have in your store,” he said.
Spencer said that if Xbox does opt to list NFT games in the Xbox Store, it will actively weed out anything that it deems as not beneficial to the user, noting that “we don’t want that kind of content.
Quiznos starts NFT side-hustle
United States-based fast-food sandwich giant Quiznos has taken the plunge into NFTs via a partnership with Crypto.com.
The firm’s debut NFT collection named “Out of this World” featured five open editions NFTs or “sandwich coins” depicting astronauts in space either holding or hunting for top digital assets such as Dogecoin (DOGE), Ether (ETH) and Bitcoin (BTC).
The sale was hosted on Crypto.com and ended on Nov. 16, with the drop generating around $176,975 from a total of 4,403 NFT purchases.
In a Nov. 15 announcement, Quiznos said that proceeds from the sale would go to World Central Kitchen, a nonprofit that provides free food to communities in times of crisis.
“We are delighted that Quiznos chose our platform to launch this NFT campaign in support of efforts to help those in need at a critical time for our planet,” said Crypto.com’s executive vice president and global head of NFT Joe Conyers III.
“We view this as a fun way to connect our community with a beloved food brand and terrific cause,” he added.
Related: Miramax sues Tarantino over ‘money grab’ Pulp Fiction NFTs
Ice Cube drops ice-cold NFTs
Rap icon Ice Cube is set to drop a series of NFTs on Nifty Gateway on Nov. 17 in collaboration with digital artist Trevor Jones.
The collection consists of four 1:1 editions depicting oil paintings inspired by Ice Cube’s life story, three limited editions of varying rarity featuring digital portraits of the rapper-backed new original songs, and one open edition exclusively available to holders of Jones’ previous NFT drops on Nifty Gateway.
Ice Cube said he wanted to do something legit rather than just cash in.
“While people tried to rush me into the NFT space when they first exploded almost a year ago, I wanted to do something legitimate and create artwork I would be as proud of 20 years from now as I am about these pieces today,” Ice Cube said.
The sale will close on Nov. 18, prices vary from $1,400 to $15,000 for the limited and open editions, while an opening bid price for the one of one editions hasn’t been specified.
Other Nifty News
Virtual property and gaming firm The Sandbox is opening up part of its Metaverse to players for the first time via a multi-week play-to-earn Alpha event starting on Nov. 29.
Cointelegraph reported on Nov. 16 that Google’s keyword search data shows interest in NFTs has surged to record levels, with traffic beating out search terms pertinent to many crypto assets ranked among the top ten.
Microsoft muscles into the Metaverse with Teams updates and Xbox upgrades
U.S. tech giant Microsoft is taking the plunge into the Metaverse via updates to its Teams and Xbox gaming console services, along with a new product called “Dynamics 365 Connected Spaces.”
Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella announced the firm’s Metaverse plans for Teams and Spaces on Nov. 2 during the Microsoft Ignite conference.
“The Metaverse enables us to embed computing into the real world and to embed the real world into computing. Bringing real presence to any digital space. What’s most important is that we are able to bring our humanity with us, and choose how we want to experience this world,” Nadella said.
The metaverse is here, and it’s not only transforming how we see the world but how we participate in it – from the factory floor to the meeting room. Take a look. pic.twitter.com/h5tsdYMXRD
— Satya Nadella (@satyanadella) November 2, 2021
The update for Microsoft Teams is dubbed “Mesh” and its initial rollout in 2022 will provide users with personalized digital avatars and immersive spaces to meet in the Metaverse “that can be accessed from any device, with no special equipment needed.”
Later down the road of Mesh’s development, organizations will also be able to build custom spaces to support contexts such as meetings or “social mixers.”
Microsoft’s new Dynamics 365 Connected Spaces product is set for its first preview in December 2021, and it will enable organizations to combine Metaverse and artificial intelligence (AI) tech with their businesses. The firm said that Spaces can be used to harness observational data from cameras from the “the retail store to the factory floor,” in what it is calling a “hybrid work environment.”
“With the power of your existing cameras, harness computer vision and observational data to help complete the picture—giving a new perspective into people, places, and things, wrote Vishal Sood, the General Manager of Connected Spaces in a Nov. 2 blog post.
“Following deployment, simply turn on AI-powered models, known as skills, to help understand specific scenarios such as customer behavior at a promotional display, traffic patterns, and insights unique to your space.”
Related: The Sandbox raises $93M to expand its NFT metaverse
During an interview with Bloomberg TV on Nov. 3, Nadella also stated that Microsoft’s video game firm Xbox will “absolutely” work on integrating the Metaverse into its gaming lines. The CEO kept his cards close to his chest however, as he didn’t provide any concrete updates for the gaming sector.
“You can absolutely expect us to do things in gaming,” Nadella said, and added that:
“If you take Halo as a game, it is a Metaverse. Minecraft is a Metaverse, and so is Flight Sim. In some sense, they’re 2D today and the question is can you now take that to a fully 3D world, and we absolutely plan to do so.”
Microsoft is not the only mainstream giant to come out with Metaverse plans this week, with Cointelegraph reporting earlier today that Nike had submitted applications for trademarks of its iconic logo and slogan for use in “online virtual worlds.” The firm has also posted two recent job listings for virtual material designers.
Nike said the new recruits would “play a key role in redefining our digital world, ushering us into the Metaverse.”
Social media giant Facebook is famously taking the plunge into the Metaverse, with the rebrand to Meta and the firm working to provide a platform for creators to build virtual online businesses, connect online experiences with the physical world and launch its virtual reality hardware business named “Reality Labs.”
During an interview with CNBC’s Squawk Box on Oct. 29, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian commented on Facebook’s plans labeling it a “masterstroke in diversion and distraction,” from the problems that have plagued the firm.
While Ohanian noted that Meta should not be “underestimated,” he emphasized that there is enough organic movement from the crypto sector to create an open Metaverse as opposed to one controlled by the social media giant:
“Right now there is this bottom-up movement to create the etaverse. We have seen what is happening in the crypto community… we are seeing a lot of people building what I think is, and hope will become a much more organic type of world rather than a top-down Facebook-imposed one.”
Microsoft quietly closing down Azure blockchain in September
Microsoft is turning off its corporate Azure Blockchain Service on September 10 and will not accept any new deployments effective immediately, with no official explanation provided.
Large corporate customers who use Azure Blockchain include J.P. Morgan, GE Aviation, Singapore Airlines, Starbucks, and Xbox according to its website.
The announcement was made in a low key post on the Microsoft documentation site on Monday, informing all current customers to migrate to alternate services. ConsenSys Quorum Blockchain Service was the only suggestion and ConsenSys founder and CEO Joseph Lubin welcomed the Azure refugees:
“Expanding our relationship with Microsoft helps organizations take advantage of ConsenSys Quorum and Quorum customer support to offer users an enterprise-grade managed blockchain service that can be effortlessly set-up and deployed.”
The imminent closure was given more public attention via a Twitter post on May 12 by Azure architect Tom Kerhove.
Looks like Azure Blockchain Service is no longer a thinghttps://t.co/HX0aFYkU3I
Kudos to @TechMike2kX for finding out.
— Tom Kerkhove ☁️ (@TomKerkhove) May 12, 2021
Microsoft’s Azure Blockchain is six years old and developed from a sandbox style service in 2015 on Ethereum in partnership with ConsenSys, before it was offered as a fully managed Blockchain-as-a-Service, or BaaS, preview in late 2019. Microsoft’s original goal for Azure was to create a certified blockchain marketplace giving customers the “ability to discover blockchain technologies and value added services.”
Despite stating no new deployments will be accepted on the service, Microsoft are yet to remove the Azure page offering new users to sign up for free.
Microsoft has been sending mixed messages around its stance towards cryptocurrency and blockchain, with president Brad Smith claiming earlier this year that the multinational was not even the least bit interested in dabbling in Bitcoin. However, in late March, the company released an online poll asking customers how likely they would be to use Bitcoin for purchases in the Xbox Games Store.
This is one of the first major enterprise blockchain solutions to close its doors, however it is not likely to spell the end for commercial blockchain adoption with IBM, ConsenSys, Hyperledger, Amazon, and Huawei all offering alternate enterprise-ready solutions.
EY and Microsoft Expanding Blockchain Platform for Xbox, Say System Can Process 2 Million Transactions Per Day
Ernst & Young (EY) and Microsoft are expanding a blockchain-based platform in an effort to improve the experience of Xbox gaming partners and content creators. In a press release, EY says that the expanded blockchain functionalities aim to give Xbox’s network of gaming partners and content creators a better way to track, manage, and process […]
The post EY and Microsoft Expanding Blockchain Platform for Xbox, Say System Can Process 2 Million Transactions Per Day appeared first on The Daily Hodl.
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