In a push for wider crypto-gaming adoption, the American affiliate of Sam Bankman-Fried’s crypto exchange FTX is launching a new division called FTX Gaming.

This comes amid a fair amount of recent criticism about NFTs and GameFi from more established “triple-A” gaming communities.

By the sounds of a couple of job listings posted by FTX.US, though, the new unit reportedly aims to help existing gaming studios integrate blockchain tech and NFTs into their games. Expect more backlash from trad gamers in the near future, then.

The postings reveal the exchange is looking for software engineers with a strong experience with the C# programming language and the Unity gaming engine.

And according to Amy Wu, head of FTX’s new $2 billion Web3 venture fund, the exchange’s new division will provide an “FTX-as-a-service” to global gaming companies willing to make the Web3 leap and integrate crypto-token economies.

Wu, previously a partner at Silicon Valley VC firm Lightspeed Venture Partners, acknowledged in a tweet thread that: “Yes there are gamers who don’t believe in NFTs in games, but there were also naysayers about free-to-play and mobile gaming. What it will take are examples of exceptionally designed, innovative games to show gamers the future.”

She also hinted at a “white-label”, “turn-key” solution for games’ publishers to integrate various crypto components into their titles.

“We offer an end-to-end solution of our core product to launch NFTs and tokens: a custodial wallet with non-custodial integrations, primary and secondary trading, compliance and licensing, and more, all whitelabeled and in-house,” said Wu, adding: 

“We believe in the future of web3 games. There are 2B+ gamers who have played with and collected digital assets (in-game items) for years, and now can own them.”

The FTX.US president Brett Harrison also recently tweeted that gaming will be a big part of the exchange’s 2022 plans…

Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian who is making a US$500 million move into crypto with his VC firm 776, recently claimed that “play-to-earn” games will end up dominating the entire gaming industry with a share of over 90 per cent in the near future.

In recent years, gaming has become one of the biggest-grossing sectors of the entertainment industry, with a total “addressable market” reaching as high as a gargantuan US$336 billion, according to a study by gaming VC firms Bitkraft Ventures and Naavik.

 

 

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