Epic Games Says Some Crypto Games on the Store Have Done “Pretty Well”

The next 12 months will show whether blockchain games have enough traction on the Epic Games Store, one of PC’s largest online gaming marketplaces.

Why it’s important: Despite all the funding and fanfare, crypto-based games have been blocked from or kept away from most traditional gaming marketplaces. It has left the store run by the makers of Fortnite as one of their biggest testing grounds.

Driving the news: Epic’s store has five crypto games on its marketplace now and “close to 20” in the pipeline, Epic store manager Steve Allison told Axios. None are created or published by Epic.

• The marketplace’s first blockchain game was Mythical Games’ Blankos Block Party, a social multiplayer game, which debuted on Epic’s store in September.
• Epic doesn’t share usage statistics, but Allison said the game is “pretty well played” and noted that another crypto game on the store, the metaverse platform Core, is “doing pretty well.”

What they say: Allison expects more crypto games to roll out on the Epic Games Store this year and early 2024, “and then we’ll really know” what the future of the scene will be.

Be smart: Crypto games have emerged primarily from new game developers and publishers (with some traditional game developers star power), but have drawn deep suspicion from many traditional players and industry players.

• The promise of crypto games is that they contain digital assets, in the form of non-fungible tokens (NFTs) that players can buy, own and sell, ostensibly allowing users to profit from playing.
• But skeptics say many of the games in the scene are scams and simply aren’t fun or interesting to play.
• Steam, the leading PC game store run by Valve, banned crypto games at the end of 2021. Valve co-founder Gabe Newell later told Eurogamer that the scene around them was “sketchy” and full of scams.

Yes, but: Epic founder Tim Sweeney, who pitches his store as a necessary rebellion against standard online marketplaces, says there’s another way to look at it.

• “Let’s just be honest about what really happened there. The other stores don’t block crypto games because they think ‘crypto’ equals ‘bad,’” Sweeney said of marketplaces like Steam. Meanwhile, he claimed that other marketplaces are still “distributing all kinds of bad stuff.”
• “They only want to collect 30% fees and they block anyone who doesn’t agree.”

Between the lines: Epic still keeps a safe distance from most of the financial aspects of the store’s blockchain games.

• Crypto games’ publishers are responsible for transactions, customer service and handling refunds and fraud, Allison says.
• But Epic’s trust and security team is watching, he says: “If there’s bad behavior, we’re going to be very quick to shut it down.”

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