Immutable and Polygon Labs have announced a partnership to accelerate the adoption of Web3 gaming by making it easier for studios and developers to develop and publish Web3 games.
Polygon will provide access to its zero-knowledge technology to ease the Web3 onboarding process for Immutable’s game studios and developers. The partnership opens up opportunities for faster development and publishing cycles in the Web3 gaming sphere, giving way to “the largest and most liquid” Web3 ecosystems.
Immutable’s platform is home to hundreds of game studios and developers dedicated to expanding the current Web3 sphere. It has collaborated with big-name brands like DC Comics, GameStop, Marvel and Disney to onboard over 50 games in last year’s third quarter.
However, the nature of Web3 implementation has slowed down the onboarding process for many Immutable developers. Scaling limitations in layer-1 blockchain Ethereum has been an obstacle for games.
With that being said, Polygon’s zero-knowledge technology promises to change this by offering a smart and secure option for business leaders, reducing time-to-market and granting access to a vast and liquid ecosystem for end-users.
“For us, this is a pretty obvious play. We realized very quickly the scaling limitations of Ethereum, but we never wanted to compete with it,” Immutable president and co-founder Robbie Ferguson said.
Polygon is also no stranger to the modern games industry, having contributed to the development of numerous Web3 games. The blockchain protocol company previously collaborated with Midnight Society, Plai Labs, Neowiz, Tilting Point and even Square Enix. It has also hosted Web3 game projects under Atari, Ubisoft and Decentraland.
“By combining the number one Web3 gaming platform – currently serving hundreds of game studios and millions of players – with Polygon’s best-in-class zkEVM technology, we are building an Ethereum-centric gaming ecosystem that is poised to take Web3 mainstream and bring digital ownership to millions of people around the world,” Ferguson said.
“Billions of dollars of skins are sold each year with no rights for players – we’re changing that so players are in control, and ownership is the expectation.”
Better, faster, stronger
In a press release, Immutable emphasized the importance of collaboration for Web3 gaming. The two companies have a combined $2 billion in investor funding from 2022, making the partnership a major investment in the modern gaming market.
The press release pointed out Web3’s current lack of “high-quality games” with scalable asset ownership tools. While the collaboration is meant to simplify Ethereum scaling issues and accelerate current development time, it also pushes for further innovation in quantity and quality in the gaming sphere.
“Gamers just want to play great games; it’s that simple. You really just got to get to a point where you’re abstracting the crypto and jargon away and then have just a really exciting game,” Polygon Labs president Ryan Wyatt said.
Immutable and Polygon have worked with large brands to further draw developers and leading studios into the Web3 industry.
Immutable called for a $500 million venture fund in June, working with GameStop and Animoca to fund more Web3 games and toolkits. Shortly after, in July, Polygon opened its first business unit fully dedicated to Web3 game expansion.
In January, Immutable provided users with an all-in-one passport system to ease the registration and management process. It has also worked with the game engine Unity to support its Immutable X toolkit, allowing developers to experiment with Web3 games on the classic engine.
