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'Robot Cache - Brian Fargo's blockchain-based digital store that lets you resell games

Zed

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I love how Fargo throws himself into every damn fad there is. Kickstarter, VR, bitcoin, gamer-shoes (lol)... Only kickstarter have payed off so far though.

VR is definitely paying off. The VR game they've made sold reasonably well and they've landed some additional multi-milllion investment.
yeah, these ideas he latch on to are not to make a sales profit. it's about getting investor money.
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
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Codex 2014
Robot Cache and WAX Form Strategic Alliance to Enable Gamers and Publishers to Embrace Cryptocurrencies

(GRAND CAYMAN/Cayman Islands) January 25, 2018 -- Robot Cache, the first decentralized PC video game distribution platform that benefits publishers, developers and gamers, and Worldwide Asset eXchange (WAX), a blockchain platform for global trading of online video game assets, today announced a strategic alliance to share cryptocurrencies and cross promote.

"WAX sees the future of online video game purchases enhanced by smart contracts and blockchain based technology," said Malcolm CasSelle, President of WAX and CIO of OPSKins. "Once publishers and gamers realize the benefit of reduced costs and ease of use to acquire games using WAX on Robot Cache, the industry will never be the same."

"We've been very impressed with the WAX business model and we have great opportunity to work together to promote our complimentary businesses. WAX has access to millions of gamers throughout the world and we believe we can accelerate our respective growth by working together," says Lee Jacobson, CEO of Robot Cache.

As part of the agreement, Robot Cache will accept WAX tokens as payment. Tapping into the massive and ever-growing WAX community will help grow the Robot Cache ecosystem faster, while providing WAX with another site for WAX holders to use their tokens. The strategic alliance calls for mutual cross promotion with Robot Cache air dropping IRON tokens into the WAX community, so users can use them to purchase digital PC video games.

ROBOT CACHE

Utilizing blockchain technology, Robot Cache will reduce the fees publishers and developers pay by 80% and allow gamers to resell their digital PC video games. Developers and publishers benefit from the lowest transaction fees of any digital PC video game distribution platform. Everyone from the smallest indie team to the biggest publishers, will retain up to 95% of the sales proceeds, which is 25% higher than the current industry standard. In addition, Robot Cache’s revolutionary digital resale market allows developers and publishers to set resale pricing and earn 70% of the resale proceeds.

Gamers greatly benefit from Robot Cache’s unique distribution approach. Previously, gamers could only resell physical retail copies of a video game, but now they can resell digital games purchased on the Robot Cache platform using the blockchain and retain 25% of the proceeds from the resale. Selling their digital games earn them digital tokens, named IRON, Robot Cache’s cryptocurrency, which they can use toward the purchase of another game on the Robot Cache platform. In addition, gamers can opt-in within the Robot Cache client to mine IRON which they can then use to buy games on the platform.

WAX

The virtual item trading industry is currently fragmented across hundreds of competing marketplaces, each utilizing different business practices tailored to their country and region. The WAX solution is a global virtual item repository that provides a complete, real-time catalog of all items available. By leveraging blockchain technology, WAX unites gamers and marketplaces enabling security, fraud mitigation and expedited settlement. WAX Tokens allow gamers to quickly and easily harness the power of fully developed, highly complex virtual goods exchanges.

Advisors to WAX include “Call of Duty” creator and developer Dave Anthony, Interplay Entertainment and inXile Entertainment Founder Brian Fargo, Kenneth D. Cron, former CEO of Vivendi Universal Games, which included Blizzard Entertainment (“World of Warcraft”) and Ethereum Co-Founder Anthony Di Iorio.

For more information about Robot Cache, please visit www.robotcache.com .

For more information about WAX, please visit www.wax.io
 

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Arcane
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Codex 2014
ROBOT CACHE ANNOUNCES INITIAL WAVE OF PUBLISHER AND DEVELOPER SUPPORT

(CANARY ISLANDS) April 5, 2018 -- Robot Cache, the first decentralized PC video game distribution platform that benefits publishers, developers and gamers, has announced the first wave of publishers that have agreed in principle or signed agreements to bring their games to the platform.

Publishers are listed in alphabetical order: 505 Games, Anuman Interactive SA, Entrada Interactive, Forthright Entertainment, inXile Entertainment, Maximum Games, Microids, Modus Games, Paradox Interactive, THQ Nordic and Versus Evil. Robot Cache is currently in the process of signing more publishers and developers and will announce the next wave in the coming weeks.

“This initial group of amazing publishers and developers was the first to sign, but we have a longer list of publishers that are in the process of agreeing to work with us to bring their games to our PC video game distribution platform,” said Lee Jacobson, CEO, Robot Cache. “Robot Cache is unique to the gaming industry. We are building a destination for all types of great games, including PC, AAA, Indy and even games that use the blockchain. It will be an open sourced platform. And for the first time ever, gamers will be able to re-sell their digital games. It’s truly a paradigm shift.”

I guess THQ Nordic is the largest one.

Also no Techland (well, they have their own store anyway).
 

Mustawd

Guest
Let games sit there doing nothing or sell them for a 1/100000 shot of it being worth something?

Sure, why not?
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
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Codex 2014
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https://www.gamesindustry.biz/artic...ures-usd3m-funding-from-millennium-blockchain

Robot Cache secures $3m funding from Millennium BlockChain
New investor receives ten million IRON tokens and issues shares for another $3m worth of the marketplace's cryptocurrency

Upcoming blockchain-based digital games retailer has secured a new investor, raising its funding by $3 million.

The investor is Millennium BlockChain, a firm that (as the name suggests) focuses on blockchain and cryptocurrency ventures. As a result of the investment, the company will receive more than 10.5 million IRON tokens, the cryptocurrency Robot Cache will use for all transactions on its marketplace.

Additionally, Millennium BlockChain has issue six million shares of its common stock in exchange for another $3 million worth of IRON tokens, and issues various non-cashless three-year warrants. All of this can bring the company up to $7 million in additional capital if it so chooses.

Finally, Millennium BlockChain has secured a right of first refusal to purchase up to three per cent of Robot Cache's first equity round. Thus far, Robot Cache has yet to raise outside equity capital.

Robot Cache is the new marketplace spearheaded by Brian Fargo. Announced earlier this year, it will use blockchain technology to enable second-hand sales of digital games and promises higher revenue shares for developers and publishers. We spoke to Fargo about his hopes for the venture back in May.

The business will be run by CEO Lee Jacobson, who said of the new investment: "We are well positioned to grow Robot Cache into a decentralized video game distribution platform for the benefit of publishers, developers, and gamers.

"Brandon [Romanek, founder and CEO] and his team at Millennium are the perfect partners to help us realize this vision. Millennium is committed to building a best-in-class portfolio of companies that will seek to redefine their respective industries."
 

LESS T_T

Arcane
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Codex 2014
This thing is coming next year. They promise 95% revenues to developers: https://venturebeat.com/2018/12/11/...hers-with-700-games-for-blockchain-app-store/

About this becoming a competition to Fargo's new employer Microsoft, CEO addresses it ambiguously.

RobotCache signs 22 publishers with 700 games for blockchain app store

RobotCache has signed up 22 publishers with 700 games for its alternative PC app store powered by blockchain technology. The announcement shows progress in the past year from San Diego, California-based RobotCache, which famous game developer Brian Fargo and other veterans started in an effort to change the way people buy games.

RobotCache plans to launch its digital PC games platform, just like Valve’s Steam digital distribution service, sometime next year. The big deal about this is that it plans to give game publishers and developers about 95 percent of the proceeds from game sales, rather than just 70 percent as Steam and others do. RobotCache will compete directly with the likes of Steam and GOG, and it hopes to sign up the major competitors.

The company also plans to let users sell their games to secondary buyers. In those deals, the publisher gets 70 percent, the gamer gets 25 percent, and RobotCache gets 5 percent. Normally, publishers get nothing from used game sales.

“Reselling games is huge, with the publishers getting a cut, and gamers being able to make money,” Lee Jacobson, CEO of RobotCache, said in an interview with GamesBeat. “Some users want to monetize their digital library. They can play a game for a few months and then sell it back. Then they can use it to buy more games.”

A year ago, this was all talk. It’s not quite happening yet, but it’s a lot more real than it was.

“We are talking to everybody in the industry now,” Jacobson said. “This means that we will have the largest launch library in the history of video games.”

The newest publishers include 1C Publishing, Bigben Interactive, Ci Games, Dankie, Devolver Digital, Headup, Hyperkinetic Studios, Imgn.pro, Libredia, Playdius Games/Plug In Digital, Revival Productions, and Running with Scissors.

These publishers join previously announced 505 Games, Anuman Interactive, Entrada Interactive, Forthright Entertainment, inXile Entertainment, Maximum Games, Microids, Modus Games, Paradox Interactive, THQ Nordic, and Versus Evil on the Robot Cache platform.

Most of them were recruited in the past five months, after the company completed a lot of the work on the platform.

“Most people who saw what we did came on board,” Jacobson said.

Changes in the game plan
robot-cache-2.jpg

Above: RobotCache keeps only 5 percent of store proceeds.

Image Credit: RobotCache


Everything turned out to be a lot harder in the beginning, as Jacobson said just about every publisher asked what blockchain — the decentralized ledger that is transparent and secure — was. Now, he said, they get it.

But it’s worth pointing out that some things have changed in the original plan. A short time ago, Microsoft, the operator of the Windows Store that still takes its 30 percent cut from game sales, acquired Brian Fargo’s other company, InXile Entertainment, a video game publisher. That might inhibit Fargo’s ability to compete with Microsoft via Robot Cache. For now, Fargo is still chairman of RobotCache, but he is very busy with InXile work, Jacobson said.

On top of that, RobotCache has scrapped its plan to create its own ERC-20 utility crytocurrency, which it was planning to call Iron. U.S. regulators is looking down upon new offerings of cryptocurrency tokens through fundraising processes known as initial coin offerings (ICOs).

“The U.S. government has [frowned] on the utility token approach, and we didn’t want to go down that road of upsetting governmental authorities,” Jacobson said. “So we moved away from the ERC-20 cryptocurrency.”

robot-cache-4.jpg

Above: RobotCache lets you buy games with Iron currency.

Image Credit: RobotCache


Iron is still a virtual currency that you can win via “mining,” or permitting your computer to be used for blockchain processes. You can earn Iron via mining that you can then use to buy games. But you will no longer be able to buy Iron as a cryptocurrency. And that’s probably not so bad, as crypto prices have cratered and that has inhibited a lot of transcations with such currencies.

That didn’t torpedo the RobotCache plan because game publishers said they would rather be paid in cash or credit cards, rather than in a cryptocurrency that was subject to big valuation changes, Jacobson said.

It did, however, affect one part of the plan. Originally, RobotCache hoped to play its publishers a lot faster than other stores did, thanks to the efficiency of blockchain and crypto exchanges. But now it will pay publishers using the same methods that other stores use. It won’t be any faster, at least for now.

Things that stayed the same — a 5 percent cut
robot-cache-2.jpg

Above: RobotCache keeps only 5 percent of store proceeds.

Image Credit: RobotCache


But Jacobson said that the main benefit of the store is that it still only takes 5 percent for its cut. Even Epic Games, which launched the Epic Games Store last week, is taking a 12 percent cut of revenues. The secondary benefit of selling used games with publisher approval is also a big one.

These are, of course, areas where other blockchain alternative app stores can also be competitive.

“We welcome other stores coming to market because for too long, it has been a monopoly,” Jacobson said.

And, as mentioned, the Iron currency can still be used as a reward for mining and to purchase games. But it’s more like an airline mileage plan now, rather than a cryptocurrency.

“We are solving the hardest blockchain problems,” Jacobson said. “We hope to be one of the largest mining pools in the world with a big user base.”

The roadmap
robot-cache.jpg

Above: RobotCache’s store

Image Credit: Robot Cache


One of the challenges ahead is getting bigger hit games to come to the store.

“People have a different sort of taste for different content,” Jacobson said. “There will be a combination of exclusives and big titles, as well as indie titles and good games that seem to come out of nowhere. We want to make sure we have a great playing field for everybody.”

Robot Cache plans to launch the platform sometime next year. It has deployed its Partner Portal, which will be used for online registration and analytics tools. Publishers can use it as a self-serve tool to submit games for approval and publication.

They can also use it to provide marketing assets and manage sales and reporting through robust analytics tools.

Robot Cache is ramping up toward the launch of Early Access, which is an opportunity for early adopters of the gaming community to gain access to the Robot Cache platform. Anyone who registers now and participates in Early Access will be a Robot Cache Founder, which access to rewards.

Besides Fargo and Jacobson, RobotCache’s leaders include Mark Caldwell(CTO), Laura Naviaux Sturr (CMO) and Philippe Erwin (general counsel and vice president of business development). The company has about 35 people altogether in San Diego and Barcelona, Spain.

Over time, Jacobson said the company will talk more about exclusives coming to its store.

“That topic comes up quite a bit,” Jacobson said. “We are in talks with everyone about that. We’ll have a lot more things to announce before we go live early next year.”
 
Self-Ejected

unfairlight

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It's basically refunding it for 60% of the money in their cryptocurrency or something like that.
 

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Arcane
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Coming this summer, claims they will have no exclusive games (apparently they "hate" them) but some exclusive content, more features than Epic's store: https://www.pcgamer.com/robot-cache...ho-like-free-stuff-and-hate-epics-exclusives/

Robot Cache hopes to woo PC gamers who like 'free stuff' and hate Epic's exclusives
The store, launching later this summer, will be more curated than Steam and let you sell your games back for cash.


I can't read or hear the word "blockchain" without going into full-blown skeptic mode. After cryptocurrency markets tanked last year, I thought Robot Cache, the store promising to keep your games on the blockchain and let you mine crypto to buy more, might quietly disappear. But it hasn't: After a long beta period Robot Cache will be launching in full in the next few months, with more than 1,000 games and something like 60 publishers signed on, CEO Lee Jacobson told me in a recent interview.

After a walkthrough of Robot Cache and 30 minutes of talking to Jacobson I'm still skeptical it'll take off against the entrenched competition in PC gaming. But I did come away thinking that its use of the blockchain isn't just chasing a popular trend, and I have to admit Jacobson's most basic pitch is pretty strong: "There's a sect of people that might like the idea of getting free stuff and getting money back. That's our niche."

"People say 'well are you gonna go after Steam or Epic?' No," Jacobson told me. "We're not that. We're not stupid. We think that there's a whole group of people that haven't grown up in the Steam ecosystem that might like the idea of getting 25 percent back in cash when I'm done playing a game. I've got 300 games in my Steam library. They're all just collecting digital dust. I'd like to take 10 or 20 of those or whatever and get some money back and go buy other games. So we think there's going to be a group of people that like that idea. It doesn't need to be Steam's 125 million users a month. It just doesn't."

The gist of Robot Cache is that it's a new store that uses a blockchain certificate as a form of DRM. That certificate allows the store to track individual copies of a game so they can be resold. The price is the same as a new copy—you're really just selling a license to a digital good, so it's never really "used"—and you get a 25 percent cut put on your credit card, while the publisher gets 70 percent and the store takes 5 percent.

"Used" copies up for sale are put into a queue alongside brand new ones and the sales alternate between new and used copies, so on some sales publishers will get 95%, and on others 70%, as long as there are players selling their games back. Crucially, Jacobson says, you can't sell a game back in the first 90 days after release, when publishers make the most money.

It's a model that, in a lot of ways, seems geared towards making game publishers happy. It's The Gamestop Problem, solved. But the Robot Cache team also have some ideas that fans and critics of both Epic and Steam will likely find appealing.

First: No exclusives.

"I think it's bad for the industry in general, to say 'you get to play the game for a period of time, and all you guys can't play it unless you come and get it from me,'" Jacobson said. "Whether that's right or wrong, us or anybody else. I frankly think it's BS, across the board. I don't like it. I think we'll spend money to do certain deals with great content, but we're not going to do it in a way that takes away from other gamers. I don't believe in that. We might do things where we spend money to get special content or special weapons or special skins or special levels, things that drive them to our site, but not at the expense of taking it away from gamers."

Second: Curation, including a "common sense" approach that would not allow games like Rape Day to ever go live.

"Rape or incest or school shootings, things that should be common sense, I don't know how else to say that," Jacobson said, as examples of games that the Robot Cache team would not allow on the store. Developers will pay $99 to create a backend account and upload their games, at which point they'll be reviewed. Jacobson didn't go into detail on how they'll decide what to publish and what not to publish beyond those issues, but the idea is the store won't be a free-for-all like Steam is today. "Yeah, it'll be a curated store. I think people want to be able to at least say, 'we don't want 27,000 titles.' We just don't need that."

Third: Promotions beyond just sales.

OK, this one's just as likely to appeal to devs as it is to players, but considering how easy it is for quality games to be lost and buried on Steam, this is a cool idea.

"Think Spotify playlists, so every day of the week there will be a different sort of curated list of games that would have a special promotion," said Laura Sturr, also an executive at Robot Cache. "A lot of other storefronts, the publishers and developers know that the only knob they can pull on the marketing is really deep discounts, which are great, but I think there's a lot more people can do to make sure that great games get surfaced, and that gamers are able to find them, and do it in a way that feels like e-commerce for modern times."


e88HtprFYkhb2QY6iodYnn-650-80.jpg


A mining snapshot from the Robot Cache store


Fourth: "Free" stuff.

Jacobson stresses that Robot Cache's built-in crypto mining feature is opt-in, rather than opt-out. It's totally optional, and he says they plan to be "transparent about power costs" so you know if it's worth turning on the mining. But if you do (and are lucky enough not to pay your own power bill), you'll get currency you can use to buy games from the store. And there's a full gamification system built into the client going beyond basic features like achievements, which will allow you to unlock profile customizations and even coupons or "mining boosts" by playing games.

While Jacobson said Robot Cache's goal isn't to compete with Epic or Steam, it's notably not a reseller like Humble or GreenmanGaming, selling Steam keys at reduced prices. To some extent it has to compete, because its games will be sold elsewhere, too, sometimes with superior features like the Steam Workshop's mod support. But it does seem like out of the gate, Robot Cache will actually be more fully featured than Epic's store with an SDK meant to replicate most of Steamworks' major features, from multiplayer to chat to cloud saves.

I'm still skeptical that many PC gamers, given the choice, will buy a game on Robot Cache over Steam, just for the privilege of selling it back at 25 percent value. But on a $60 game that would be $15; for every new big-budget singleplayer game you tire of, you could trade it in for a new $15 indie. The store has a nice interface, slick mobile site, and features that outstrip Epic's right now, despite all that Fortnite money. The blockchain buzz may be dead, but Robot Cache will make the PC store wars even more complicated for the rest of 2019.

"We think it's going to grow over time, and I think the resell model, no matter what happens going down the road, the genie's out of the bottle," Jacobson said. "We really believe that 2-3 years from now, it'll be commonplace. Pandora's box will be open."
 

PulsatingBrain

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Sounds like someone just smashed together a bunch of buzzwords tbh

Jacobson explains their plans fairly well in the article. God knows how well it will work out, but the article is not as you describe.

One problem that sticks out to me is that the cashback feature is only a big deal once you've spent years ammassing a decent collection. Especially since you can't trade anything back until at least 90 days after release
 
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theSavant

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Coming this summer...
Robot Cache

We think that there's people that might like the idea of getting 25 percent back in cash when done playing a game. I've got 300 games in my Steam library. They're all just collecting digital dust. I'd like to take 10 or 20 of those and get some money back and go buy other games.

The blockchain certificate allows the store to track individual copies of a game so they can be resold. The price is the same as a new copy—you're really just selling a license to a digital good, so it's never really "used"—and you get a 25 percent cut put on your credit card, while the publisher gets 70 percent and the store takes 5 percent.

Well tbh it's good if you can resell a game. Current stores only allow games to be removed completely (and even that only with hurdles). Full loss of money.
And it's true that sometimes you just don't want to play some games anymore, or grown out of them and want them gone. So why not resell the shit?

But here's the thing: how big are the chances that someone buys these games exactly from you? Think about thousands of people selling their old games - chances are that *you* aren't able to resell your game. So you mostly remain stuck on your shit. I mean you can't sell the game back to the store, can you?

And then there's this thing: "The price is the same as a new copy" - so why would anyone buy a "used game" from *you* for the original price(!) instead of buying a new copy from the store? I mean they're not even getting the game cheaper.
 

passerby

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It's basically refunding it for 60% of the money in their cryptocurrency or something like that.
How big are the chances that someone buys these games exactly from you? Think about thousands of people selling their old games - chances are that *you* aren't able to resell your game.
It's not that, probably there won't be separate new and "used" games from a bayer pov, but you'll only get 25% back ( what would for example Steam take, 70% goes to publisher ) and get your game removed.
From a publisher pov it's the same money they would get on Steam, but if you'll ever want to play again you'll have to buy again. I'd rather buy 20% cheaper a retail steam key from a reseller and keep the game, so it's a completely useless feature.

Without exclusives no one will use this platform, I also doubt it'll be sustainable at 5% cut at such small scale, there were digital platforms in the past that no longer exist, so gamers who purchase there are at real risk of loosing their games in the near future.
The only chance for this service to survive, is to gather enough user base to switch to selling Steam keys when users will start to abandon it, just like Humble Bundle had to.
It's mostly a scam to collect CEO salary and sell shares to clueless investors lured by a promise of crypto get rich quick scheme.
 
Last edited:

stony3k

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Well tbh it's good if you can resell a game. Current stores only allow games to be removed completely (and even that only with hurdles). Full loss of money.
And it's true that sometimes you just don't want to play some games anymore, or grown out of them and want them gone. So why not resell the shit?

But here's the thing: how big are the chances that someone buys these games exactly from you? Think about thousands of people selling their old games - chances are that *you* aren't able to resell your game. So you mostly remain stuck on your shit. I mean you can't sell the game back to the store, can you?

And then there's this thing: "The price is the same as a new copy" - so why would anyone buy a "used game" from *you* for the original price(!) instead of buying a new copy from the store? I mean they're not even getting the game cheaper.
A lot of this seems really strange compared to a second hand sale market for physical products, but do make sense if you think about it. Like for instance, there is no difference between a new and used digital game (assuming saves have been cleared, etc) so why should there be a difference in price? I hate that the gamer gets only 25% back with 70% to the publisher, but how else do you get publishers to even agree to resale of games. In general, this sounds like a great selling point that will turn out to be totally useless in reality (publishers will prefer getting 95% over 70% and so used games will get pushed to the bottom)

I feel like the best thing that will come out of this is that people will start treating digital products (at least games) as things that come under the First Sale Doctrine, because if I can resell a digital game on this platform, does that mean that I own the product instead of just license it? I'm sure Fargo and Co. have their lawyers ready for this, but man I'd love if digital goods could be resold like physical goods.
 

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