Cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin has been a hot topic in 2017. Fortune stated that the cryptocurrency’s market value is now more than $150 Billion (USD). It should therefore come as no surprise that videogames are starting to use cryptocurrency in-game to purchase exclusive skins and weapons. VRFocus speak to Tony Pearce, the co-founder of Reality Gaming Group about how they’ve created Reality Clash, the first augmented reality (AR) videogame that uses cryptocurrency in the hope to make users into virtual arms dealers.
Reality Clash is a first-person shooter (FPS) that allows users to play, compete and join tournaments through their mobile phones. Reality Clash will be downloadable for free next year starting in the UK for both iPhone and Android. Players will be able to map out a three-to-five mile radii in the city or countryside, join teams or tournaments and fight. At this time the title is far from finished, but it will be released as a minimal viable product (MVP) in the UK early next year for two to three months in order to do focus testing and get feedback. After which it will then get a full release towards the end of 2018. If you want to learn more about the development of Reality Clash, and see some of the prototype footage from the videogame you can follow the Dev Diary that Jake Scott is doing exclusively for VRFocus here.
With twenty-five years of videogame industry experience, Pearce boasts that these developers are the best in the world. With the developers all coming from large companies that have all been experimenting with virtual reality (VR) from the very beginning; Oculus, PlayStation VR, Hive and some are award-winning BAFTA developers. He believes that they’ve joined Reality Clash because they believe in the concept of AR, FPS and cryptocurrency. Pearce also notes that FPS is the biggest genre of videogames out there. Pearce describes Reality Clash as the combination between Pokemon Go and Call of Duty. With the success of Pokemon Go, Reality Clash are even more confident and excited about their videogame. Unlike AR FPS Father.IO, Reality Clash does not need additional accessories.
“What we didn’t want to have was too many attachments hence why, what we’ve created now is really quite unique, to be able to play this type of game without having to attach something to the phone, just using the phone’s camera and just using the technology we built around augmented reality. This is ground-breaking stuff. It really is ground breaking.”
What makes Reality Clash so interesting is that they chose to get their funding for Reality Clash by doing an Initial Coin Offering (ICO) in August this year. This is where a company offers virtual coins in exchange for real money such as American Dollars. In this case Reality Clash sold their cryptocurrency named ‘Reality Clash Gold Coin’ and also allowed those who bought their currency to get access to exclusive weapons, guns and gameplay. Pearce explains that they wanted to get the crowd, the gamers and the cryptocurrency enthusiasts. For a period of four weeks during which Reality Clash opened their ICO, they managed to raise 9,000 in Ether (Ether is a type of cryptocurrency such as Bitcoin) with 1,400 investors.
The ICO is now closed and the Reality Clash Gold Coins cannot be bought anymore. Instead you are now able to buy ‘Reality Clash Silver coins’ (RCC) which allow players to exchange £1 for one RCC. The RCC however does not give the buy access to exclusive guns, gameplay or skins. The user will have to pay more RCC to purchase a gun that can only be bought with Reality Clash Gold Coins. These weapons and skins that are exclusive to the Reality Clash Gold Coins are so exclusive that only 10, 100 or 500 will ever be made. In order to purchase one of the exclusive weapons one will have to trade in Reality Clash’s online armoury and thus the virtual arm dealing trade is born.
He says that in games such as World of Warcraft skins and weapons are how the company is making the majority of its money now with swords going for $5,000 (USD)/£10,000 (GBP). That’s what they are trying to do as well. Pearce knows that there is audience out there, when the ICO went live they received over 40,000 followers on both their Twitter and Facebook accounts. Thankful to Pokémon Go for introducing AR videogames to the public he knows that Reality Clash is the first of its kind and that this is the beginning of a new era of videogaming.
To find out more, watch the video below.
via Mint VR