Blockescense, Gamigo, and you

Some intrepid sleuths over on The Ghar Station Discord (AtoningUnifex and Imathrowback specifically) have uncovered details of Gamigo’s current controlling investor: Blockescense.  Let’s take a closer look.

According to this post – https://tagn.wordpress.com/2018/10/23/gamingo-buys-then-guts-trion-worlds/ – Blockescense has quite a history, and a potentially long track of it’s own owners and investors.  Of particular note is this quote from the linked article:

“Gamigo itself is in a nest of companies.  It is reported to be owned by Samarion S.E. which is, in turn, owned by Solidare Real Estate Holding plc according to Bloomberg.  And they are just a holding company for Solidare Real Estate Holding GmbH, a company founded by a Turkish family 15 years back, according to its web site, whose focus is building high density housing in Germany.  And even that rolls up to Suryoyo Holding GmbH”

In May of 2018, Solidare Real Estate Holding plc became Blockescense plc, with a new vision and goal: To introduce blockchain tech into new markets in an attempt at market disruption.

Also in may of 2018, Blockescense bought Samarion SE, the controlling shareholder of Gamigo.  See http://www.blockescence.com/investor-relations/news for more details.

Blockescense has laid out a 4 step investment process for what it calls “blockbiz”. Seen in the diagram from their site below. (source: http://www.blockescence.com/investment-selection-process)

Now, it is clear that they are on step 2 of this investment process already.  In step 0 they have selected Online Gaming, and in step 1, they have selected Gamigo, whom they have purchased control via the board of directors.  With such control, they have identified a new blockchain concept to roll out.

This brings us to an interesting cryptocurrency related token called “GamerToken”. https://gamertoken.io/.  Gamigo is listed as one of their partners.

Gamer Token already has a demo proof of concept in the form of a version of Fiesta Online (a game owned and run by Gamigo.  See https://en.gamigo.com/game/fiesta).  You can sign up for and play the demo here: https://join-fiesta.crypto-mmo.com/.  A quick scouring of the net revealed that this demo has existed since at least April of 2018 (see: https://www.mmorpg.com/fiesta-online/news/gamigo-launches-blockchain-gamertoken-to-reward-players-for-in-game-activities-1000048003)

 

What is Gamer Token?

Gamer Token is just one of many different actual Gamer Tokens in the wild, all of which follow the same general concept.  The idea is to utilize the same technology that is behind CryptoCurrencies such as BitCoin and Ethereum to keep track of in-game events, such as achievements, rewards, items, currency, and similar objects, and allow them to be tradeable and track the history of those items.

The way I understand it is this:
  • Gamer Tokens represent a commodity for a game, such as a skin, in-game item, etc.
  • Gamer Tokens are created by the Game Dev implementing the system
  • Gamer Tokens can be traded for other Gamer Tokens, OR they can be sold for a CyrptoCurrency called “GTX”
  • GTX is a Cryptocurrency based upon Ethereum, it can be bought, sold, and traded as such.
Following? Maybe not?
Think of it this way.  Gamer Tokens represent items you can get in Rift, such as a weapon drop from a boss.  GTX represents Plat.  You can either trade that weapon to another player for a similar weapon, sell that weapon to an NPC to get Plat, or sell it to a player to get Plat.  Likewise, you can trade Gamer Tokens for Gamer Tokens, turn them into GTX, or sell the Gamer Token to other players for GTX.
What does all this mean then?
Well, it’s clear that one of Gamigo’s future goals is integrating Gamer Token and it’s related tech into their games.  Having acquired 3 MMO properties from Trion, I find it incredibly likely that Gamigo will experiment with introducing these tokens into each game in the near future.
In addition to this, Trion has their Glyph launcher, which is able to host and launch multiple games, and is a significant piece of software that in the past was also used to sell and launch 3rd party games.  Conceivably this would be of great benefit to Gamigo as well.
What is happening to Trion properties?
Good question!  According to the official postings by Gamigo & Blockescence (https://corporate.gamigo.com/en/presse/gamigo-ag-acquires-us-publisher-and-game-developer-trion-worlds-inc/) they bought Trion with the intent to continue business.  As such, Trion’s assets and intellectual property (IP) has been curiously split up.  Trion’s IP, which encompasses at least Trove, Rift, and Atlas Reactor, are now owned by Gamigo’s sister company Padmapani GmbH, who has made the IP available to anyone that is part of the Gamigo Group (that is, all parent companies and subsidiaries of Gamigo).  The rest of the company’s assets are now part of the Gamigo subsidiary Golden Gate Games.
As for the teams at Trion, the latest updated report from Gamasutra indicates that 25 people at the Redwood, CA, and 25 at the Austin, TX studios remain with Trion, for a total of 50.  This is a massive downsizing from a company of 200+.  Most of the Rift team has been cut, but some anonymous sources indicate that a couple of people still remain on the Rift team, and that those remaining are signing on to be employees of Gamigo.
What’s Next?
That’s also a good question!  There is not a lot to go on right now, and Gamigo has yet to make any sort of comment on the situation to, well, anybody.  Hopefully Gamigo will reveal some info soon.
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