Skip to main content

Blockchain-based GLN hopes to challenge Steam and Apple gaming platforms

The past year has seen an explosion of cryptocurrency and blockchain-based businesses, and now one is seeking to challenge Steam and Apple’s dominance when it comes to the PC and mobile gaming market.

Game Loot Network Holdings is attempting to use the technology behind Bitcoin to create an alternative gaming market and player reward system. GLN Holdings is currently holding a pre-sale, but it intends to hold an initial coin offering on May 29. The company’s test run saw $5 million in transactions and had 65,000 users.

The company’s hope is that one day its distribution platform, Game Loot Network, will be able to serve as an alternative to the likes of Steam and Apple. Many companies have tried to take on Steam in the past. Some, like GOG, have even had success at doing so, but none have ever truly rivaled Steam in size. GLN is hoping that its use of blockchain technology will provide the edge it needs to take on the more established players in the industry.

The company believes that its blockchain technology will provide a fast and secure means of handling transactions while its cryptocurrency-based reward system, known as Loot, will incentivize players to return to the platform.

It also intends to use the cryptocurrency as a means of giving gamers more options in terms of supporting independent game developers. The company is offering a platform called Build that will allow developers to submit game ideas, story concepts, and demos to players for support and approval.

“Prohibitive costs and even greater risks plague the game development landscape,” Lance Baker, GLN’s founder, told Venture Beat. “Big gaming companies want big money, and they leave riskier, innovative games to these independent studios. But the indie guys struggle to compete in a marketplace heavily weighted against them in terms of budget, discoverability, and user acquisition.”

In the beginning, GLN’s games will be available on traditional platforms as well, but Baker hopes to move to transition away from them in time. For now, the blockchain has numerous issues holding it back such as the speed of transactions and the instability of the currencies that rely on it.

So far, the company has raised $2.5 million from its ICO presale and Baker is optimistic regarding the platform’s future.

Editors' Recommendations

I’m sick of waiting for Apple to fix this glaring problem with Mac gaming
Fortnite running on a Macbook M1.

Every so often, Apple will come out and tell people how deeply committed it is to the world of Mac gaming. And just as regularly, many of us Mac gamers roll our eyes. It’s not that I don’t trust Apple or don’t think the company is trying. It’s just that I’ve heard it all so many times before, yet macOS still lags far behind Windows gaming. Why would this time be any different?

Well, if a new TechCrunch interview with a couple of Apple execs is to be believed, the company is actually putting measures in place to convince developers to bring their games to the Mac instead of letting the platform languish in loneliness. That’s important because the dearth of quality Mac games is a massive and ongoing frustration.

Read more
Apple has a plan to fix Mac gaming — but will it work?
How to play Fortnite on Mac

If you’re a gamer, there’s one truth that appears to be self-evident: Macs are not good gaming machines. A new interview, however, suggests Apple wants to turn that received wisdom on its head.

When TechCrunch’s Matthew Panzarino sat down with Apple’s vice president of Platform Architecture and Hardware Technologies Tim Millet and the company’s VP of Worldwide Product Marketing Bob Borchers, he asked what Apple was doing to improve the situation for Mac gamers. Their answers shed plenty of light on the ways Apple sees the future of gaming on its platforms.

Read more
AMD ‘undershipping’ GPUs signals weak PC market
AMD CEO Lisa Su delivering AMD's CES 2023 keynote.

During its latest earnings call, AMD revealed something that perfectly explains why we're not currently swimming in cheap GPUs -- and the slow start of 2023 for the PC market as a whole.

Signaling lowering demand for graphics cards and processors, AMD has been "under-shipping" chips in the last couple of quarters. What does that mean for GPU pricing going forward?

Read more