A Grain of Truth in a Joke

Electronic Arts’ famous tweet urging people to “invest in Crypto” was merely a joke back in 2019 but now we might be in for an ironic twist. The tweet wittily referred to a guy named Crypto, a new character of EA’s sensational battle royale shooter Apex Legends. Now, gaming media have rumored that skins (i.e. cosmetic in-game items that affect characters’ appearance rather than performance) from Apex Legends are going to be listed on a third-party skins marketplace, DMarket, enabling players to trade among themselves. Amid the rumors, DMarket CEO Vlad Panchenko has shown a particular interest in Apex skins on his Twitter page.

DMarket is a DLT-based platform with its internal currency DMC pegged to cryptocurrency DMarket Token (DMT) at the 1:1 rate. Media suggest that players will trade Apex skins using DMC. To do that, they will need to purchase DMT and so, in some sense, invest in crypto.

Apex Legends is one of the most successful games of an extremely popular multiplayer shooter genre called battle royale. Published by EA in February 2019 without any previous marketing, Apex enjoyed a sensational start, reaching 50 million players in less than a month. The game remains among the world’s most-played titles today, re-engaging players with regular updates and new seasons. Apex is also among one of the highest-grossing games globally, despite being free to play. It has broken all records by earning $92 million from in-game purchases in its launch month. Character skins make up most of these profits. With peer-to-peer trading, Apex could further enlarge its player base and increase revenue by receiving trading fees.

Although not yet mainstream, a P2P skins market is not a new concept to gamers. Some of the most popular and long-standing titles like CS:GO and Dota 2 have been thriving on skins trading for years. Yet, cryptocurrencies have never been involved. Apex Legends will probably be the first major title with a multimillion fan base to let players trade using crypto. It’s highly unlikely that a cryptocurrency will be implemented directly into the game but, when trading on the third-party marketplace, DMarket, players should be able to use its internal currency: DMarket Coins (DMC).

DMarket is an in-game items platform that runs on its own distributed ledger where all trading data is stored. It was launched in early 2018 after securing $19 million through ICO. For gamers, DMarket is essentially a marketplace to buy, sell, and exchange digital items from different games, such as CS:GO, Dota 2, or Team Fortress 2.  For game developers, the platform provides technology for building in-game economies and implementing player-to-player item trading. The most recent addition to the platform was the Life Beyond game from the Paris-based Darewise team that includes former developers of major studios like Ubisoft and CD Projekt Red. According to media forecasts, Apex Legends skins are likely to come to DMarket in August 2020, when the next season of the game is expected to launch.

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