Gaming Platform Decentraland Plans To Invest $5 Million in Blockchain Gaming Startups

Decentraland, a decentralized user-owned virtual world on the Ethereum blockchain is to invest $5 million to support gaming projects developed on the Decentraland platform. Regarding this matter, it developed the Genesis Content Program, which allows gaming developers to submit proposals for “blockchain game” and “interactive experiences” that can be developed on Decentraland.

In a recent post, the company revealed its intentions to “welcome larger and more ambitious project” to its platforms. The company claims the new program will help boost “innovation and growth in decentralized online gaming” in addition to $5 million in project financing, to be allocated among top applicants.

Through the Decentraland platform, game developers are provided with a new and unexplored opportunity for developing “virtual experiences” through blockchain based games. Developers can offer these experiences on the platform while monetizing them with tokens.

To develop these blockchain games in Decentraland, developers need to control the LAND they host their games on. A LAND is a virtual piece of property that can be bought through the Decentraland Market Place. Game developers have to create their games to “fit within the parcel boundaries” of their LAND as the “play space” used by each game is restricted. Even though the platform accepts games that can be remotely accessed within the virtual landscape, developers need one LAND parcel to host and operate the games.

According to Decentraland, diversity will be boosted in the games developed on the platform, as there is distributed ownership. Different from traditional MMO games or VR platforms that have central ownership, Decentraland provides a shared and “open source hub” for developing distributed games that can be hosted across different parcels.