More than a week ago, Apple removed and banned Fortnite in the App Store in response to Epic Games implementing a direct payment system without the former’s prior approval. Apple’s App Store generally takes a cut of approximately thirty (30) percent of payments made for in-app digital purchases. While this is also true for Google Play, there are many other methods for users to install Fortnite on Android devices. This is not true for iOS devices where the apps can only be downloaded through the App Store.
The success of Apple, Google and Steam in creating convenient ways for users to find and install games has also created an enormous inequity in the game market system. Developers are increasingly having the difficult time to sell their software outside of these platforms which most users have grown to embrace. They are left with no choice but to accept the large commission fees and loss of control over their own customers. The problem does not end there because they still need to spend large amounts of money on advertising to stay relevant.
Ultra is offering solutions by building a first-class game publishing platform and marketplace that puts an end to the current inequality in distribution. In this article, we will discuss these solutions. We will also analyze the use cases and the potential of Ultra tokens to revolutionize the game market.
What is Ultra?
The team behind Ultra plans to bring the blockchain revolution to the gaming industry and to create a fair ecosystem for the future of games distribution. With cutting-edge technology, Ultra aims to shake up the gaming industry by putting the power back into the hands of developers and players, paving the way for a first-class game publishing platform.
Further, it is the goal of Ultra to provide developers and players access to a range of new business and marketing tools as well as new revenue streams. This will allow developers to bolster their revenue and to quickly reinvest into creating more games while players could earn simply by participating in game tests, providing feedback and curating games.
Technologies and Solutions
Ultra uses battle-tested technologies integrated into a concise and easy-to-use platform.
Content Distribution
By using Ultra, players can enjoy their newly purchased game before having completed their download. The missing data continue continues to be downloaded while players are playing. This technology is currently being used by major companies such as Bethesda, Adobe, Riot, Zenimax, 343 Industries and Bandai Namco, and has already successfully delivered hundreds of millions of game downloads.
Ultra provides developers the unique flexibility of a custom-built platform without the need to invest millions of dollars and years of research, development and maintenance. Backed by blockchain, Ultra makes it possible to process nanopayments instantly, secure tokens, track proof of ownership, provides transaction transparency and a myriad of other features that give more control and better deals to developers.
Overlay Technology
Compatible with more than 5000 games, Ultra’s overlay technology provides the ability to inject any kind of user interface inside games. Ultra also allows developers to seamlessly transition their games from platforms such as Steam, Xbox and PlayStation to its platform and leverage its innovative and other powerful technologies.
Ads Technology
Ultra’s proprietary engine is currently serving billions of advertisements per day. This gives developers the powerful marketing tool to efficiently promote games to players based on their interests. This in turn helps in bringing an end to non-optimal ‘spray and pray’ advertising methods currently used by leading platforms. Players will have the option to accept or refuse advertisements, and by authorizing ads, they receive a share of the revenue.
Ultra Go
Ultra Go serves as Ultra’s companion application. It provides convenient features for mobile users on the go, adds new sources of income for players and continuously engages users to increase retention. Also, Ultra Go will support text and voice chats, cryptocurrency wallet, peer-to-peer payment and popular gaming contents and news.
Ultra Protocol and Economy
Ultra Protocol will run on its own version of the EOSIO codebase that is interoperable with the mainnet. This enables Ultra to take advantage of the high transaction throughput and short transaction confirmation time of EOSIO while creating a commercially-driven product that fits its corporate needs. On the Ultra blockchain, CPU and NET are combined into a more manageable ‘Ultra Power’. Even better, users do not necessarily need Ultra Power to execute transactions.
All users can create a free account and get a daily free transaction quote while developers have access to a framework allowing them to sponsor free transactions on their applications. When the network is uncongested, free transactions are available to all users. Users with particular transaction needs can stake Ultra Tokens (UOS) to secure their ability to perform transactions beyond their free quota. During network congestions, Ultra ensures that the full CPU capacity is being used.
Ultra Tokens (UOS)
Ultra Tokens serve a variety of purposes within the Ultra platform, both at the protocol (staking) and at the app level (transactions). All purchases of games, virtual items and services on the content distribution operate through smart contract which require UOS. All features on Ultra such as its loyalty program, beta testing, bug reporting, trading of digital goods and advertisements work exclusively with UOS.
Ultra incentivizes just about any activity on the platform with UOS tokens. Its blockchain services designed to be operated within and outside of its official clients open the opportunity to new businesses and revenue streams for third party actors. This also allows for users to purchase and trade games and virtual items to platforms not operated by Ultra.
Developers and gamers are also incentivized for holding UOS in their wallets and for using the platform as much as possible. With this proof of activity, the blockchain will reward them with free swag. The higher their participation score, the more chances for them to get desirable rewards.
Game and Virtual Item Tokenization
Developers who publish their contents on Ultra can effortlessly materialize their games into secure cryptocurrency tokens. Ultra also makes it possible to tokenize virtual items which include not only costumes, armors and weapons but also consumable items such as potions, foods and boosts. These tokens can be sold through Ultra’s marketplace or through external marketplaces.
Secondhand Market
Developers can give their secondhand games and virtual items new life and increase their revenue by receiving additional revenue share from all secondhand resales. Players can also resell their games to earn UOS, allowing them to buy other contents while buyers will have access to affordable content that may not have been affordable for them at full retail price.
Two-Level Referral Program
A share of Ultra’s game sales revenue is redistributed to players and developers that bring new users to the platform. Developers are incentivized to direct their marketing efforts towards Ultra to earn an additional revenue stream from their users’ purchases – even purchases of content from other developers. On the other hand, players and influencers who invite their friends to the platform will receive Ultra tokens every time their referees purchase content.
Strategic Partners
In terms of securing partnerships, Ultra has several interesting partners. Last year, Ultra unveiled two significant partnerships, first is with Ubisoft, one of the largest gaming companies in the world, and second is with AMD, a multinational semiconductor company which has hundreds of millions of users. Ultra have also signed over 150 game developers to its platform.
In addition to Ubisoft and AMD, Ultra has a partnership with an undisclosed leading Chinese gaming company which has more than 100 million users. This gaming company is going to operate the Ultra gaming platform in Asia and will boost the Ultra ecosystem with millions of users. While UOS is already listed with Bitfinex, Bitrue and other small exchanges, Ultra is currently working hard with top exchanges for additional listings.
Currently, UOS exists as an ERC-20 token which will be swapped to the Ultra mainnet by the last quarter of this year. It has a circulating supply of just over 300 million out of the total supply of one billion. While this big difference may be a concern for some as it may potentially lead to the dilution of value, it is noteworthy to mention that Ultra as a company and other relevant people has not yet claimed their UOS. Also, 10 percent of the remaining supply is locked and could only be released when Ultra reaches one million users.
Nearly one in three people are playing video games, both in computers and mobile phones. In 2019, the gaming market was valued at USD 151.90 billion and has been constantly growing annually in the last decade. For Ultra, it is a huge market with a demographic that is highly aware about blockchain and cryptocurrencies and accustomed to ownership and trading of digital assets. While there are massive and well-established competitors, there are also significant and enormous issues with these platforms that Ultra can holistically and uniquely solve.
It is for these reasons and more why I believe Ultra is best positioned in bringing the blockchain revolution to the gaming industry and in creating a fair ecosystem for the future of game distribution.
Let us know in the comment section your thoughts about Ultra. Do you own some UOS tokens? Do you think Ultra will be able to achieve its goals? I will be glad to read your ideas and to share my opinion.
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Resources:
Ultra Website, https://www.ultra.io.
Ultra Whitepaper, https://www.ultra.io/whitepaper.
Ultra Executive Summary, https://www.ultra.io/executive-summary.
The Ultra Blockchain Network is Built for the Video Game Industry. EOSIO Community, https://www.eos.io/news/ultra-blockchain