SAFETY IN NUMBERS Hoping to raise the banner behind which the blockchain-empowered masses can fight back is Moxy.io, a soon-to-be launched platform that, in part, aims to be the Steam of blockchain games. The service will comprise a number of aspects


beyond being a host for games. People will initially sign up for Moxy Club, which is a one- stop shop for tokens, NFTs and the like. Allied to this is Moxy Launch, which is essentially how new games are backed, voted on initially by Moxy Club members (presumably votes cost tokens - it’s not entirely clear). Finally there is the core of the whole service, Moxy Forge. “Sort of how Unity and Unreal are like the


engine for the graphics for a game, Moxy Forge can be the engine for the blockchain side, the crypto side, all that kind of stuff” explains marketing director Nolan deFouw “On top of that we have the Moxy platform, which has a bunch of games on it, sort of like Steam and Epic.” Sort of is maybe pushing it. Steam has 50,000


games. Epic has over a thousand. Moxy.io, when it initially launches, will have just two fully- integrated titles. Fish Tanks from Teesside’s SockMonkey Studios, and BattleRise: Kingdom of Champions from Polish studio SoDigital. Admittedly Steam and Epic only started with a handful each and Fish Tanks does look a heap of fun, but Counter-Strike or Fortnite it is not. The good news for gamers is that the Moxy


team is actively courting the developers of FPS and sports games, but the reality is that the proof of the pudding is in the tasting, and until Moxy. io is fully up and running, there’s not much for risk-averse studios to sample. “We’re really targeting indie publishers that are


willing to take the risk and allocate some of their resources into integration,” says deFouw. “I think it’s been very successful so far, and I think it’s just gonna become more successful going forward.”


BETTER CALL GABE They might not be backed up by too many games right now, but Moxy is not without some impressive firepower among its executive team, many of whom have backed a few successful titles in their time. Leading the pack is Nolan Bushnell, the founder of Atari who has the curious title of chief knowledge officer. Moxy’s executive chairman Lawrence Siegel is a former president of Sega Europe, while heading up Europeon operations is the co-founder


May 2022 MCV/DEVELOP | 39


of MicroProse Stewart Bell. Sure, collectively they’ve likely cultivated more grey hairs than games in recent years, but there can be few teams as experienced at securing successful titles. Plus, they each come with their own network of industry contacts built up over the full 50 years of the games industry’s existence . “Funny story” says deFouw, “right after the


news dropped where Gabe Newell pulled all the NFT games off Steam, Stewart (Bell) was on the phone within two hours and he was like, ‘What are you doing Gabe? What’s going on? He’s like, ‘Well, I can’t have 12 year old kids making money on my platform and I don’t even know who they are. I’m gonna get shut down in a few days. And then Stuart’s like, ‘Well, let me tell you, we have something coming up soon. He’s like, ‘Perfect. Get it done and we’ll talk.’”


NEW SKIDS ON THE BLOCK Since dropping blockchain and NFT games from Steam last October, the Valve co-founder and president has clarified the reasons for the bombshell decision, saying that it wasn’t the technology he has a problem with, but the way it’s being implemented, citing reports that fraud underpins 50 percent of cryptocurrency transactions. That would suggest that the availability of blockchain games could be reinstated across Steam if the correct checks and balances were in place. An opportunity for Moxy, sure, but it also begs the question, what’s to stop


From top:


Lawrence Siegal, former president of Sega Europe, knowledge guru Nolan Bushnell, Stewart Bell, co-founder of MicroProse


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