There is a certain association between cryptocurrencies and video games which needs to be explored further. Buying video games with cryptocurrency has been possible for quite some time now. Services such as Kinguin still accept Bitcoin, even though Steam recently removed this payment option. There is now a “reverse service” known as Robot Cache that allows people to sell unwanted games in exchange for cryptocurrency.
Robot Cache is an Intriguing Platform
It doesn’t happen all that often that a new service is launched where one can sell physical items in exchange for cryptocurrencies. This is especially true when those physical items are video games, as there is seemingly not much of a market for selling unwanted games right now. That is rather strange, considering that the gaming industry has boomed throughout the years. Moreover, there are plenty of people who have received games they don’t want, yet have a hard time turning those items into cash or other forms of money.
This is where Robot Cache comes into the picture. The name might suggest that Kim Dotcom has something to do with this venture, but that is not the case. Instead, this service was created by Brian Fargo, a veteran gaming industry executive who feels there is a bright future ahead for cryptocurrency in the video game sector. Whether or not he is correct in that assessment is very difficult to gauge right now.
The Robot Cache service allows people to resell digital games once they’ve finished them or no longer wish to play them. This creates a rather interesting market for video games in general. At the same time, publishers of video games will receive a bigger cut of each sale than they do on other marketplace platforms. Competition on this level can only be considered a good thing, as the money is currently going through too many pockets before it ends up where it belongs.
Players who sell back their finished or unwanted video games can retain up to 25% of their retail value. This value will be transferred to them in the form of a digital token known as IRON. As one would expect, this is the native currency of the Robot Cache platform, and can be used to buy other games on the decentralized marketplace. With so many players having old games they would like to sell, it is evident that this marketplace can quickly become a big hit among video game enthusiasts.
The big question is how well Robot Cache will work with licensed games such as the ones purchased on Steam. It seems highly unlikely any DRM-protected games will make their way to this platform in the near future, although anything is possible these days. There are hundreds of indie publishers who offer their games DRM-free to the masses. Those games can usually be found on platforms such as GoG, GreenmanGaming, and a few others. It will be interesting to see how many game publishers will explore this new option in the future.
Last but not least, IRON can also be mined using a regular computer, though it is unclear how this will happen and it raises a lot of questions. After all, IRON is an ERC20 token, which means it can’t be mined by default. We will have to wait and see how this service shapes up in the future, as the platform is scheduled to go live at some point in Q2 of this year.
