Robot … Cache me online

It’s not everyday that a behemoth is met with a challenge that rocks it at its foundations. I recall my first foray into the all you can eat buffet at my local Chinese, a challenge I took willingly and was defeated whilst on my 4th plate…. Lightweight, I hear you call and you are correct…. I’ll make it up to you one day, one day…..

Now when something, a company, person(s), or a technological advancement that can push the norm occurs, people usually stand up and take note. This is the case for the new kid on the block in the game industry,

Enter…..

Dun dun dunnnnnn.

Robot Cache and how it intends to **insert key hip crypto 2017 hype word here — “Disrupt” ** the landscape that Steam has owned as its own since its creation in 2003.

Steam is the industry leader in all things game “ownership”*

*(more on why that is in quotation marks in a moment)

To understand where we are now, we need to head back to a time where Fortnite was not even a twinkle in one’s eye, let alone the Bitcoin HODL or Half Life 3 memes.

Steam came along at a time when PC gaming was starting to become a more online “thing”, multiplayer online titles were the kings of the jungle and the rush one would get from talking and playing with an opponent from the other side of the world, was only quelled by the sound of the phone ringing, and the modem kicking you off whilst your dad spoke to great auntie Wilma for the 8th time that day.

Having hundreds of discs and having to keep them safe, clean and undamaged was becoming a chore as well as keeping them stored neatly and efficiently. Steam offered a revolutionary solution, with all your games being stored in one digital place, your hard drive, and no longer requiring a shelf or cupboard to store your game discs and cases. Just use a one-off redeemable code and pop it into a field in steam and viola, you now have the game there, to use, any time you wish. Just download it from their servers, and play.

Steam utilises DRM ( Digital Rights Management ) so that any title you download now, instead of have a disc for, is in your library and you “own” the title or rights to play the title. The challenge with this is that it’s a user agreement, and an agreement granting you the rights to play that title. If something was to occur, you could lose the rights to play or own that title. Due to black markets and a lacklustre rewards principle, plus no true way of paying a publisher after the game has been initially sold, there is no second hand pc gaming market, or at least nothing legitimate. There is no way to know who owns want and verify it. Steam is closed source and that is that.

Robot Cache aims to tackle something that most gamers I’d argue have all thought of at some point, what if I could, or why can I not sell my games if I do not play them anymore?

The short of it is that Robot Cache will be similar to the current, but, will use Blockchain Certificates as their form of DRM. Each certificate can track and store each individually redeemable CD key that allows access to the game, meaning they can be re-sold. They have stated that new and used game titles will be sold at the same price, you are after-all just selling, or rather giving up your rights to your license to play the digital game, so it’s never truly a “used” title, and you will get 25% of the sale price, given back to you via your Robot Cache wallet, or put straight back onto your payment option you used, based on your preference. The publisher still gets 70% of the sale and RC themselves just 5%.

They have stated that all digital codes, or copies if you will, of the game will be sold in a sequence, unknown to the buyers and sellers, mixing up secondary and “newly issued” digital ownership codes. Following this some purchases will be 70% and some will be the 95% issued to the publisher from a new sale. To combat issues of reselling, RC has stated that no title can be resold until after 90 days from game release has passed, allowing the publishers to earn the most money in that golden launch window.

Allowing secondary markets to function, like in this instance would mean that more gamers may take a chance on buying a title with knowledge that they can “trade it back in” and get some funds back towards the next title that takes their fancy.

Games now can be priced upwards of £50! For a 13 year old at school that could be a month, or two’s pocket money. Whereas now they might wait to buy that new Franchise title and spend on nothing else for 10 weeks to save, they may buy a title in the meantime, 12 weeks before it launches, and then buy the title they want on launch still but have fun on a game they may not have bought before due to knowing if they didn’t like it, they had wasted cash and were stuck with it.

The effect this has could be awesome. We may find older nostalgic titles will have a greater legacy. Perhaps lesser known titles which developed a good cult following can build a player base, and, continue to thrive long after their current cycles are stagnant (which sometimes happens due to new players not wanting to waste funds on a high-risk and possible low-reward scenario).

For me, one of the biggest developments though, is the ability to “earn” free stuff from just using the platform. Much like Brave and it’s browser paying users to see adverts, RC users can opt-in to mine transactions on the platform and earn “bits”. A closed — environment currency, exclusive to RC. With it being an opt-in feature, RC is showing transparency from the offset and they state they will be upfront with listing power-costs so you can truly know if it is worth turning on the mining features from within the client. Being able to help assist the platform and earn currency to put towards new titles or possibly even unlocks in the future is a pretty neat, and exciting feature. Seeing it in the flesh will be an interesting thing indeed.

All in all, Robot Cache is doing things with Blockchain technology that actually utilises it to its fullest. Rewards, transparency and verification.

I’m excited about this one, I’ve spent way too much times on games in the past and no doubt i’ll spend a little while on them in the future too, and if I can earn whilst I play or am idle to further my enjoyment? It’s a no brainer from me at all.

It won’t beat Steam, that’s for sure, it’s too ingrained in the everyday life of nearly all pc gamers, but, it will offer a nice alternative moving forward for the next generation of gamers. A good, and competitive choice, and that’s a good thing for gamers and parents alike.

Robot Cache me inside,

Autobots… rollout!

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