How To Successfully Launch Web3 Games on The App Store & Google Play
Many web3 games have struggled to achieve and maintain compliance with the major app stores. Here’s the trick to staying listed while web3 capabilities flourish in your games.
Whether you are a game developer in web2 or web3, you’re likely interested in reaching the largest possible audience while providing the most player functionality possible. The synthesis of these goals is a synthesis of web2 and web3 — a middle ground in which the player functionality of web3 is enabled for audiences across the major app stores.
Web3 games can’t list on Apple’s App Store is a well-founded myth. It’s well-founded because many web3 games do not comply with Apple’s regulations, especially since Apple updated their guidelines. It’s a myth because Ready has proven that App Store listing and web3 capabilities can go hand-in-hand.
When we refer to App Store compliance in this article, Google Play compliance is implied. This is simply because Google currently has looser guidelines than Apple, so when Apple requirements are met, Google compliance goes without saying.
Web3 Games & App Store Compliance — The Problem
Game developers in web3 have been known to jump through hoops to make their games work despite blockchain elements. And many times the compromises they must make in order to comply with listing requirements disrupt core elements of the games.
When developers choose to implement web3 functionality in their games, they create friction with App Store and Google Play regulations. This friction usually relates to crypto payments and NFT items. You can’t connect to the App Store with MetaMask and you can’t pay for in-game items with ETH. These two realities alone present a challenge for web3 game developers who wish to list their games on the major app stores to reach the widest possible audience.
Developers no longer need to make game-shattering sacrifices in order to get the best of both worlds. Ready Games’ SDK offers elegantly simple solutions including player onboarding and NFT payment flows, which do not disrupt any vital elements of the game. Best of all, Ready’s tools allow developers to integrate web3 features in a simple version update.
Appl Store Compliance In Web3 — Ready’s Solution
The updated Apple guidelines for listing requirements require all in-app sales to be conducted through Apple’s in-app purchases. On the surface, this eliminates all web3 games with in-game NFT purchases or trading, but this is not necessarily the case.
In reality, Free2Play games with in-game NFT items are not excluded from the App Store — the guideline expressly states, “apps may use in-app purchase to sell services related to non-fungible tokens”. As long as in-app purchases happen in the app, NFTs are allowed.
And that is exactly what Ready Games enables with its unique SDK: NFT in-app purchases. Ready allows NFT items to be implemented in the same way as regular items, allowing the added benefit of web3 ownership without disrupting the game experience in any way. Most importantly, this method eliminates any issues of mobile app store compliance.
Here’s how it works:
Ready’s tech allows NFT virtual items to be integrated alongside regular virtual items and handled the same way as regular items, so NFTs can be purchased by players either with in-game currency or directly through Apple’s in-app purchases. Virtual items (both fungible and non-fungible) are any in-game item: equipment, achievement badges, upgradable heroes, etc.
Ready allows players to purchase and claim NFT items in App Store games in just a few steps.
- First, NFTs are minted on the Ready Games Network and infused with the ecosystem’s native $READYX token, giving each NFT a quantifiable value. Token infusion has many benefits for NFT holders and issuers by allocating each NFT a standardized value that can be traded and used in games across the Ready Games ecosystem.
- Next, NFT game items are listed for purchase in-app using a specific hard currency. As in the case of any regular game currency, this currency can only be obtained via in-app purchases. But since this currency can be used to purchase NFT items, the in-app currency is included in Ready’s SDK in order to verify and safeguard NFT payments.
- Once the player has purchased the required in-app currency, they can spend it on any game items, including NFTs.
- If a player purchases an NFT item, they will need to store it in a Ready wallet. If the player already has a Ready account and wallet, they can simply log in with their Ready account. If not, the player will be prompted with an in-game pop-up screen to create a Ready wallet. This pop-up is only triggered when a player wishes to buy an NFT item.
And that’s it. With Ready Games, it’s neither difficult nor complex to implement NFT items in App Store and Google Play compliant games. NFTs in games are designed to offer the next level of player functionality and ownership without detracting from the overall game experience.
Game NFTs have multifold benefits including the ability to recoup an initial investment by selling the NFT once the player is done with the game, or holder benefits and community perks associated with NFT ownership such as community governance, events, special deals on future NFT purchases, etc.
NFT integration is just a small part of what Ready offers game developers. Ready Games has worked with mobile game developers on both Android and iOS to launch new versions of their existing web2 games with integrated web3 functionality.
Ready’s unique player-focused web3 solutions allow both web2 and web3 developers to reach the massive audience playing on mobile devices. Any game currently live on iOS, Android, or both, is eligible for a web3 upgrade without changing or affecting existing game elements and functionality. Sign up at dev.ready.gg to get started.
Developer sign-up is 100% free, plus Ready is offering early-adopter developer perks for a limited time.
