Game On! 'Crypto Arcade Playground' to Help Indie Developers Compete With Giant Studios

For small indie game developers, the advent of Apple's App Store and Google Play has proven to be both a blessing and a curse.

While one-man bands were able to upstage some of the world's largest game publishers initially - Flappy Bird, anyone? - established studios have started to catch up, with competition in the marketplace rife and high commission fees eating into already tight profit margins.

A decentralized "Crypto arcade playground" is hoping to help smaller creators survive and succeed by enabling them to target gamers through blockchain - giving them a chance to market and monetize their games while clamping down on piracy.

Its system will allow any developer to introduce their very own token economy in the games they release - enabling them to reward regular players with coins and introduce pool prizes for tournaments and other multiplayer games.

Firstly, it plans to launch PlayGame.com - a direct-to-play HTML5 gaming platform which aims to "Simplify marketing and distribution." Through this website, players will be able to access new games from their PCs or smartphones without needing to download an app.

It's hoped this will enable developers to reach out to cryptocurrency holders who are looking to support indie developers.

In its white paper, the startup says that it has a team of more than 20 industry experts driving the PlayGame website - all of whom share a vision of enabling entrepreneurs to "Convert their game ideas into fully functional games that can be enjoyed by millions of people regardless of their location, origin, game devices or socioeconomic status."

PlayGame says the crypto world's potential for gaming has already been proven through ventures such as CryptoKitties, where players are able to buy and sell rare collectibles.

Game onBetween now and the end of the year, PlayGame is planning to further develop its platform - paving the way for its website to undergo a soft launch in the first half of 2019.

Illustrating its business model, the company says that gamers would need to use PXG tokens in order to participate in time-limited events, such as a sudoku tournament.