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Ethereum ecosystem projects Polygon and Immutable have partnered on Web3 gaming, according to a press release published on March 20.
Immutable and Polygon join forces
The joint announcement indicates that the two projects will form a strategic alliance to advance Web3 gaming in terms of development and adoption.
The partnership will focus on Immutable zkEVM, which is based on zk-rollups and is supported by Polygon technology. This will allow developers to experience faster and cheaper transaction fees than they might see if they built directly on Ethereum.
One type of Web3 gaming involves using blockchain so that users have full, transferable ownership of in-game items in the same way that they might own crypto or NFTs.
Robbie Ferguson, President and Co-Founder of Immutable, specifically applied the concept to game skins that are used with characters and items. He wrote:
“Billions of dollars of skins are sold each year with no rights for players – we’re changing that so players are in control, and ownership is the expectation.”
Polygon and Immutable lamented that Web3 gaming has been limited by a shortage of high-quality games and enterprise-grade developer tools. The two projects believe that their efforts will make it easier for large and small game developers to work with blockchain.
Projects raised nearly $2B combined in 2022
Immutable and Polygon noted that projects built on their own platforms received $2 billion in investor funding in 2022. Recent reports from Delphi Digital found that Immutable X games raised $900 million in 2022, while Polygon games raised $850 million.
The two blockchain companies have also partnered with big names like Square Enix, Unity, and GameStop, and many other firms and projects as well.
Despite each firm’s apparent success, ImmutableX nevertheless laid off 11% of its staff in February as its expenses surpassed its earnings. Polygon similarly laid off 20% of its staff, amounting to 100 employees, earlier that month.
Both companies have created cryptocurrencies that rank among the sixty largest circulating tokens. Polygon (MATIC) ranks at #9 with a market cap of $10.2 billion. ImmutableX (IMX) ranks at #51 with a market cap of $1.1 billion.
Neither asset saw a significant change in price following the announcement.