Solana Labs teams up with Google Cloud on Web3 games via GameShift

Solana Labs is making a move to bring Web3 Gaming to the mainstream with GameShift on Google Cloud.

That means there will be seamless blockchain integration empowering game studios worldwide with new revenue streams, said Davis Hart, head of GameShift at Solana Labs, in an interview with GamesBeat.

Under the partnership, Google will make the GameShift Web3 gaming platform available to customers of Google Cloud. The collaboration will expand and simplify developer access to Web3 gaming technology, enabling game studios to seamlessly layer cutting-edge Web3 capabilities into their games.

“Our mission is to drive mainstream adoption of blockchain technology in gaming,” said Hart. “GameShift becoming part of Google Cloud’s partner ecosystem allows us to accelerate mainstream adoption by extending these capabilities to their vast, global developer ecosystem.”

GameShift abstracts away the underlying blockchain complexity, providing an easy-to-use API for all of a game’s Web3 needs – seamless user onboarding, in-game digital asset minting, in-game marketplace, credit card payments and payouts, and more.

“Many game studios built on Google Cloud want to tap into the creative potential of Web3 technology, but the inherent technical complexities have been a major barrier to broader adoption,” said Jack Buser, Director for Games at Google Cloud. “By bringing GameShift into Google Cloud’s ecosystem for living games, we’re giving developers a streamlined path to build immersive blockchain experiences without wrestling with the underlying technology.”

GameShift will now have a marketplace offering in the Google Cloud Marketplace. And so customers will be able to to access GameShift through the Google Cloud Marketplace.

GameShift makes money from this kind of deal as it reaches more customers who might be willing to subscribe to its service using a software-as-a-service model. On the Google side, they generate a revenue share from the marketplace offering as well as increasing usage of Google cloud.

“Solana Labs GameShift is partnering with Google Cloud to bring GameShift to Web2 games companies that are cloud customers,” Hart said. “On the Google side, what’s significant, and the reason why we were interested in putting this together with them, is that they’re taking a strategic view of Web3 for gaming. The gaming team led by Jack Buser made this a strategic priority for 2024 to find partners like ourselves.”

That’s one reason we also saw the Sui blockchain cut a deal with another part of Google Cloud this week, and Sequence did a Web3 gaming deal with Google Cloud in March. The point is to create an easy solution for integrating Web3 technologies into games. Hart said the GameShift partnership means that Google Cloud will offer Solana’s GameShift as a Web3 offering for game companies. That brings strong distribution to GameShift, Hart said.

“I think it just shows that the interest from broadly the gaming industry in Web3 gameplay is coming back,” Hart said. “It’s very exciting and makes Google a very exciting partner. I think on our side, what it reflects is the development that we’ve gone through since we did our beta launch in October and our general release in early February means GameShift is now the most full featured all-in-one integration partner for Web3-enabled games.”

The GameShift architecture allows developers to focus on building great gameplay experiences rather than dealing with blockchain intricacies.

Key benefits of GameShift include seamless non-custodial wallets for frictionless sign-in; fast, scalable creation and distribution of in-game assets on Solana’s network; branded in-game NFT marketplaces to drive new revenue streams; credit card payments and bank payouts integrated into the platform; completely abstracted key management and transaction fee payments.

The features allow Solana Labs to serve players with a variety of wallets, and there’s support for multiple token standards, global payments, marketplaces, crafting and more, Hart said.

“We’ve added all these features since we’ve launched, which makes us essentially able to serve any need any game has at this point with Web3,” Hart said. And it also reflects that we’re really well positioned to work with Google to go to the more traditional studios and give them a Web2-friendly integration, where we provide the service through a single API that does not require Web3 experience or coding at all. And Google sees that, and I think that the customers we will go to jointly will see that as well.”

GameShift harnesses the unique advantages of the Solana blockchain, including lightning transaction speeds, low fees optimized for microtransactions, and high scalability to support even the largest gaming communities.

GameShift ushers in a new era of mainstream blockchain gaming and represents just the first step in an evolving collaboration between Solana Labs and Google Cloud aimed at driving Web3 innovation.

One of the studios using GameShift is Studio369, which is working on the MetalCore game and other titles. Another studio using GameShift is Earth From Another Sun, as well as another game coming called Bloomverse. On the roadmap is the addition of crypto payment service. Over time, bigger studios will likely embrace Web3, he said.

As for the Web3 gaming market, Hart said, “I’m optimistic that the funding that’s coming back. We’ll see teams move forward and get the runway to develop after doing it for two years or so. And we’ll see funding for the next generation of games that are coming in with a similar strategy.”