It's well known that Atari has entered the digital world space in Decentraland, which has people thinking what it would look like if and when well established game companies enter the Earth2.io space.
With this article, we are going to explore what it would look like when big name game companies enter Earth2 ("E2"). We are also going to assume that the "User Generated Content" has come to fruition.
The Beginning
Blizzard Entertainment reps create accounts and purchase a few large tile count property lots next to each other to create a "Blizzard Worlds" theme park. Next they start buying up resources from land owners, who are happy to be able to sell mass quantities of resources to the game giant. Users all rejoice as their E$ wallets start looking thick.
Then they open up a museum highlighting some of their creations from past games, all remastered for use within Earth 2. End users flock to see their favorite characters from the various franchises. They also open arenas to play some Earth2 versions of classic maps from Overwatch, and even create some Earth2.io specific ones in order to draw more users into their properties.
A Heroes of the Storm wing of their park opens, allowing users to take a top down, or first person, view of the action. Warcraft Dungeon raids are available, allowing users to band together to go defeat the bosses. Users can experience everything that Blizzard Worlds has to offer, in exchange for a little bit of E$ for price of admission. Of course there is a premium discount available for those who purchase season passes.
"WORLD OF WARCRAFTS & DIABLO III ARTS" by foeock is licensed with CC BY 2.0.
Next up is RockStar, coming in and buying up some coastline property for it's newest creation. An E2 version of Vice City, where users can do ALMOST anything they can do in the source games (except the Hot Coffee content, due to the TOS.) Now Rockstar has taken a different approach with their city, it's free to get in, but to do anything such as buy gear, the latest Vice City fashions, etc, you must trade your E$ for Vice City Dollars, which are only usable within their region.
The cycle repeats with one publisher after another, each one vying for the lion's share of the userbase and in turn their wallet. All the while, the land owners are looking out around mostly empty plots wondering where the traffic went, as their E$ wallets thin out. Eventually all areas shift to free to play, but merchandising off of licensed content becomes the new cash cow.
"Grand Theft Auto IV - Double Exposure" by K-putt is licensed with CC BY-NC 2.0.
Premium skins in the form of licensed avatars, (think Tracer or Winston from Overwatch, Thrall from Warcraft, Kerrigan or Aldaris from Starcraft) or vehicle designs (like the Infernus from San Andreas) are sold at their various locations within Earth2.
In game content creators who have been providing and creating skins, clothing, buildings, etc. since the moment they could do so in the platform are wondering why their earnings are taking a beating. They are no longer advertising their wares on billboards on land owners properties as the wave of licensed content mania kicks into high gear. Eventually the original content creators lower their costs in order to undercut the licensed content pricing.
Eventually, EA enters the fray, and introduces E2 loot boxes.
We all know how that plays out.
"Cyber Monday loot box. Full of monkey breath & stocking stuffers. #thinkgeek" by Grace Fell is licensed with CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.
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