Reality Gaming Group opening temporary crypto-only shop in London
Marketing event for Reality Clash also aims to educate the masses on cryptocurrency with free masterclasses and virtual coins
Mobile developer Reality Gaming Group is hosting a week-long event to raise awareness and understanding of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology - all centred around a shop that will only accept digital coins.
The store will be based in London's Soho district and will host a series of free masterclasses, teaching consumers how to create a digital wallet, how to buy cryptocurrency and so on.
Attendees will also be given virtual coins for free, which can then be spent on the store's goods - although it should be noted this is limited to merchandise for studio's upcoming mobile title Reality Clash.
In addition to the on-site classes, Reality Gaming Group has partnered with Soho Radio to broadcast daily discussions into the implications of cryptocurrency and blockchain for the video games and music industries.
The entire initiative comes under the umbrella of Crypto Week, an event the group hopes to use to improve people's understanding of the technology. The week will also include live music performances and hands-on demos of Reality Clash.
The event, and the store, will be open from September 10th to 14th.
Last year, Reality Gaming Group completed an initial coin offering to the tune of $3.5 million, raising funds for the development of Reality Clash by selling tokens that can be spent in the final product. We spoke to the studio shortly after to get their advice for other developers who want to use cryptocurrencies.
There's no denying cryptocurrencies and blockchain are becoming more prominent across all manner of industries - GPU prices more than doubled earlier this year as more people attempted to mine these virtual currencies.
However, there remains a stigma around the tech given how many crypto-funded operations have proven to be scams or just collapsed entirely (although the majority of video games projects seem to have avoided this so far).
Twitter, Facebook and Google have all imposed blanket bans on any companies using their sites to advertise the sale of cryptocurrencies, although various firms using such currencies later told GamesIndustry.biz this is a "short-sighted" attitude.