'Robot Cache - Brian Fargo's blockchain-based digital store that lets you resell games

[aratuk]

All that's missing from inXile's iPhone lineup is a Stonekeep-themed slot machine game.

And maybe a Redneck Rampage match three that in the background quietly mines bitcoins for Brian Fargo's retirement fund.

Well, I wasn't too far off the mark.

A couple years ago, Fargo wet his finger, held it up to the trade publications wind, and proclaimed, "virtual reality, boys!"

This time, "blockchainz, y'all!"

 

[slowtard]

But... HOW does Fargo wet his finger? Please tell us.

 

[PulsatingBrain]

At start I guess they can sell games back to others that people sold to them. That is how I imagined it.

People have to buy and play games from his service before they'd be able to be resold.

 

[DeepOcean]

This is a scam, pure and simple, Fargo plans to use this to add legitimacy to his cryptocurrency on the hopes of getting speculative money, there is alot of speculative money on crypto currencies today and he wanna a piece of the pie. Any gamer that uses this is an idiot, no publisher or developer will support this, most digital games require a key from a proprietary app to work, how are you going to resell this? I really doubt steam or any other digital retailer will ever support this because it is stupid for them and because they depend on the publishers, if they pull the plug, they are fucked.

This goes against the interests of both publishers and developers too, steam makes insane deals too, you can get any game you want pretty cheap already, why go through this convoluted scheme to get cheaper games?

I don't think Fargo is crazy enough to sell pirated copies of publisher funded games (no publisher or independent developer will support this and all digital stores depend on the good will of the publishers to survive so they won't support this.) so the only games that maybe will show up on his scam, are copies of drm free games, how he gonna verify those copies to know they were honestly bought from something like GoG? If you own a game on Steam, Origin, Blizzard, Uplay, you won't be able to use this scam anytime soon.

 

[DeepOcean]

Can I pirate a GoG game then sell the pirate copy at this thing and make free money? Can I use multiple VPNs and fake accounts to sell multiple copies of DRM free games? Who gonna buy them? Who will verify the legitimate copies? People that buy at GoG, DRM free, do it so to support DRM free games, why not buy directly at GoG? This sort of shit Fargo is pulling off seems fishy as hell. I'm talking at DRM free games because if your copy uses DRM checking, be certain that it won't work on his site as no publisher ever will support used games on digital stores, that sort of thing will only ever come to be through legislation and to be honest, I have hundreds of games on steam that I bought for pennies, why should I care? This seems like a moot point.

 

[Lady_Error]

Wait, what? Fargo is coming here? Which island did he choose?

 

[Lahey]

Someone asked, but Fargo didn't answer. I doubt he'll visit personally.

 

[CyberWhale]

Should have named it Wastecoin, for numerous reason. Mostly because you're wasting your money if you decide to buy it.

 

[Lady_Error]

Someone asked, but Fargo didn't answer. I doubt he'll visit personally.

I know. They're actually right next door to me on Tenerife:
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/robot-cache-s-l

 

[pakoito]

Someone asked, but Fargo didn't answer. I doubt he'll visit personally.

I know. They're actually right next door to me on Tenerife:
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/robot-cache-s-l

Sooooo tax evasion con papas y mojo?

 

[Metro]

Let's say a game costs $60. Developer can either:

1) Reap 75% of a $40 'used' price and net $30; or
2) Put the game on sale for $35 and realize the full $35.

(Yeah there's probably platform fees but those would probably apply equally)

Never mind bundles and such send the 'resell' price of games spiraling downwards.

 

[Lady_Error]

Someone asked, but Fargo didn't answer. I doubt he'll visit personally.

I know. They're actually right next door to me on Tenerife:
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/robot-cache-s-l

Sooooo tax evasion con papas y mojo?

It's probably because of US regulations regarding ICO's - many do not allow US investors. Though taxes are also somewhat lower.

 

[fantadomat]

Someone asked, but Fargo didn't answer. I doubt he'll visit personally.

I know. They're actually right next door to me on Tenerife:
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/robot-cache-s-l

Sooo you are Spaniard!

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

I don't think it's a scam. Fargo for all his faults has always been willing to experiment with all the newest shit that was coming out into the IT industry, and I doubt this is any different. The guy is a veteran, he's seen more techs teleport into popularity and go on to make billions than we even saw existing. It's obviously a gamble but you can't win if you don't take any risks. Everybody was mocking him for his VR obsession but eventually it turned out to be a solid win from them, didn't they land some massive outside VR investment recently?

I don't see this succeeding but stranger things have happened.

Someone asked, but Fargo didn't answer. I doubt he'll visit personally.

I know. They're actually right next door to me on Tenerife:
https://www.crunchbase.com/organization/robot-cache-s-l

Sooo you are Spaniard!

Paging Roguey

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[PulsatingBrain]

Its new and might change stale industry.

The service would have to compete on Valve's level to have any kind of effect. Fargo may get super lucky and carve out a certain market, but he'll never be a threat to Steam. The Robot Cache system is just too fucking weird to do that

 

[lukaszek]

deterministic system > RNG

 

[PulsatingBrain]

It's enough if valve notice and feels like crushing newly arrived competitor by implementing some of his ideas

Why would they lose money to stay big fish in the pond, when there is no threat to their status? Even a tiny percentage return policy on Steam would cost them millions per year. I'd love to see something like that happen on Steam, but it makes no financial sense whatsoever unless they are somehow threatened by Robot Cache

 

[LESS T_T]

http://www.pcgamesinsider.biz/inter...digital-retail-brian-fargo-talks-robot-cache/

The idea started when Fargo was pretty much told by investors to try something with this new technology in the games space.

"I have some friends that are very heavy into the cryptocurrency space, they're very successful. They said would back me if I was to come up with something that would work well in the video game space," he tells PCGamesInsider.biz.

"I sat back and thought about it and started reading a lot of whitepapers to get an understanding of what the impact that the blockchain can have on what we do. One of the reoccurring themes that came up over and over again is the reduction for the need for a middleman. What's the most interesting middleman in our industry - digital distribution. Also, server costs have come down greatly over time and it doesn't really take that much to operate that kind of business. That was part one that I started thinking about.

"The other part was the secure nature of the blockchain. One of the things it does really, really well is that it can near guarantee that something can't exist in two places at once otherwise, cryptocurrency would have no value. If we could have the same bitcoin, it would all fall apart instantly. The whole verification process to ensure that one coin cannot exist in two places is something that it does really, really well, better than any system in my opinion. That started making me thinking about chain of ownership, that we could definitely trace a product and who had it in their library. With those two things put together, I thought let's try a different paradigm shift for distribution, so that got me thinking: "Let's offer developers 95 per cent of the pie which is great but the consumer doesn't really care that the developers get higher margins. What's good for them? So that's where I started thinking about the resell part of it. GameStop is a great model to look at - people are used to that sort of thing. I knew that it was a model that people were comfortable with. That's really how it all came about."

One side effect that publishers might enjoy from this application of blockchain technology is that in tracking the ownership of a game license, it effectively acts as DRM for their products.

"The blockchain acts as the DRM effectively," Fargo says.

"You can't have DRM-free and resell in the same thing otherwise it doesn't work. In order for us to facilitate the resell, the product has to be tracked on the blockchain. That very aspect of it is the very thing that allows people to resell their games. We think it's well worth the trade-off. Right, and they get remunerated if it gets relicensed. I just see it as a win for consumers and publishers."

Fargo says that Robot Cache isn't going to just be another Steam key reseller, but will be its own store and client. He's also hoping to draw in exclusive content to attract people to the storefront.

"We will offer some different kinds of things, we will find our way to what users really love to see more or less of," he says.

"We're also different is that our intention is to use some of the money we raise to do exclusive deals with people for exclusive content. We don't necessarily think that people are going to put their product on our site - not with Steam having a massive share of the business, but maybe they'd give us an exclusive map or material or something like that. We think there are some ways to entice publishers to give us some exclusive content."

But the optics on the announcement aren't perfect. For one, it leans heavily on cryptocurrency, not exactly a 'safe' venture, particularly given how Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies are crashing at the moment. The other red flag is in all caps at the start of the press release - CANARY ISLANDS. Yes, Robot Cache is based in a known tax haven. The way Fargo describes this happening is more of a 'happy coincidence' and points out that the company isn't unique when it comes to being located in such regions.

"A lot of that is under the hood for most people," he explains.

"You have businesses that started in one place and moved to another. EA's contracts are signed out of Switzerland. That's public, that's not a big shock. For one, our SVP lives in the Canary Islands and has a group of programmers already there up and running. That's one thing to consider. We ended up in the Canary Islands because he's living there with a group of developers. We knew we wanted to be set up internationally somewhere because we are going to get over half our revenue from outside of the US so it made sense to set up outside of the US. Our SVP already lives there with a group of developers. That's how the Canary Islands came about."

 

[Metro]

EXCLOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOSIVE NOT

:incloosive:

 

[unfairlight]

It's just another Fuckface Fargo scam like Fig was. The idea is interesting but the execution is obviously just Fargo looking to rake in that cryptomoney since it's the hot new thing at the moment.

 

[Zed]

For sale at Robot Cache: TToN, Wasteland 2, TToN again, The Mage's Tale, The Bard's Tale, Wasteland 2 again, Bard's Tale IV

 

[LESS T_T]

Hah, that layout...:

 

[Alienman]

I love how Fargo throws himself into every damn fad there is. Kickstarter, VR, bitcoin, gamer-shoes (lol)... Only kickstarter have payed off so far though.

 

[IHaveHugeNick]

I love how Fargo throws himself into every damn fad there is. Kickstarter, VR, bitcoin, gamer-shoes (lol)... Only kickstarter have payed off so far though.

VR is definitely paying off. The VR game they've made sold reasonably well and they've landed some additional multi-milllion investment.