The Forge Arena, a competitive Web3 FPS with cues taken from Counter-Strike and Valorant, has just announced that it will be joining the Epic Games Store!
As many of you will know, Token Gamer is a WAX block producer and long-time participant in the WAX ecosystem, so while we are chain agnostic, we like to see positive news about any of the chains we’re fond of, WAX being one of them. Well, what I would consider to be the best game on WAX — The Forge Arena — has just announced that they are coming soon to the Epic Games Store.
The Epic Games Store will provide the studio with all the services that are needed in bringing a new closed beta launch. The closed beta will be split into multiple phases, one phase per month. Each phase comes with a set of beta keys for players to try out the game, allowing the development team to receive constructive feedback from the community and patch issues as they present themselves. After running multiple beta tests, the studio’s priority will be to gear up for the official open beta launch during the E3 conference in Los Angeles in June 2023.
— NEWGEN LABS x EPIC GAMES STORE PRESS RELEASE
What Is The Forge Arena?
This is important news for everyone involved, but let’s start with The Forge Arena. Forge Arena is one of the few blockchain games I consider to be of a Web2 standard. The competitive FPS was founded by the co-founder of OPSkins, the famed Counter-Strike skins marketplace that generated over $200m in sales. That venture of course ended poorly, with Valve taking issue, but the concept of owning, trading, and selling skins could not be shaken.
The Forge Arena takes inspiration from the pinnacle of esports FPS games — Counter-Strike and Valorant — and while it’s early days for the project, the foundations are superb. The gunplay feels sleek, the skins system is unparalleled, and the play-and-earn elements add a new allure to the competitive FPS genre. The chief hurdle Forge Arena needs to overcome (that isn’t on the roadmap, like matchmaking) is player acquisition. This is always a tall order, but this announcement might solve that issue in one swing!
Why Is This Important for WAX?
Our affinity toward the WAX ecosystem is a result of the blockchain’s industry-leading technology and proficiency at gasless high transaction speeds, as well as our involvement in it. That doesn’t, however, cloud our impartiality, and WAX has lacked a healthy pipeline of great games. All of the most anticipated Web3 games are on Immutable, Polygon, Binance Smart Chain, Solana, and so on; WAX needs to be in that conversation.
Well, The Forge Arena represents a brilliant opportunity for WAX to reclaim their position as a leading gaming blockchain. The first 18 months of Play-to-Earn’s virality saw WAX dominate the DappRadar charts with Alien Worlds, Splinterlands, and so on. Now, as we look to the next wave of games in and around the AAA label, WAX needed a champion and I would have said before this announcement that Forge Arena could have been it. Since this announcement, however, I would go as far as to say it is it.
Why Is This Important for the Epic Games Store?
I’m a big fan of Epic Games and Tim Sweeney, not only for what they have done for the gaming industry, but for following their words with actions when Steam turned its back on Web3 games and NFTs.
Epic Games and its Store are undoubtedly the biggest names in this partnership, outranking The Forge Arena and WAX significantly. So, why is it important for the Epic Games Store and even Epic Games?
Well, The Forge Arena is a brilliantly formulated game when it comes to utilizing NFTs and blockchain technology. The founders have proven they understand the value of game skins and have been a mainstay of WAX in some respects. If Forge Arena becomes as important as it can be — that is, it attracts FPS players and shows them the value of NFTs, ownership, and tokenization — the game could represent a crucial milestone in Epic Games’ continued dominance of the industry.
