India’s Polygon is betting big on gaming and NFTs — so much so that it’s created a whole department for it

• Polygon has announced a new dedicated unit called Polygon Studios to focus on the fast-growing gaming and NFT ecosystem.
• The new entity will present support and infrastructure for blockchain game builders to attract artists and investors to its NFT ecosystem.
• Building a brand is essential as the concept has the potential to be a Steam-like disruptor in the industry.

The popular Ethereum scaling solution Polygon has announced a new dedicated unit called Polygon Studios to focus on the fast-growing gaming and non-fungible token (NFT) ecosystem. It said the new company would help "bridge the gap between Web 2 and Web 3 gaming."


Web 1 is generally considered to be the initial era of the internet when websites were static and the functionality was limited. Web 2 is said to be the current scenario consisting of social networks, cloud computing, and streaming. Web 3 is the next proposed era, where processes and transactions are decentralised, artificial intelligence is at the core, and the internet is built around semantic markup.

The segment is still in its nascent stages, and there's a lot of future potential for game makers, artists, streamers, and more — making it a lucrative sector that's yet to be entirely explored. Recently, Axie Infinity, an NFT-based game raked in over $30 million, just in a span of a week.

Building a brand, like ‘Polygon Studios’ is essential as the concept has the potential to be a Steam-like disruptor in the industry. The studio is divided into two distinct divisions — Polygon Gaming Studio and Polygon NFT Studio.

What is Polygon’s plan for NFTs?

Polygon’s new entity will support and provide infrastructure for blockchain game builders to attract artists and investors to its NFT ecosystem. To be precise, it includes releasing SDKs for developers, investing in smaller companies, marketing the platform as an accelerator, and technological support.

"With the launch of Polygon Studios, games get 360-degree building support, big brands and much-loved franchises can launch on Polygon, and gamers can enjoy a whole new world of play to earn opportunities and decentralised gaming,” the company said.

Polygon wants to process transactions faster than Ethereum — and do it cheaper

Polygon claims to currently host more than 100,000 gamers and over 500 decentralised apps.

Aavegotchi, an NFT trading game, announced that the project wouldn't be hosted on the Ethereum main net due to high gas fees in January 2021. Just like one pays a wire or processing fee when transferring money online, a gas fee must be paid to execute a smart contract on Ethereum blockchain.

The game chose Polygon instead — creating a precedent and then further attracting other games like ZED RUN and SkyWeaver.

Using examples like this, Polygon is leveraging its position as an expert in scaling. This means that it wants to stand apart from the crowd by processing far more transactions per second than Ethereum, and that too at a fraction of the cost.

Polygon’s origin story

The India-based cryptocurrency was founded in 2017 with a mission to improve the scalability of the Ethereum blockchain. Back then, it was called Matic and has since come a long way in terms of progress and adoption.

For instance, billionaire investor Mark Cuban has a stake in Polygon now. "Polygon is the first well-structured, easy-to-use platform for Ethereum scaling and infrastructure development,” he said.

According to Coinmarketcap, Polygon ranks among the top 20 biggest cryptos globally by market capitalisation. The Ethereum network has been plagued with issues that lead to high transaction fees and slow execution of transactions.

While Ethereum 2.0 promises to incorporate improvements, Polygon is ebbing away at its thunder. It can use its resources to host games and NFTs — two dynamic and high-potential fields that can be amalgamated.

With the move from Web 2 to Web 3 is just around the corner, Polygon is eyeing to be the go-to brand that assists in the transition.

For a more in-depth discussion, come on over to Business Insider Cryptosphere — a forum where users can deep dive into all things crypto, engage in interesting discussions and stay ahead of the curve.

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