Web3 gaming is one of the fastest-growing – and highest-potential – segments of the blockchain industry.
With digital ownership rights lagging far behind their physical counterparts, blockchain presents a clear opportunity to create positive change in the multi-billion dollar gaming industry – one that’s larger than TV, movies and many other entertainment mediums – and one blockchain is looking to be the cornerstone of a web3 gaming future: Immutable.
Built from the ground-up to support blockchain gaming, Immutable is optimised to tackle the biggest problems – such as scalability, security, and user accessibility – whilst ensuring that the next generation of games are not only fun and engaging, but also grant ownership rights and rewards to the players.
What makes Immutable unique, and why should you check it out? Here’s our complete guide to Immutable in 2024.
What is Immutable?
Created in 2018 by James Ferguson, Robbie Ferguson and Alex Connolly, Immutable is an Ethereum Layer-2 blockchain.
Recognising Ethereum’s high transaction costs and limited speed, this Sydney-based team wanted to create a blockchain platform that could support the demands of high-traffic online gaming – first and foremost for their web3 TCG title, Gods Unchained.
After the successful launch of Gods Unchained, and subsequent publishing of other Immutable-based titles through their Immutable Games studio – such as Illuvium and Guild of Guardians – the team opened the gates to external developers, leading to Immutable quickly becoming the solution of choice for budding web3 game developers.
Alongside the Immutable blockchain itself, Immutable offers a range of tools for both developers and players to make creating and playing web3 games as simple and straightforward as possible. This includes tools like web2-friendly wallet solution Immutable Passport, and their Global Orderbook, which allows all supported marketplaces to share the same asset liquidity.
In 2024, Immutable has seen increased competition from the likes of Ronin, Polygon, Base and Mantle, but continues to be one of the leading blockchains for quality web3 games.
What makes Immutable unique?
Immutable were pioneers of zero-knowledge technology, allowing them to create Immutable zkEVM – a zero-knowledge-compatible Ethereum Layer-2 solution.
Immutable zkEVM is powered by zero-knowledge rollups, a technology that bundles multiple transactions together and processes them away from the main blockchain, reducing both load and costs on Ethereum processing for users. This allows Immutable to offer fast, reliable and cost-effective transactions at a heightened level of security and decentralisation.
On the developer-side, Immutable has a wide array of tools and documentation to support web3 game developers in integrating the Immutable blockchain and its numerous services, including both APIs and SDKs. This makes building on Immutable much more straightforward than with other Layer-2 options, and allows developers to focus on building great games, rather than worrying about how to implement blockchain technology.
For creators, Immutable also offers ways for players to create user-generated assets for select titles – and if other players decide to use these assets in-game, creators are guaranteed royalties, ensuring they are fairly compensated and incentivised to get involved.
The History of Immutable
Upon the release of Gods Unchained in 2018, it quickly became clear that due to its popularity, processing transactions directly on Ethereum wouldn’t be a feasible option. This quickly led to the release of Immutable later that same year, allowing for fast, reliable and cost-effective transactions to be executed for the burgeoning title.
Immutable launched its zk-rollup technology in January 2023, and subsequently launched the Immutable zkEVM blockchain – a zero-knowledge powered version of the standard Immutable blockchain that offers near-instant transactions with minimal fees, which became the purported future of the Immutable ecosystem.
Since its inception, Immutable has been the home of many of the best-quality web3 gaming titles – many from well-established ex-AAA developers. This includes the likes of MMOFPS title MetalCore, multi-title ecosystem Illuvium, and mobile TCG Cross The Ages.
Immutable has long been an advocate for blockchain technology and how it can revolutionise the gaming industry – and through its blockchain, technological innovations, robust tools and more, Immutable continues to be a go-to solution for both players and developers to this day.
By combining the infrastructure required to facilitate the ownership and reward mechanisms that are the hallmarks of web3 gaming, alongside web2-friendly solutions that make it easy to get started in Immutable-based games – even without web3 knowledge – Immutable’s current array of titles are some of the most well-received in the industry thus far – and we can anticipate many more quality titles to release on Immutable in future.
As web3 gaming continues to evolve, Immutable’s role in shaping its future will be paramount. Whether you’re a developer looking to integrate blockchain technology into your next title, or a player looking to enjoy great games whilst enjoying the ownership and reward benefits that web3 provides, Immutable is well worth a look.
