Web3 infrastructure company Immutable X is poised to launch an all-in-one wallet log-in solution for games which bypasses passwords and seed phrases.
Immutable says their Passport works as a non-custodial wallet – ie, user remains in possession of assets – and authentication system across games and marketplaces that use Immutable tech. Players create the Passport account, authenticated using email or social logins, and then face a low-friction experience when logging into individual games.
Immutable notes in the press release: “Mainstream gamers don’t understand how web3 wallets work.”
The requirement for wallet login before playing a game is widely regarded in the gaming industry as a major impediment. For example, Neon CEO Mark Long (developer of Shrapnel) told Polemos that wallet logins should only be incorporated well into the playing experience, particularly for free-to-play games.
“If you put a wallet and KYC [know your customer] in front of a player at the very beginning, the average player’s going to say ‘fuck that man. I’m not gonna do that. Any friction in free-to-play gets players to bounce out.”
The interview with Long forms the basis for an episode of the Key Characters podcast, coming soon to Polemos. Long wasn’t referring to Immutable X’s product.
In reaction to the Immutable announcement, Playground Labs CEO and Hivemind Capital partner Sam Peurifoy told Polemos he expected 2023 would see what he called the “Wallet Wars”.
“Social logins have been a very popular ‘web 2.5’ route for games (and dApps at large) to handle web2 customer flow over the past year. Venly and Gryfyn come to mind as other key options here.”
“2023 is likely to kick off what will later be known as the ‘Wallet Wars’, with tons of these custodial services vying for larger market share (just as 2021 saw self-custodial wallets going head-to-head), and most of them are likely to lean on gaming for immediate onboarding before pitching users DeFi.”
“Abstracting away web3 for ordinary users is a big plus, and gaming is poised to be an incidental first-line recipient of the onboarding benefits here.”
We received Peurifoy’s comment by email. See this longer interview where he discusses the importance of user experience (UX), which will also be featured in Key Characters.
According to Immutable, another advantage of its system is that gamers will not have to pop out of the gaming experience to approve each wallet transaction. It has an AI-based monitor to detect unusual transactions, which will trigger two-factor authentication.
Immutable says it will launch Passport in April.
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