Ubisoft has announced that its fifth season of Entrepreneurs Lab will be focused on blockchain and social entertainment startups. This means that new blockchain gaming companies may have a shot at some big help.
Ubisoft made the announcement on the Entreprenuers Lab official homepage. It is now accepting applications for the May to October season.
The Ubisoft Entrepreneurs Lab features a six month mentorship with the possibility for further collaboration in the future.
Ubisoft: A Gaming Giant
Ubisoft is one of the largest gaming companies in the world. It is best known for its Tom Clancy video game series, as well as for the Assassin’s Creed, Rayman, Prince of Persia, Far Cry, and Just Dance franchises.
Ubisoft was founded in 1986 and is located in Montreuil, France.
In 2019, it brought in over $2.19 billion in revenue – according to industry research provided by Newzoo. This makes it one of the top 20 largest gaming companies.
The Ubisoft Entrepreneurs Lab
The Entrepreneurs Lab is part of the Strategic Innovation Lab, a project Ubisoft created to help it anticipate future opportunities.
Startups who qualify get six months of free mentoring from Ubisoft’s experts in UX design, art, marketing, production, and other fields.
In addition, Ubisoft claims that these sessions are intended to “create valuable collaborations between each startup and the Ubisoft Group as a whole.” Presumably, these sessions could lead to more substantial business deals between blockchain startups and Ubisoft itself.
Season 5
The Entreprenuers Lab has had four previous seasons. The current season, Season 5, is slated to begin in May, 2020. Companies that seek mentorship have until March of this year to begin the application process.
In addition to mentoring blockchain startups, Ubisoft wants to help companies involved in the social entertainment or social networking space.
Past participants
In the past, the Ubisoft Entreprenuers Lab has worked with startups from a wide variety of tech and gaming related fields. Here is a brief list of companies that have benefited from the program recently.
Immersiv.io
Immersiv.io is a company that offers augmented reality products for sports enthusiasts. It recently released a 5G smartphone app that offers game information to fans attending soccer matches.
Azarus
Azarus is a bounty-reward and game challenge network. It offers tokens called “AZA credits” to players who interact with their favorite streamers.
Azure is partially funded by Galaxy Digital, a cryptocurrency investment bank, and AZA credits are intended to be blockchain-backed at some point in the future.
Planetarium
Planetarium is the developer of a blockchain gaming platform that claims to eliminate fees for players. It is also the creator of a completely moddable blockchain RPG called Nine Chronicles.
Synapse
Synapse is a blockchain-backed, digital identity platform. It enhances security by allowing users to verify their identity across multiple websites through private keys. This dispenses with the need for usernames and passwords that could otherwise be hacked or stolen.
Savitar
Savitar is a cryptocurrency exchange that features 0.1% cap on fees and community involvement in coin listings.
CareGame
CareGame is a cloud gaming platform for mobile games. It allows players to stream games from their mobile devices – dispensing with the need for gamers to have large amounts of memory on their phones.
CareGame plans to produce a cryptocurrency token that will be used to reward game hosts for keeping speeds high.
What do you think of Ubisoft’s desire to mentor new blockchain-oriented companies? Will this speed development of new gaming technology? Or is the blockchain revolution inevitable…in which case Ubisoft’s help might not be needed?
Let us know your thoughts in the comments below.
