Ultra — disrupting gaming distribution market
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Current Circulating Supply: 113.140.878 UOS
Total Token Supply: 1 billion UOS
Market Cap: $3.17M
Token type: ERC20 utility tokens
(until native Mainnet’s UOS tokens)
ROI: -44% (25th Nov 2019)
Exchanges: Bitfinex, Coinone, Bitrue
GENERAL INFO
Country: Estonia
Project category: Infrastructure
What are they trying to accomplish? Ultra is a blockchain-based games publishing platform and marketplace that offers solutions to both developers and players. The goal is to disrupt the game market system by cutting the almost monopolistic middlemen, firstly conquer the Chinese market, but also spreading the business and the platform to South East Asia and the West.
MARKET AND COMPETITION
The world’s downloaded PC games market is currently worth $32 billion, increasing yearly. The global games market will generate $152.1 billion in 2019. There are currently about 1.3 billion PC gamers, increasing by 50 million yearly. Impressive numbers right?
If we look at the Chinese market, as it is Ultra’s first target market, we can see that it is very tough to enter and highly competitive. On top of that, it is saturated with restrictions, regulations, and censorship. On the other hand, China accounted for more than one-quarter of all global game revenues, reaching $37.9 billion in 2018. Chinese gaming market leads globally by revenues and by the number of players. This market is highly regulated and hard to enter but it also offers a massive opportunity for game developers and other gaming companies like Ultra as there are mostly just Tencent and NetEase that dominate the gaming market.
Do you already see the golden opportunity? Not yet? Let us check the biggest player in the games distribution market. The one that changed everything, the actual digital distribution pioneer — Valve’s Steam.
Steam is a video game digital distribution service platform developed by Valve in 2003. They started with offering patches and updates but moved to games downloading in 2012. In 2017, Valve announced that Steam had reached over 67 million monthly and 33 million daily active users on the platform and $4.3 billion in sales. Steam averaged 47 million daily active users and 90 million monthly active users in 2018, which makes almost a 30% increase of daily active users in one year. Almost 12% of all games are being distributed through the Steam platform, which takes a 30% revenue share but currently offers the best customer support. Steam is the most popular games distribution platform as it covers almost 30.000 games from AAA to indie, all provided with automatic patches and updates. Offline mode, free to use service, democratic Steam’s Greenlight (which allows gamers to vote for the games they want to buy and play) and Steam’s Workshop (an online software tool that enables devs and also gamers to create, modify and upload their creations for Workshop-compatible games), third-party distribution support and very good customer support is the highlights of Steam.
Steam takes a very big 30% share of game revenues. Ultra will provide a more fair alternative with taking half of that with a 15% cut.
While Steam covers about 12%, the 88% of downloaded PC games are distributed by some other independent platforms (GoG, Itch.io for indie games, Gamersgate, Battle.net, etc.) and mostly by the developers themselves (Origin which offers a yearly subscription for $30 to download over 170 EA games, Epic Games Store, Ubisoft’s Uplay, Microsoft Store, etc.).
There are some great gaming blockchain projects that may be dealing with some similar features as Ultra offers, but only Equiti is also designated as a video game distribution platform that runs on blockchain. We can mention WAX and Enjin that offer the creation of Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs) as well, even the Xaya blockchain gaming ecosystem.
There are also some game streaming solutions from Google Stadia and Microsoft xCloud, which might affect games downloading platforms like Steam or Ultra. There are still some serious issues with latency and graphical quality due to game compression so those solutions need quite some time to evolve and offer an actual alternative.
TECHNOLOGY
Distributed Ledger Type: Blockchain
Description: Ultra is actually a fork of EOS. It uses the EOSIO blockchain tailored to its purposes with a capacity of up to 11.000 tps. There is no more waiting with Ultra as users are able to start playing the game before having completed the download (they just need 30Mb and action).
Ultra ecosystem consists of the Desktop App with built-in Ultra Miner, which mines the most profitable altcoins supported by the users GPU, the Go Companion Mobile App, and the Ultra SDK, which allows third parties to build and operate their own game distribution platforms or viral goods websites.
Implemented also ADS technology that allows efficient promotion for devs or influencers, even incentives for the users. This marketing tool is already being used and adopted by other companies, so Ultra can immediately start using it.
Ultra also offers Cloud Code, which allows corrections without having to release a full patch update of the game and NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) creation. NFTs allow game devs to represent their game’s virtual items on the blockchain and possibly NTTs (Non-Transferable Tokens) if the developer needs additional not tradeable and transferable features such as permission access, licenses, and certificates to make ownership more decentralized. NFTs are actually one of the major advantages that blockchain technology can offer as they prove authenticity and ownership. The moment they are created, they are auto-certified. NFTs can easily be transferred and even traded (if such feature is added when NFT is created) on distributed marketplaces or native marketplace, such as Ultra’s.
A very good example of NFT’s use-case is a game called Crypto Space Commanders where NFTs for Star Trek special edition ships were sold for up to $30000.
Consensus mechanism: Permissioned DPoS with a small number of nodes (up to 21 block providers).
Mainnet: should launch until the end of 2019 (before the open beta launch).
MVP (Minimum Viable Product): currently closed beta, open beta scheduled after Mainnet launch.
You can check their closed Beta in this video: https://youtu.be/s1vHDkIUUr8
Github info and code review link: No Github, closed code.
Ultra’s digital game store
TOKENOMICS
Token use case: Strong token utility use case with native tokens being used for the game and items purchases, ads services, and incentives, p2p payments, referral rewards, NFTs and mined crypto payments.
All transactions are completed on the blockchain with native tokens, which will cause a constant demand for Ultra token as the ecosystem grows. UOS native token is going to be pegged to FIAT for a seamless and non-volatile user experience. The token is used across the platform for non-purchase related transactions including the stacking program, betting applications, tournaments, tipping, and many more.
Investors: Bitfinex, others unknown
Token offering details:
· Seed token price was $0.063 (5.2% share),
· Private sales token price was $0.071 (4%) and $0.077 (0.4%) in another round. Both deals have tokens locked for 3 months and 11% vesting each month after,
· Public offering happened on Bitfinex. IEO token price was $0.05 (10%) and tokens unlocked.
Company reserve and team tokens are locked for one year and represent a 28% share of total token supply. Vesting of team tokens was changed from two years to one and a half years.
Partners and advisors have their 4.8% share of tokens locked for one year, with tokens vesting over a year after that.
Token metrics were changed and updated in favor of investors from those written in the whitepaper, which was written in the early stages.
Ultra is very transparent about UOS token metrics, all the details are available in this article: https://bit.ly/2Ctoknr. Token distribution seems to be regular. We will have to wait for the Mainnet’s UOS token metrics though. Those metrics will be available before the swap from ERC20 tokens to the Mainnet.
The graphic presentation of Ultra token distribution is shown in a picture below.
Ultra’s UOS token distribution presentation
GOVERNANCE
Centralized and permissioned blockchain is governed with up to 21 Technical and Corporate nodes, Block Producers that make decisions, and run the ecosystem. Corporate Block Producers will be comprised of carefully selected video gaming industry partners that are well aware of the specific needs of gamers and game distribution. Ultra’s governance model lacks the EOS DPoS (Delegated Proof-of-Stake) consensus approval voting system with the staking of tokens, where the more tokens you own, the more voting power you have. By disabling the voting by staking UOS, Ultra will be able to onboard new partners and enterprises much easier as they will join the regulated and controlled environment, which will meet their standards. New partners will appreciate the Technical and Corporate Block Producers, which will jointly run the blockchain. This governance model might be easier adopted by the gaming industry and global gaming markets.
There is no decentralized governance and decentralized network of nodes in Ultra blockchain, but a strategically wise chosen blockchain-based centralized governance model with decentralized features on their blockchain.
Block Producers will be paid with inflation (rather than fees). Inflation is determined in FIAT but paid in UOS. It is not known what share the Block Producers will earn. The initial three block producers are Bitfinex, EOS Rio, and EOS New York. Recently Ubisoft joined as Corporate Block Producer.
PARTNERSHIPS
Ultra has announced several partnerships including Crypto Gamers, Master Ventures, Bright Law Firm, Xangle, IBC, UCCVR, VROOM, POINT95, and three exchanges Bitfinex, Coinone, Bitrue. There are more partnerships announcements expected after the open Beta.
Recently they announced a new and probably the most important partner so far — the gaming giant Ubisoft, which will be also their Corporate Block Producer.
Ultra is part of the Blockchain Game Alliance among Ubisoft, Consensys, Alto, Gimli, Everdreamsoft, B2Expand, Enjin, and Fig!
David Hanson Co-CEO of Ultra stated on Telegram: “We have secured 2 major partnerships. One Chinese giant that will operate Ultra in China who owns 70 Million monthly active PC Gamers”.
TEAM AND ADVISORS
The team consists of more than 50 regular employees amongst which are 4 developers related to blockchain. The core of the team is long-time friends and business colleagues Co-CEO David Hanson and Co-CEO Nicolas Gilot, both with strong connections in China. Others are CTO Michael Dunn and CSO Edward Moalem.
There are three advisors on board with Ritchie Corpus (industry veteran with vast experience), Allen Foo (former Microsoft director, lots of experience and connections in China), and Alexandre Mironesco (investment banker) adding value to Ultra with their knowledge, experience, and connections.
COMMUNITY
· Telegram 2.7k members https://t.me/ultra_io
•Twitter 2.5k followers https://twitter.com/Ultra_io
•Facebook 2.3k followers https://www.facebook.com/ultra.platform
•Medium 0.7k followers https://medium.com/ultra-io
The team is very transparent and prompt by providing explanations and updates to the community whose activity and involvement in social media is average but the posts content quite competent and quality.
The community is not that big yet and the project is still under the radar. Ultra is doing some AMAs and interviews but there is no actual public awareness yet. Looks like the team is currently focusing on finishing their product, and will start with some more aggressive and globally oriented marketing afterward.
ROADMAP
Ultra is about to launch its Mainnet and open Beta. They had to change the roadmap and announced the release before the end of 2019 (one year later than stated in the whitepaper). There were some delays before but this is completely normal for a start-up.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Ultra wants to grab the bull by the horns by trying to begin with competing with gaming giants like Tencent and NetEase that dominate the strictly regulated Chinese market with more than 310 million PC gamers. They also tend to onboard new partners and move their business to Korea and Japan and other regions in the West. It will be a very hard and treacherous journey, in the beginning, to become recognizable and adopted by gamers and the gaming industry. This will take a lot of advertising.
Ultra has important attributes in a strong and experienced team that built the innovative and disruptive ecosystem with its own games distribution platform that has unique features, offers better profits and incentives that will attract gamers, developers, and advertisers.
Ultra will provide easy game porting from other platforms with their universal SDK, offer new marketing opportunities, bigger profits, and special features (Cloud Code and NTF) for developers and attract more players with incentives and fast game playing availability. Their band of gaming Corporate Block Producer partners might be a very valuable addition to the Ultra’s blockchain governance. Corporate gaming industry nodes have the most potential for making the right choices and finding the best solutions through the evolvement of the blockchain.
Those attributes and features are what competition lacks and could be the opportunity for Ultra to quickly become a very competent game distribution platform with huge potential of mainstream adoption in this vast and fast-growing gaming market.
It is hard to compare Ultra with other blockchain gaming projects as there are just a few offering similar solutions or just specific features.
If Ultra will actually have access to about 100 million PC gamers straight from the beginning, which represents almost one-quarter of the whole Chinese gaming population…well it is worth following to say at least.
Nicolas Gilot Co-CEO said: “Ultra has the game distribution aspect, with a strong foot in the Chinese market (biggest market for games), have over 100 game devs and publishers signed up (numerous renown ones), it’s very attractive to all those game devs to have both access to a better solution than what’s out there as that provides more revenue and new revenue streams, but also prime access to China. Ultra also relies on influencers/advertisment/3rd party products/services/platform integrations, it’s a full ecosystem, not only a place where you purchase your games. “
To share your thoughts about the project and get involved in other discussions please join us on our Telegram channel. Your feedback on the review will be much appreciated.
See you on the other side!
We also host team Ultra and get a chance to do a live interview with them on the 16th of January 2020.
We welcomed Co-CEO Nicolas Gilot, Co-CEO David Hanson and Lead Community Manager Emmanuel Gimenez together with a special guest David the Co-CEO!
Lots of interesting and essential topics were covered during this live event, so we made a summary for all that were not able to attend the AMA or anyone who just wants to go through the content again. The group the AMA took place in was called CryptoCaBital and is non-existent anymore.
https://medium.com/@CryptoCabital/cryptocabital-hosted-an-ama-with-ultra-io-bf005cd4567
info@cryp2gem.com
SOURCES:
https://ultra.io/wp-content/uploads/2018/06/Ultra-Whitepaper-1.03.pdf
https://medium.com/ultra-io/blockchain-governance-2609e699b49a
https://blockonomi.com/non-fungible-tokens/
https://medium.com/ultra-io/community-update-3-be31834b37ee
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1vHDkIUUr8&feature=youtu.be
https://medium.com/ultra-io/token-metrics-and-allocation-ca5d1de41ce2
https://www.wepc.com/news/video-game-statistics/
https://medium.com/@cryptolions/introducing-non-transferable-tokens-ntts-2f1a532bf170
https://www.cinemablend.com/games/Why-People-Love-Valve-Steam-Ten-Simple-Reasons-57115.html
