Microsoft to Roll Out Blockchain Technology for XBox

By Kapil Gauhar

Microsoft and EY have collaborated together on a Blockchain product for publishing royalties. The product if successful can globally transform the way video game developers, publishers, and creators with all types of money they make.

The infrastructure has been made using Microsoft’s Azure cloud while being built on the Quorum Blockchain.  The Blockchain will be first tested on Xbox, one of the most popular gaming consoles.

Last week, the company started with content rights and royalties platform that was made on the Blockchain. This gives access to Microsoft to process huge volumes of transactions in a faster and more reliable way. The new Blockchain will allow publishers in music, gaming, video, television and other industries to create and agree on business terms. The technology could manage various mediums of Microsoft’s network that need intellectual property licensing. This technology is expected to be world’s leading Blockchain ecosystems where it will cloud-over thousands of royalty partners.

The Blockchain aims to have a faster working system. When users buy content, the royalties are coded on the Blockchain based on the previously agreed process. Then the money gets reviewed and distributed to the right publishers. This would all speed up from a normal 45 days for the clicks to get converted to money and reach the publisher to a much faster pace. All this would happen in a more mechanized system.

This, however, is a very complex process involving thousands of software vendors and publishing house and innumerable titles that they have. There are numerous products sold around the world with different regulations. Each product follows its own specific jurisdiction, tax rules, purchasing rule, contracts and payment terms.

The system is expected to reduce transaction cost for publishers by 99 percent and will also reduce Microsoft’s own operating cost to half.