New PC storefront allows players to resell their digital titles, with publishers to set the pricing

InXile Entertainment founder Brian Fargo has created a new PC games storefront utilising blockchain technology. 

Robot Cache’s aim is to reduce the fees paid by publishers and developers by 80 per cent according to the official announcement. The newly created firm claims to have the “the lowest transaction fees of any digital PC video game distribution platform” with devs and publishers being able to retain up to 95 per cent of the sales income – which is “25% higher than the current industry standard,” the announcement said.

The platform will also allow developers and publishers to control the price of their second hand digital games and keep 70 per cent of the resale proceeds. 25 per cent of the sale will go back to the player reselling the game. 

Allowing players to resell their digital PC games purchased on Robot Cache is the other innovation from the storefront. “Selling their digital games earn them digital tokens, named IRON, Robot Cache’s cryptocurrency, which they can use toward the purchase of another game on the Robot Cache platform,” the announcement explained.

Brian Fargo commented: “Earning any money on the video game resale market is unheard of for game publishers, and earning up to 70 per cent, which is equivalent to the best margins publishers and developers currently receive on today’s most popular digital distributions platforms is crazy. Allowing creators to keep 95 per cent of new game sales, and 70 per cent on game resales, provides developers, like us at inXile, with a strong financial stream. This gives us more resources to create new content and new IPs for fans.”

Fargo also said on Twitter that Ark: Survival Evolved developer Studio Wildcard was already aboard, with further announcements on future publishers to be expected soon.

Robot Cache’s CEO Lee Jacobson added: “Just a handful of companies dominate the multi-billion dollar digital download PC video games market. Robot Cache plans to revolutionize the industry by launching the first-ever workable decentralized video game marketplace that benefits both the creators of video games and gamers. All of this is accomplished by expertly leveraging the power, flexibility, safety, and transparency of blockchain technology.”