Aethir partners with Magic Eden to jointly build a unified gaming ecosystem.

Distributed GPU cloud infrastructure Aethir has partnered with the leading multi-chain NFT platform Magic Eden to integrate Aethir's enterprise-grade "GPU-as-a-Service" infrastructure with Magic Eden's NFT platform, creating a unified gaming ecosystem and establishing Magic Eden as the preferred NFT platform for Aethir's gaming clients.

Against the backdrop of the rapid development of the modern gaming industry, blockchain gaming projects heavily rely on the core mechanism of NFTs. NFTs aim to tokenize in-game items, equipment, avatars, etc., providing players with more interactivity and value. Magic Eden, known for its multifunctionality in the NFT space, plays a pivotal role in blockchain gaming projects, providing crucial support for the creativity of various entities in the gaming sector.

However, as blockchain gaming gains traction, the demand for GPU computing power has significantly increased. In response to this challenge, Aethir offers the raw GPU resources needed to power the next generation of blockchain games. Leveraging Aethir's distributed cloud infrastructure, Web3 gaming projects can ensure a seamless, immersive gaming experience for users worldwide.

Aethir CEO Daniel Wang stated, "Magic Eden is a true NFT powerhouse, bringing unparalleled expertise in supporting blockchain gaming and Web 3 innovations. As a leader in the NFT trading market, their role complements Aethir's disruptive GPU cloud infrastructure for cloud gaming. The collaboration between Aethir and Magic Eden is about the scalability of blockchain gaming, providing seamless integration of resources for NFT gaming studios to onboard millions of new users globally. The combination of our GPU infrastructure and Magic Eden's NFT marketplace will be a crucial component of the next generation of Web3 games."

Chris Akhavan, COO of Magic Eden, mentioned in an interview with GamesBeat, "Aethir's computing infrastructure holds the potential to address critical distribution issues in Web3 gaming. Web3 gaming studios have the opportunity to surpass mainstream app stores, allowing players to access Web3 games instantly without the lengthy download and installation process."

"Magic Eden is currently the world's largest NFT marketplace, covering Ethereum, Polygon, Solana, and Bitcoin, recently integrating the Base mainnet and featuring a multi-chain wallet. In terms of gaming, our primary product for game developers is the project launch platform," Akhavan said.

"This means game developers can mint NFT collections on Magic Eden and present them to the majority of NFT collectors or gamers, enabling smooth, seamless transactions based on the secondary market."

Aethir's Chief Revenue Officer Paul Thind emphasized the role of this partnership in accelerating innovation in the rapidly evolving Web3 gaming sector and the synergies between Aethir's distributed GPU cloud platform and Magic Eden's community-centric NFT marketplace.

"We see a lot of people just wanting to come in, play quickly, and then move on to other things. The partnership with Magic Eden can indeed achieve this as they have NFTs for purchase," Thind noted.

Reshaping the Future of Gaming Landscape

Magic Eden stated that this collaboration represents an important step towards a seamless, scalable, and immersive Web3 gaming experience, with the potential to reshape the gaming landscape in the coming years.

Aethir mentioned that it is leveraging advanced, distributed enterprise-grade GPU computing infrastructure tailored for artificial intelligence and gaming to completely transform DePIN and has garnered support from leading Web3 investment institutions such as Framework Ventures, Merit Circle, Hashkey, Animoca Brands, Sanctor Capital, Infinity Ventures Crypto IVC, and others.

Thind noted that Aethir has raised approximately $105 million and is integrating its "GPU-as-a-Service" cloud gaming technology with various games, allowing these games to access its decentralized GPU cloud infrastructure platform. This is all enterprise-grade, focused on artificial intelligence and gaming, making "GPU-as-a-Service" available so that game developers can more easily reach players using cloud gaming technology, thus streamlining the onboarding process for Web3, which in turn reduces costs for game developers.

"We believe this collaboration is a natural fit," Thind said.

Akhavan pointed out that mainstream app stores have some strict limitations on how game developers can build and design Web3 games, making game distribution very challenging. Typically, if you want to create a true blockchain game, you have to find a direct way to distribute the game. In Web3, downloading 10GB of content to the client brings significant friction costs, and Web3 itself already has enough friction costs.

Despite these frictions, Akhavan stated that with the surge in Bitcoin prices, Web3 is taking off again, and there is a stronger sense of optimism about the market's performance this year compared to the past few years. Akhavan believes that Magic Eden is a trusted site for purchasing NFTs, which helps improve game discoverability. In recent years, due to Apple's increased focus on privacy over targeted advertising, the discoverability of games has been greatly diminished.

A New Wave for Web3 Gaming

When asked about the outlook for the Web3 gaming market, Akhavan believes that the situation is better than last year.

"Last year's crypto bear market was definitely a tough year. Many investors disappeared, leading to many game startups that received early funding struggling to secure more funds, just barely surviving. But what we are seeing now is startups rising again, and they are starting to receive real attention," he said.

He added, "In terms of revenue, user base, and all the metrics we typically look at when investing in games, these startups are showing real appeal, and they are able to get new funding support, which is very important. This is a huge affirmation of Web3 games, as we are now witnessing a new wave, and we will see many games with high playability."

Ubisoft is returning to Web3 games, and Maplestory, Parallel, and Pixels are all making good progress, while Eve Online is developing its Web3 project. Web3 gaming company GFAL has raised funds from Supercell and Mitch Lasky and has received support from game pioneer Trip Hawkins. Akhavan and Thind stated that as the industry grows, both Aethir and Magic Eden can expand beyond Asia more easily and develop globally.