Newsletter #26: Apple Strikes Again!

From The Editor

GM Tigers,

First and foremost, a big announcement: we launched the first Tegro bounties last week.So drop everything you’ve got, sign up now and go play some One World Nation Bounties on Tegro.

Now let’s look at an interesting development that transpired in the last couple of days.

Apple updates its policy for NFTs

We covered Apple’s restrictive policies for NFTs and crypto in this news letter previously. Well, the tech giant recently made some updates to its NFT policy, and we’re not yet sure how we feel about it.

To bring you up to speed:

Web3 projects are discouraged from releasing their platforms on IOS. This is due to the extremely high fees that the tech giant charges for in-app purchases.
Popular Web3 platforms like OpenSea and Magic Eden only allow users to view their personal collection and explore other NFT on their IOS offerings. Users have to switch platforms to buy, sell, or trade these assets.
Apple previously did not have a clearly defined rule set for NFTs on its platform, but it does now.
According to the new rules, Web3 apps are allowed to list, mint, view, and transfer NFT assets. However, the ownership of NFTs should not unlock any features or content within the app.
Furthermore, the App Store won’t allow Web3 apps to have their own payment rails, so users are restricted to purchasing NFT assets with Apple’s in-app payments system.

What this actually means for Web3 gaming:

We believe that clarity is good for the space, and Apple's new policy set brings us some much needed clarity on where the tech giant stands when it comes to NFTs and Web3 gaming. It comes as no surprise to us that Apple is vying to maintain tight control over this emerging space. The tech giant has been notorious for being a gated ecosystem. Now to the bad part: mobile is very crucial for the adoption of Web3 native platforms and Apple undeniably rules the mobile space. Over 1.5 billion people use iPhones across the world. That's freaking 18.75 percent of the world’s population. This puts Apple in a position from where it can easily inhibit or boost the growth of Web3.

On a positive note, it's great that NFTs and other Web3 native technologies are finally entering the mainstream conversation.

Another industry-leading gatekeeper that is following in the footsteps of Apple is Steam, the popular games marketplace. Last week, Gala Games announced that their NFT shooter title "Superior" will be available on Steam by the end of this year. This took us by surprise as Steam has been quite adamant about not allowing NFT and any other crypto'stuff’ on its platform. Spoiler alert: they haven't changed that stance even now. According to Gala, the Steam version of their game will not have any NFTs. Users will need to change the platform to unlock full NFT functionalities. We've heard that one before, haven't we? One thing remains to be seen-is the pull of these emerging technologies strong enough to change the position of industry leaders?

Web3 Gaming News

Twitter Spaces

Last week we had an amazing Twitter Spaces session with One World Nation’s co-founder Dinesh Goel. We talked about the ingenious cryptoverse of OWN, their latest listing on our platform and the state of Web3 gaming. Listen here to learn more