YouTube’s head of gaming, Ryan Wyatt, introduced as we speak that he is leaving YouTube and Google for blockchain enterprise Polygon Studios. February might be Wyatt’s final month at YouTube.
“I’ll miss YouTube dearly, however it’s time for me to pursue different endeavors in life and the place my passions are taking me,” Wyatt wrote in a farewell statement posted to Twitter. “I’m fascinated by blockchain app growth and am past thrilled to enter the web3 house.”
Wyatt was at YouTube for over seven years, and oversaw its push into recreation streaming and the high-profile poaching of Twitch streamers resembling Valkyrae, DrLupo, and TimTheTatman. In a Washington Post article revealed final 12 months (which I noticed as we speak after its author pointed to it on Twitter), Wyatt, who was an esports commentator himself, emphasised the significance of work-life stability for contracted streamers.
“I believe stream grind is an actual factor,” Wyatt mentioned on the time. “I believe stream burnout is an actual factor. I’m not making an attempt to deliver folks over right here to stream 150 to 200 hours a month. I don’t assume that’s wholesome. It’s not what we’re making an attempt to create at YouTube.”
The corporate Wyatt is becoming a member of is named Polygon, however is just not associated to the gaming web site of the identical title—a complicated alternative, particularly since its purple emblem is considerably related. Polygon makes an open supply protocol and framework meant to assist builders construct, safe, and scale Ethereum-compatible blockchain networks. The gist, in line with Polygon, is that the Ethereum blockchain is a well-liked however problematic strategy to transact cryptocurrency and NFTs, and Polygon makes it simpler for blockchain builders to interface with it securely.
Wyatt will lead part of the corporate known as Polygon Studios, which he says entails “gaming, leisure, trend, information, sports activities, and extra.” The Polygon Studios web site is a placeholder, however the Studios part of the company’s blog reveals what it is centered on: ‘play-to-earn’ recreation ideas and NFT initiatives, primarily. Polygon partnered with Atari for an NFT challenge, for instance, and final October, it partnered with fantasy sports activities contest and betting app DraftKings “to speed up the adoption of NFTs and Web3.”
We lately took a take a look at the year ahead in NFT gaming projects, and whereas there’s quite a lot of speak about decentralization, “the metaverse,” cryptocurrency, and NFTs, most main recreation publishers have not introduced any concrete blockchain entanglements right now. What at present exists within the house appears to be like roughly like a list of failed 2013 Kickstarter initiatives, however this is yet one more main determine plunging into the enterprise—what’s going to come of it’s anybody’s guess.
In associated information, YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki said today that the positioning is considering “increasing the YouTube ecosystem to assist creators capitalize on rising applied sciences, together with issues like NFTs.”
