Creds, PlaySafe ID target growing business for digital ID in videogames

Whether it’s making sure a player is actually human or making sure the right person is signing in to play as their avatar, verifiable digital identity is a growing trend in the video games industry.

The latest tie-up is between cheqd.io’s reputation platform Creds, which was built by cheqd.io, with esports company AK Esports, a division of AK Informatica Tech.

The partnership with Creds will enable AK Esports to generate verifiable digital IDs for drivers who compete in major sim racing titles. Known as Driver ID, this will allow players to own and transfer their in-game achievements across their career.

“Driver ID will streamline onboarding and user identification processes for a range of tournaments and activations for both onsite and offline, mitigating the risk of incorrectly identifying users, and allowing legitimate drivers to prove their reputation and standing,” says Alessio Cicolari, CEO of AK Group.

The collaboration paves the way for how sim racing talent is recognized, rewarded and advanced when concerns around cheating, impersonation and anonymized accounts are bypassed. By issuing verifiable credentials on Creds, players can build trusted profiles based on in-game achievements and race histories.

Creds are lightweight digital credentials that players can store in secure digital wallets. These credentials can be used by esports competitors to unlock exclusive competitions, gain sponsorship, and prove their standing. The credentials link to performance stats, event history and gaming platforms such as PlayStation or Steam.

The ability to aggregate and analyse player data would allow the esports organization to bring together the best players from across every series, pitting the fastest drivers across all competitions head to head. This could create an exclusive, elite-level competition.

That’s the vision from AK Esports and its partnership with Dallara, which created a joint venture Dallara – AK Esports that focuses on the tech development and international capabilities of Sim Racing. The partnership with creds.xyo will help implement this into reality, according to AK Esports.

“Partnering with AK Esports enables creds to be open to one of the largest sim racing gaming communities, showcasing a user owned and controlled history of verifiable Driver ID and career accolades, pioneering a much needed reusable onboarding and engagement experience,” said Fraser Edwards, co-founder and CEO of cheqd.io.

PlaySafe ID raises $1.12 million

PlaySafe ID has raised $1.12m (€1 million) in pre-seed funding, with the platform promising to keep cheaters, hackers, predators and bots out of games.

The round was led by Early Game Ventures with participation from Hartmann Capital and Overwolf. The capital will fuel “rapid expansion” and strategic platform integrations as PlaySafe ID targets over 250,000 users in the coming months.

“This round gives us the firepower to move fast, expand our world-class team, and partner with games that want the most fair and safe environment for players to enjoy,” said Andrew Wailes, CEO of PlaySafe ID. Wailes referenced the Online Safety Act as ushering in requirements for child protection in gaming, making compliance essential.

PlaySafe ID issues a verified and anonymised digital ID that can be used to prove a user is real and hasn’t been caught cheating or being inappropriate to children in games. “PlaySafe ID builds a network-effects flywheel,” says Cristian Munteanu, managing partner at Early Game Ventures. “Once a gamer is verified through PlaySafe ID, that identity becomes portable across games, platforms, and genres.”

“Gaming has quickly become the new social center of our world, with over 3 billion active gamers globally,” commented Felix Hartmann, managing partner at Hartmann Capital. Hartmann observed that despite this “immense” social and economic value, the ecosystem remains patchy. “Accountability is fragmented across platforms, allowing bad actors to evade consequences by simply creating new accounts or migrating between games.”

As investors both Hartmann and Munteanu believe PlaySafe ID creates accountability and builds trust with a secure identity layer in games. The first PlaySafe ID partnerships with major gaming platforms are set to launch later this year, according to the company’s blog.

PlaySafe ID does have competitors in this space. Youverse is bringing its experience in privacy-first digital identity and biometric authentication, honed in banking and hospitality, to video games. “With the rise of in-game economies, secure identity verification is more critical than ever,” said Pedro Torres, CEO and co-founder of Youverse, at the announcement.

Razer, best known for its gaming-focused computers and accessories, has teamed up with World to combat bots. The “Razer ID verified by World ID” is a single sign-on (SSO) proof of human, a protocol intended to show a real person is behind every Razer ID account.

Razer is touting “Razer ID verified by World ID” as a benefit to game developers since they will have a tool to ensure real players, rather than bots, fill the digital landscape.

Article Topics

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