A new console dedicated to Web 3 gaming was announced, which immediately met with resistance from some gamers.
Web 3 company Polium claims its ‘Polium One’ system will be “the world’s first multi-chain gaming console” capable of running games built on different blockchains.
“The console will be powerful enough to run high performance games and will be easy to use for the traditional gamer who doesn’t understand Web 3,” claims Polium.
The console, which Polium says will be released in the third quarter of 2024, will only be available for pre-order by players who purchase the “Polium Pass,” an NFT on the Ethereum network of which 10,000 will be minted.
According to Polium, the console controller will include a fingerprint scanner for security and a “wallet” button that will give players quick access to the console’s multi-chain wallet designed to “trade, exchange, deposit and receive cryptocurrency.”
Despite Polium’s admission that only four people are working on the hardware, it also claims that the console will be capable of 8K HDR at 120fps and ray tracing.
The announcement was met with a lot of criticism and skepticism from many players who at best are not yet convinced of the benefits of blockchain games and at worst believe it to be a scam.
Some have also pointed out that the console logo appears to be an upside-down take on the GameCube logo.
“Looks familiar, but the GameCube has a G and the cube represents their name,” the company responded on Twitter. “Our cube represents blockchain and the P stands for poly.”
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Not even the newly formed Polium Discord server, which seemed to have started without moderation, was without criticism.
In Discord’s “scam alert” channel, which is probably set up to allow users to report potential NFT scams, several users simply replied “this whole project”.
In the “ideas and feedback” channel, the first comment simply says: “dismiss”.
Polium has now released a statement on Discord addressing the initial reaction, accusing some of “FUD,” an acronym that stands for “Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt.”
“We have received FUD and criticism about our ability to execute,” the statement said. “To clarify, the four of us are building a functional prototype for the console and controller.
“We have experience in hardware and software development. We are currently working on a power tree for the console board. We should have a functional prototype by November or earlier.
“We’ll show the prototype live on YouTube or have a trusted influencer show you everything. The prototype will demonstrate that the console can run games that are on different blockchains and built with different programming languages.
“We will not be taking any pre-orders/funding until we show the prototype and the community is interested. Once we have a functional prototype, we will build the console for production.
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Regarding the lack of any confirmed games, the statement reads: “The games will be on the console and we will make some announcements soon. We are currently talking to game developers.
“We didn’t copy Nintendo’s GameCube logo for the logo. However, we are listening to the community and will be hiring a new illustrator to design a more original logo for us.”
He concludes: “Some of you are not into Web 3 and are just here for fun and FUD. But we will start banning people. Anything is possible if you are passionate about a problem. We will deliver. Stay on the hook.”
