⚡Bitcoin Lightning payments in a major AAA game 🎮

ZBD – the leading fintech company powering instant Bitcoin payments within the gaming industry – has integrated its payment technology into Splitgate, a Free-to-Play PvP Portal Shooter developed by 1047 Games, further adding to its roster of game integrations. This integration brings real-time rewards to the PC version of the competitive shooter. The ZBD-developed project has been created for mainstream gaming audiences to experience Splitgate in an innovative new way, offering high-value tournament prizes that bring a new competitive edge to Splitgate gameplay.

With a tournament prize pot of 50M sats (0.5 Bitcoin), Splitgate PC gamers from the US and Brazil will be competing for a prize pool equivalent to approximately $18,000 USD at today’s market price. ZBD is demonstrating the disruptive potential of its technology in esports and competitive play by providing instant tournament winnings to gamers in the form of sats, which are tiny fragments of Bitcoin (like pennies to the dollar). The 4v4 team deathmatch tournament begins on the 10th December 2023, with a grand final on the 22nd December 2023. A limited beta warm-up will run in the build-up to the tournament from the 2nd of December. Gamers can participate in the tournament by registering in the dedicated ZBD Discord server.

Competitive gamers are often required to wait days, or even weeks to receive prizes. With ZBD and its application of the Bitcoin Lightning Network, winning payments can be paid out instantly. No money is required from gamers to play, although pay-ins are accepted for PvP battles for a share of the Bitcoin prize pot.

The debut project from 1047 Games, Splitgate, has generated more than 18 million downloads across various platforms since it launched in 2019. The multiplayer shooter, featuring innovative player-centric portal mechanics, provides a fresh take on the FPS genre.

Ben Cousens, Chief Strategy Officer at ZBD, commented:

“We’re delighted to collaborate with Ian, Nick and the phenomenal team at 1047 Games to redefine the reward system in gaming and give players a revolutionary new way to experience in-game competition. For developers and publishers alike, this integration delivers a proven gamer retention model as evidenced by this partnership, and the additional 100+ games powered by ZBD. With the ZBD-infused version of Splitgate, we’ve raised the bar for competitive gameplay by seamlessly providing Bitcoin rewards to gamers who demonstrate skill and loyalty.”

Ian Proulx, CEO and Co-founder of 1047 Games, added:

“With Splitgate, we’ve proudly carved out a reputation for creating highly innovative gameplay experiences. Splitgate continues to have a loyal and engaged player base. We’re always excited to hear innovative solutions to reward our players, such as what ZBD has done, and the tournament that they plan to hold later this month.”

The ZBD wallets of tournament winners will instantly receive sats which can be cashed out, spent, sent to friends or redeemed for gift cards. This is enabled by pioneering technology from ZBD, which has raised almost $50 million since 2019 to build its payments technology on top of the Lightning Network, a layer 2 network for instant Bitcoin transactions.