译文/Translated：
我们刚刚对话了Ultra的联合CEO Nicolas Gilot，和他畅谈他们马上要发布的、建立在EOSIO之上的游戏平台，该平台能给游戏开发者提供内容开发工具包。
能和我们聊聊Ultra吗？
Ultra是区块链驱动的电子游戏生态，它能给玩家、游戏开发者和游戏主播提供独一无二且创新的工具和功能。简单来说，我们在建立一个针对电子游戏行业的区块链。
我们正在这个区块链上搭建第一个应用，它就是Ultra Games，这个应用是一个类似于Steam的发布平台，玩家可以在上面购买各种PC端游戏。我们在创建一个框架，提供新的功能，如游戏转售、虚拟物品创造和交易、推荐系统，这些都是由这个EOSIO区块链所支持的。
第三方开发者和业内现有的企业可以使用我们的框架和用户基础，这样就会推动实现更繁荣的生态。
相比现在针对游戏开发者和玩家的其它应用，Ultra有什么特别的地方呢？
游戏市场竞争非常激烈，开发者在不断寻找新的方式让自己的游戏盈利。但是，主要的发布渠道收取的高佣金以及“免费游戏”（F2P）模式的兴起使得盈利的难度不断加大。
而首先，Ultra Games收取的费用低（15%，而Steam要30%），这是一个相对直接的竞争优势。
Ultra还利用EOSIO区块链技术给开发者新的方法制作游戏、获益和/或推广游戏。
其中一个特别有用的新工具是不可转换代币（NFTs）。游戏开发者可以利用NFTs创建特独特的游戏内物品，如武器和皮肤。他们可以利用NFTs提供限定版本的物品，甚至发行带着NFT的游戏。玩家加密证明NFT的所有权—他们可以在整个游戏里面使用NFT，也可以在二级市场出售这些代币。
利用我们的NFT解决方法，Ultra可以给开发者提供新的利润，这样他们就可以以符合成本效益的方法推广游戏、继续在二级市场中获得收益。
Ultra的NFT标准用途非常广泛、它可以让游戏开发者通过交互界面无缝地创造和发行各类用途和转换属性的虚拟资产。这个科技最惊人的用例可能还没有出现，所以我们很高性地把它交到游戏开发者手上。
因为交易是通过智能合约执行的，开发者可以向转售NFT的玩家收取佣金。这就会刺激电子游戏和作为代币的数字资产的创造，对于玩家和开发者来说，这都具有价值，也会提供价值。
我们预见，NFT会成为游戏推广的一个重要工具，尤其是NFT和我们的双重推荐系统结合的时候。我们建立的Ultra能够提供高效的方式创造病毒和主播营销。
对于玩家来说，这是满足他们所有游戏需求的一站式购物商城。他们能够购买和玩游戏、和不同的社区交互、获得许多游戏相关的服务，比如电子竞技锦标赛、流媒体、博彩和物品交易。
玩家还参加平台某些活动赢得UOS代币，如问卷、体验版、报错。玩家不单单只是消费者，他们会更加融入到整个生态中。
现在玩家、流媒体和游戏开发者在推广活动、从中盈利和主张相应的所有权的时候会遇到一些限制，但是Ultra能够消除现在这些限制。整体来说，Ultra在创造一个更公平、更统一的游戏生态，有利于创造力的发展和价值的产生。
你怎么想到要开发Ultra的呢？
我们的联合CEO Nicolas和David过去已经合作过许多项目了，包括游戏工作室、一个产品货币化策略公司和面向中国市场的大型单机项目。这个单机项目包括开发定制的APU（一个芯片上的GPU+CPU）——它和游戏平台加到一起就差不多是一个游戏发布平台了。
他们清楚，从开发者和玩家的角度看，满足所有游戏需求的一站式解决方案能够极大地改善一系列情况：用户体验比以前好；潜在的商业互动数量增加；营销成本降低；生态参与者（游戏开发者、发布者、主播）收益简化，甚至可能增加；或许最重要的是，玩家能够深入参与这个新的经济。
“如果你买了一个游戏、和朋友一起玩、参加锦标赛、获得虚拟物品、还可以转售这些物品，然后看你最喜欢的竞技团队的直播……而这一切都无缝地在一个平台上实现，这样该有多好？”这就是我们在搭建Ultra Games及其框架的时候心里想的。
你为什么会使用区块链技术，尤其是，为什么会用EOSIO技术？
创新刻在我们的DNA中。区块链是电子游戏行业的新领土——它为创新企业提供了一个非常肥沃的土壤。在这个协作、用户生成信息、主播、和“我们即经济”驱动的世界，没有什么比区块链更有趣更刺激的了。
我们会选择EOSIO是因为，它是唯一一个能够满足大众市场需求的区块链技术：账户管理、高交易吞吐量、交易确认时间短，而所有这一切都是利用著名的成熟编程语言（C++）完成的。
您怎么个性化EOSIO技术满足自己的特殊用例的？
我们改变了和RAM、CPU和带宽相关的资源配置，把它重新包装成更符合商业模式的产品来满足Ultra的企业需求。所有的Ultra用户会获得每天的交易配额，而应用开发者能够接入框架让他们决定是否愿意在自己的应用上为重要的客户提供免费的交易。当网络不堵的时候，所有应用上的所有成员，包括有权免费使用的用户，都能进行免费交易。
有特殊交易需求的用户可以抵押UOS代币，确保他们能够在免费额度以外以及网络拥堵的时候进行交易。
当网络拥堵的时候，我们的协议更改能确保100%的CPU容量能够被使用。这就意味着，根据我们已经设定的某些优先顺序，我们能执行尽量多的交易。
我们还对管理系统进行了一些修改——Ultra需要对平台保证一定程度的控制，这样才能保证合适的、企业级别的商业环境。我们去掉了BP投票机制、人工设计了我们的BP，其中包括电子游戏行业和区块链领域著名的参与者，包括Ubisoft，Bitfinex，EOS NY 和 EOS Rio。
这并不是UOS代币就永远不会有投票权；我们只是觉得，现在没有一个模型足够可靠，符合我们的企业合伙人的标准。我们会继续关注这项工作，这方面我们也在做调研。同时，我们决定先手动保证企业合伙人能够享受我们放在Ultra区块链网络上的各种权利机制，从而保护这些伙伴的利益。
现在您处于什么阶段呢？
我们的项目在2017年启动，我们已经有50多名全职员工。有150多名游戏开发人员和发布者和我们签约了，我们还有极大合作伙伴，比如AMD，它们都让我们向前发展，让我们在区块链和电子游戏结合的这个新领域成为领军人物。
我们现在和选定一些合作伙伴对Ultra Games进行封闭测试，这样平台上线前，我们就可以收集反馈、改进现在的功能。随着时间的发展，团队会提供更多的信息，比如Ultra的主要功能和愿景等，毕竟，我们的愿景超越了整个游戏行业。
您面对了哪些挑战呢？您又是怎么克服的？
从零到有建立一个雄心勃勃的项目不容易——尤其是当有了这么多新成员之后。不管他们的背景如何，我们的成员都有很多要学习的新东西。
我们聘请了很多牛人，比如我们的CTO Michael Dunn和人力主管Paul Horrel，他们在其它公司都已经习惯应对这些挑战了。组织工作流和开发过程是建立动力和简化团队成员招募中最重要的任务。
团队现在发展很好，也在稳步发展，每天都越来越高效、创造力越来越强。我们也希望能够在欧洲设立分公司、增强我们的雇佣能力。
您计划怎么扩张呢？
从第一天起，我们建立的一切都预设，我们会有几百万的用户同时在线。我们利用现代科技，让我们的服务能够满足互联网规模的用户需求，理想状态下还能够满足所有的平台需求。
从业务的角度来看，我们和大型科技和游戏公司，如AMD和Ubisoft，的合作伙伴关系会给Ultra提供主要的玩家获得渠道。我们团队打算在欧洲和北美运行平台，同时，我们还会和当地的运营伙伴在中国、日本或韩国运行平台。我们已经和一些伙伴签订了合约，只是我们还没有正式宣布而已。
Ultra的扩张需求要求我们一方面建立自己的核心技术平台，这就包括区块链技术，以及区块链周边的产品，如我们的软件开发工具包（SDK）。另一方面，我们也需要敲定正确的区域合作伙伴来运营Ultra，这才能解决每日运营需求。
您参与了EOSIO社区哪些项目？社区对Ultra有怎样的反馈呢？
我们参加了很多聚会、我们也计划组织一些黑客马拉松项目，配合我们在EOSIO主网上线。
EOSIO社区是迄今对我们Ultra最热情的社区。我们很震惊地发现，社区成员从一开始对我们就充满支持。目前，我们和很多BP以及EOSIO生态中的项目已经开始讨论磋商。
和我们介绍一下您的团队和他们特殊的履历吧？
我们的联合CEO Nicolas Gilot 和 David Hanson过去多年已经在几个不同的业务领域中合作过了。他们的行政经历包括IT硬件、SEO和手机和PC游戏开发。
David在产品方面有很好的想法而Nicolas的强项则在管理业务、合作和策略上。具备成功所有的要素很难，你要清楚地知道未来是怎样的、还能落地现实创造未来……但我们有联合CEO，所以才有了更好的基础。
而CTO Michael Dunn担任技术执行官时也硕果累累，他之前在戴尔、时代华纳和其它大公司工作过。他是W3C组织的成员、还是Techstars的导师。他既有和初创企业合作的经历，也在世界上最主要的科技公司工作过，他还特别关注机器学习和人工智能。所以，把Ultra的愿景变成现实这方面，他再合适不过了。
Edward Moalem是我们的首席策略官，他之前在Apple和Google负责过游戏项目和内容。在这个领域，他收购过游戏，还在该领域促成了和几大公司的交易。正因为Edward的专业和人脉，所以Ultra才能和150多个开发者、发布商和主要合作伙伴签署协议。
我们很荣幸能够吸引这么多特别的天才加入Ultra，让我们共同实现我们的愿景。他们对电子游戏充满信心，也希望能让行业变得更好。
您还和哪些项目有合作呢？
我们一开始就宣布EOS NY, EOS RIO 和 Bitfinex会担任我们的技术BP，最近我们还宣布Ubisoft成为我们第一个企业BP，未来我们还会有更多。
我们还宣布将和全球技术巨头AMD实现营销和发布合作伙伴。我们会继续协作合作完成共同的市场活动，如促进区块链游戏使用和扩展的比赛和活动。ADM还会把代码发布给其客户，这样他们就可以因为在Ultra平台下载游戏获得金钱奖励，还能为他们整个用户基础提供Ultra的星级服务。
我们已经宣布的与世界主要科技和电子游戏公司的合作关系证明了Ultra的潜力。我们还在和一系列游戏开发者和其它潜在的合作伙伴洽谈中。
随着我们在EOSIO社区的履历不断提高，我们也在积极寻找更多潜在和合作关系。
您觉得区块链技术对电子游戏行业会产生怎样的影响？
正如互联网促成了大型多人在线角色扮演游戏、电子竞技、F2P游戏一样，区块链技术也会给我们带来新型的游戏模式。它会从很多方面改变电子游戏行业，甚至包括一些我们还不敢想象的方面。
当我们能开始意识到游戏增加了区块链的功能、带来了额外的收益，我们就会看到一大波的改变。当更多的开发者利用新方法创造和发布价值，新的解决方法就会出现，这就会缓慢、但必然会，改变他们制作游戏并从中获利地过程。
主要的影响就会在玩家和游戏和它们附加的服务互动中。不管是贡献者、团队成员还是流媒体，他们都会真正成为生态的一部分，而不需要理解区块链是什么。他们只要好好享受EOSIO科技带来的新功能就可以。
您认为Ultra的未来会怎样？
我们希望Ultra首先能够成为区块链科技、游戏开发者和玩家之间的桥梁。因为EOSIO提供了丰富的功能，我们让用户可以容易地进行互动，目的在于让Ultra成为人们在创造或再创造新游戏的时候会选择的平台。
我们希望Ultra能够成为游戏玩家生活的一部分，能够成为他们和朋友聊天、购买游戏、获得收益或报酬、和游戏主播及游戏开发者互动的地方。
您能用一句话说说你希望读者对Ultra最大的印象是什么吗？
我们希望能够在Ultra上线尽可能多的游戏，从而为EOSIO和区块链的应用做出贡献，请加入我们建立游戏的未来！
. . .
获得更多信息以及最新的版本，请访问Ultra官网。
建立在EOSIO之上？
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原文/Original：
We recently spoke to Nicolas Gilot, co-CEO at Ultra, about their upcoming gaming platform built on EOSIO that offers content development toolkits to game developers.
Could you introduce Ultra for us?
Ultra is a blockchain-powered video game ecosystem which provides players, game developers, and influencers with unique and innovative tools and functionalities. Put simply, we’re building a blockchain for the video game industry.
We are building the first application on top of this blockchain, called Ultra Games. It is designed to be a distribution platform, like Steam, where players can buy all types of PC games. We are creating a framework which provides new features like game reselling, virtual item creation and trading, and referral systems, all powered by an EOSIO blockchain.
Third party developers and existing businesses within the industry can leverage our framework and user base, which will contribute to an even more flourishing ecosystem.
What elevates Ultra from the existing options available to game developers and players?
Game developers are constantly seeking new ways to monetize their games in what is a very competitive market. However large commissions charged by the dominant distribution channels, and the rise of “Free to Play” (F2P) models make this increasingly difficult.
Ultra Games starts by charging lower fees (15%, compared to Steam’s 30%) which is a considerable direct competitive advantage.
Ultra also leverages EOSIO blockchain technology to give developers new ways to make games, monetize, and/or promote them as well.
One particularly useful new tool is Non-Fungible Tokens (NFTs). Game developers can use NFTs to create unique in-game items, like weapons or clothing. They can also use them to offer limited edition items or even issue games associated with an NFT. Players prove ownership of the NFT cryptographically – they can use them across games, and sell them on secondary markets.
Ultra can provide new revenue streams to developers with our NFT solution, which allows them to promote their games in a very cost efficient way and to continue earning on the secondary market.
Ultra’s NFT standard is extremely versatile and will enable game developers, through an interface, to seamlessly create and issue virtual assets which have different usage & transferability properties. The most incredible use cases for this technology may still be unknown, which is why we’re excited to put it in the hands of game developers.
Since the transactions are executed via smart contracts, developers can take a commission on players reselling NFTs. This incentivizes the creation of video games and digital assets as tokens, which provides and holds value for the players and developers.
We envision the use of NFTs as a powerful tool to promote games, especially combined with our dual referral systems. We are building Ultra to provide efficient ways to create viral and influencer marketing campaigns.
For players, it’s a one-stop shop for all their gaming needs. They will be able to buy and play games, interact with different communities, and use a host of gaming-related services such as eSports tournament bracketing, streaming, betting, and item-trading.
Players can also earn UOS tokens by participating in certain aspects of the platform like surveys, beta tests, and bug reporting. Rather than remain customers, players become more integrated into the ecosystem.
Ultra removes the limitations players, streamers and game developers are currently facing when it comes to promoting and monetizing their activity, and asserting their due ownership of content. Overall, Ultra is creating a fairer, more aligned gaming ecosystem which favours creativity and value provision.
What inspired you to create Ultra?
Nicolas and David, our Co-CEOs, have worked together on a number of projects in the past, including game studios, a monetization strategy company and a large scale game console project for the Chinese market. This game console project included the development of a custom APU (GPU+CPU on a single chip) – the combination of this with the software platform is essentially a game distribution platform.
They understood that from their developers’ and players’ perspectives, a one stop solution for all the gamers’ needs would drastically improve a number of things: the user experience would be better than before; the number of possible business interactions would increase; the cost of marketing would be lower; the revenue for ecosystem actors (game developers, publishers, influencers) would be streamlined and potentially increased; and, perhaps most importantly, the players could be deeply involved in this new economy.
“How great would it be if you could buy a game, play it with friends, participate in a tournament, earn virtual items in the process that you could then resell, then watch a livestream of your favourite esports team… all seamlessly on one platform?” That’s what we had in mind while we were building Ultra Games and its framework.
Why did you decide to use blockchain technology, and specifically EOSIO?
Innovation is at the core of our DNA. Blockchain is the new frontier in the video game industry – it offers an incredibly fertile playground for innovative companies. In a world driven by collaboration, user generated content, influencers, and “we economies”, nothing is more fun and exciting than blockchain.
We chose EOSIO because it’s the only blockchain technology capable of delivering mass market needs: account management, high transaction throughput, and short transaction confirmation time, all in a well known and mature programming language (C++).
Furthermore, while doing our research about which blockchain technology Ultra should use, EOSIO appeared to have one of the most active and welcoming communities.
How have you customized EOSIO technology to fit your specific use case?
We’ve changed the resource allocation related to the RAM, the CPU and the network bandwidth, and repackaged it into a more commercially driven product to fit Ultra’s corporate needs. All users of Ultra will get a daily free transaction quota, while application developers have access to a framework allowing them to decide if they want to sponsor free transactions on their own applications to valuable users. When the network is uncongested, free transactions will be available to all actors on all applications including sponsored ones.
Users with particular transaction needs can stake UOS tokens to secure their ability to perform transactions beyond their free quota and in case of network congestion.
During network congestion, our protocol modifications ensure 100% of CPU capacity is being used. This means as many transactions can be executed as possible, according to certain priority rules we’ve set in place.
We also made amendments to the governance system – Ultra needs to maintain a degree of control over what happens on the platform to be able to deliver a proper corporate-grade business environment. We removed the Block Producers voting mechanism and manually designated our first BPs including well-known actors of the video game and blockchain industries such as Ubisoft, Bitfinex, EOS NY and EOS Rio.
This isn’t to say that UOS tokens will never have a voting privilege; we just believe that at this point in time, there are no models which have been proven sufficiently reliable enough to suit our corporate partners’ standards. We’ll keep an eye on the work and research being done in this field. In the meantime, we have decided to protect our corporate partners’ interests by manually giving their transactions various privileged mechanisms we’ve put in place on the Ultra blockchain network.
What stage is Ultra at?
The project started in 2017 and we have more than 50 people working full-time on Ultra. We have over 150 game developers and publishers signed up, and several big partners such as AMD which are all pushing forward to make Ultra the leader in the space combining blockchain and video games.
We are currently running a closed beta with selected partners that covers Ultra Games, allowing us to gather feedback and improve the current functionalities before the platform launch. The team will unveil more information as time goes on about the key features of Ultra and its vision, which goes beyond the games industry.
What are the challenges you have had to overcome, and how did you do it?
Building a large team from scratch for an ambitious project is not easy – particularly with so many new members. No matter their background, anyone who joins us has a lot to learn.
We hired incredible people, such as our CTO Michael Dunn and our Head of HR Paul Horrel, who are used to dealing with those challenges in other companies. Organizing workflow and development processes were key to building momentum and streamlining the inclusion of these new team members.
The team is doing well and keeps growing steadily, becoming more efficient and productive every day. We are also looking to open a second office in Europe to increase our hiring capabilities.
What are your plans for scaling?
Everything we have built from day one has been done with millions of concurrent users in mind. We’re using modern technologies to be able to provide our services to an internet-scale user base, to all platforms in optimal conditions.
Business-wise, our partnerships with large tech and gaming companies, such as AMD and Ubisoft, will provide Ultra with major gamer acquisitions streams. Our team intends to operate the platform in Europe & North America, while operations in special markets such as China, Japan or Korea will be handled by established local operator partners. Some of these partners are already signed although we haven’t announced them yet.
Ultra’s scaling needs required us to build out our core technology platform on one side, which includes the blockchain technology, but also what goes around it such as our software development kits (SDKs). Then, on the other side, we needed to sign the right regional partners to operate Ultra, who will deal with day-to-day operation needs.
What EOSIO community initiatives have you engaged in and how has the EOSIO Community responded to Ultra?
We’ve participated in many meetups, and are also planning on organizing some hackathon events to coincide with the launch of our main EOSIO blockchain network.
The EOSIO community is by far the most enthusiastic community about Ultra. We’re astounded by how supportive members have been since the beginning. Currently, we’re in discussions with many Block Producers and projects from the EOSIO ecosystem.
Can you introduce your team and tell us what makes them special?
Nicolas Gilot and David Hanson, our Co-CEOs, have been working together for many years across several different business ventures. Their executive experience spans IT hardware, SEO, as well as mobile and PC game development.
David is a product visionary and Nicolas is managing business, operations and our strategy. It’s usually very hard to have all the key components of success, the vision of what the future is and the ability to create it by being grounded in the present… We manage to cover more bases by working as Co-CEOs.
Our CTO Michael Dunn is an accomplished technology executive, having previously been CTO at Dell, Time Warner and other large corporations. He’s also a member of the W3C organisation and a Techstars mentor. Mike has experience working with startups but also with the largest tech companies in the world, and is deeply interested in machine learning and AI. He is the perfect fit to transform Ultra’s vision into reality.
Edward Moalem, our Chief Strategy Officer, was formerly in charge of game initiatives and content at Apple and Google. He has acquired games and brokered deals with most of the largest companies in the space.It was Edward’s expertise and connections that helped Ultra sign over 150 developers, publishers and major partners.
We feel privileged to attract so many unique and highly talented people to work for Ultra to help us achieve our vision together. They are all passionate about video games and want to change the industry for the better.
What other projects have you partnered with?
After initially announcing EOS NY, EOS RIO and Bitfinex as our first Technical Block Producers, we have recently announced Ubisoft as the first Corporate Block Producer for Ultra, with more to come.
We also announced a marketing and distribution partnership with global technology giant AMD. We will work together on co-marketing activities such as contests and events to promote the use and proliferation of blockchain-based gaming technologies. AMD will also distribute codes to their customers which can then be redeemed for games on the Ultra platform, and provide prime access to Ultra for their entire user base.
The partnerships we have already announced with world leading companies in the technology and video games sectors are a testament to Ultra’s potential. We are also in discussion with a number of game developers and other potential partners.
As our profile grows in the EOSIO community, we are finding many potential synergies that we are actively exploring.
What impact do you see blockchain technology having on the video game industry space?
Just as the internet introduced Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games, Esports, and F2P games, Blockchain technology will give us new types of games too. It will change the video game industry in so many ways, including some that we can’t even imagine yet.
Once we begin seeing games add blockchain features and making additional revenue, we will see a wave of changes. As more developers embrace new ways of creating and distributing value, new solutions will emerge, which will slowly but surely change the way they make games and monetize them.
The main impact will be on how players interact with games and their associated services. Whether they are a contributor, team member or streamer, they will truly become part of the ecosystem, without needing to understand what blockchain is. They’ll simply be able to enjoy all the new features provided thanks to EOSIO technology.
Where do you see Ultra in the future?
We hope that Ultra will first be a bridge between the world of blockchain technology, game developers and players. By allowing people to interact easily, we intend for Ultra to become the platform of choice to create or recreate new games, thanks to the rich set of features offered by EOSIO.
We would love for Ultra to become a part of a gamer’s lifestyle. A place where they can chat with friends, buy games, generate money or rewards, as well as engage with their favorite influencers and game developers.
In a sentence, how do you want readers to remember Ultra?
We want Ultra to be beneficial for EOSIO and blockchain adoption by onboarding as many gamers as possible, so join us as we build the future of gaming!
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More information and the latest updates can be found on the Ultra website.
Building on EOSIO?
Our #BuiltOnEOSIO series showcases some of the amazing projects leveraging EOSIO technology to build a more secure and connected world. If you would like to suggest a project for us to feature please send an email to spotlight@block.one for our Developer Relations team to review.
- Block.one Developer Relations team
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