The first ‘NFT games console’ has been announced

A new console aimed at ‘Web 3 gaming’ has been announced and immediately met with resistance from some players.

Web 3 company Polium claims its ‘Polium One’ system will be “the world’s first multi-chain gaming console” that will be 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 a traditional gamer who doesn’t understand Web 3,” Polium claims.

The console, which Polium says will be released in Q3 2024, will only be able to be pre-ordered by players who buy a ‘Polium Pass’, an NFT on the Ethereum network of which 10,000 will be minted.

According to Polium, the console’s controller will include a fingerprint scanner for security, and a ‘wallet’ button to give players quick access to the console’s multi-chain wallet designed for “trading, swapping, staking and receiving 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 has been met with much criticism and scepticism from a number of players who are, at best, not yet convinced on the merits of blockchain gaming, and at worst believe it to be a scam.

Some have also pointed out that the console’s logo appears to be an upside-down take on the GameCube logo.

“It looks familiar but GameCube has a G and the cube represents their name,” the company replied on Twitter. “Our cube represents blockchain and the P stands for Polium.”

Not even the newly-established Polium Discord server, which appeared to launch with no moderation, has been free of criticism.

In the Discord’s ‘scam alert’ channel, presumably set up to let users report potential NFT scams, a number of users simply replied “this entire project”.

In the ‘ideas and feedback’ channel, the first comment simply says: “give up”.

Polium has now posted a statement on the Discord addressing the initial response, accusing some of ‘FUD’, an acronym meaning ‘fear, uncertainty and doubt’.

“We have been receiving FUD and criticism regarding our ability to execute,” the statement reads. “To clarify, it’s four of us that are building the functional prototype for the console and controller.

“We have experience in hardware and software development. We are currently doing the power tree for the console’s board. We should have a functional prototype by November or before.

“We will show the prototype live on YouTube or have a well-trusted influencer show you all. The prototype will prove that the console can run games that are on different blockchains and built with different programming languages.

“We will not take any pre-orders/funding until we show the prototype and if the community is interested. Once we have a functional prototype, we will build the console for manufacturing.

Further reading

NFT sales plunged to a 12-month low in June

Monthly sales totalled just over $1 billion, down from $12.6 billion in January

Regarding the lack of any confirmed games, the statement reads: “There will be games on the console, and we will make some announcements soon. We are currently speaking to game developers.

“For the logo, we did not copy Nintendo’s GameCube logo. But we are listening to the community, and we will hire a new illustrator to design a more original logo for us.”

It concludes: “Some of you are not passionate about Web 3 and are only here for entertainment and FUD. But we will start banning people. Anything is possible when you are passionate about a problem. We will deliver. Stay tuned.”