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How Blockchain Helped a Gaming Platform Become a Game Changer | EY
Microsoft Xbox and EY worked together as one team to help drive a transformation. The combined capabilities and suite of digital solutions from the Microsoft and EY teams were a game changer, helping Microsoft Xbox reduce the manual effort and operational hours associated with royalty processing for publishers by automating royalty processing, beginning the transition from the legacy system.
Smart contracts codify game creators’ intellectual property rights
The first step in updating Microsoft’s legacy systems was to integrate royalty agreements into the blockchain in the form of digital contracts. The legal terms were then encoded into the blockchain network in the form of smart contracts. By opting in, industry players can confidentially verify and validate that the integrated digital contracts are the same as the royalty agreements.
An automated solution that reduces operational costs
Building on the foundation of contractual transparency, the team focused on providing greater transparency to the game publisher for processing royalties, a major pain point for Microsoft Xbox. The current royalty processing and distribution system was plagued by a lot of revisions and tedious manual processes. Automating the system accelerated the process, reduced effort, and provided greater transparency to participants, while maintaining a high degree of privacy and confidentiality between Microsoft and the game publisher. A user-centric interface adds a simple and well-designed level of interaction to the royalty distribution system for game developers.
Near real-time purchase logs show game creators what they’ve earned
While smart contracts were used to accurately and transparently process royalties for Microsoft Xbox partners, the next step was to share information with them securely and transparently in near real-time, reducing access to royalties by 45 days at 4 minutes.
Providing near real-time access to data dramatically improves process efficiency and insights that lead to a more enriching experience for partners,” Tim Stuart, Chief Financial Officer of Xbox at Microsoft.