Solana Labs announced a collaboration with Google Cloud on Thursday to bring its blockchain game development platform GameShift to Google Cloud's ecosystem, aiming to drive mainstream adoption of blockchain technology in gaming.
GameShift abstracts away blockchain complexity by providing game developers an easy-to-use API for seamless user onboarding on Solana, along with in-game digital asset minting, branded in-game NFT marketplaces, credit card payments and payouts, and more.
With Google Cloud integration, Solana developers will more easily be able to use GameShift to deploy their blockchain games using the tech giant’s cloud infrastructure. A Google Cloud representative confirmed to Decrypt's GG that Solana GameShift is "now part of Google Cloud's partner network."
"Many game studios built on Google Cloud want to tap into the creative potential of Web3 technology, but the inherent technical complexities have been a major barrier to broader adoption," said Google Cloud Director of Games Jack Buser, in a release.
“By bringing GameShift into Google Cloud's ecosystem for living games,” he continued, “we're giving developers a streamlined path to build immersive blockchain experiences without wrestling with the underlying technology."
Google has been plugged into the Solana ecosystem since 2022, when the companies announced that Google Cloud would run a validator to support the network, as well as add Solana to its service that lets users launch their own blockchain nodes.
Editor’s note: This article was written with the assistance of AI. Edited and fact-checked by Andrew Hayward.