Solana Labs and Google Cloud have recently unveiled Gameshift, an innovative gaming development API designed to connect traditional Web2 gaming experiences with Web3 services, including blockchain technology and digital asset management.
This new toolkit was introduced at the 2024 Solana Breakpoint conference during the “Gamer Village” side events. Gameshift represents the next evolution in the ongoing collaboration between the two companies and is now accessible on the Google Cloud Marketplace.
### Bridging Web2 and Web3
As outlined in a blog post by Google Cloud, Gameshift offers a comprehensive suite of foundational Web3 services tailored for projects hosted within the cloud ecosystem.
A chart illustrating Gameshift’s integration with Google Cloud. Source: Google Cloud
The primary audience for this tool is developers of traditional games looking to incorporate Web3 elements, such as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and other digital assets, into their gaming experiences. It is designed to handle much of the complex work involved in securely integrating blockchain services across different platforms.
Jack Buser, Google Cloud’s director of Games, highlighted the challenge of merging these two realms as a gradual process of incorporating emerging technology into established industries.
### The Future of Web3
It has become a customary practice for Google Cloud and Solana Labs to announce new collaborations at the annual Solana Breakpoint event. As reported by Cointelegraph in 2022, the two companies revealed that Google Cloud had become a node validator for the Solana blockchain during the previous year’s conference.
In the 2022 event, Solana also introduced a Web3 store and a new smartphone that supports blockchain technology. Attendees in 2024 may have sensed a sense of déjà vu, as the latest conference not only featured new announcements from Google Cloud and a fresh Web3 API but also showcased the newest model in Solana’s series of blockchain-enabled smartphones.
### Magazine:
What Solana’s critics get right… and what they get wrong.