Gaming is one of the most profitable industries on the planet right now, and companies are always looking to find new ways to streamline their transactions. The number of game publishers that Microsoft interacts with is staggering, and each game sale must be tallied to calculate payouts. Corporations like Microsoft pay royalties to publishers, but those calculations were difficult to process beforehand. Shockingly enough, Microsoft used a manual method that relied on spreadsheets. Unfortunately, this process usually took 45 days and many smaller publishers didn't understand it. There was no way to know how much you were making in real time. Having this information is necessary to adjust sales and marketing strategy, especially if the result isn't what a publisher expected.
Luckily, Microsoft developed a new system which uses blockchain technology. If you're familiar with bitcoin, you might know what blockchain is. Blockchain is a system in which a record of transactions made in bitcoin or another currency is maintained across several computers that are linked in a peer-to-peer network. This essentially means that you can compress the time it takes to calculate royalties to better serve publishers. Microsoft developed a blockchain-based solution that offers royalty information in almost real time. This means that publishers don't have to wait around for months to see how their game is doing.
According to a report by Microsoft, the "calculation process is now more transparent, instills greater trust, provides publishers with actionable business insights, and reduces process efforts."
Rohit Amberker, the Finance Director for Royalties and Content Operations at Microsoft, said that the old "offline royalty payment solution that stakeholders have used for years is based on printed documents and spreadsheets. It's expensive to manage." Not only does the blockchain solution end up benefiting publishers because it speeds up the information they receive, but it's also cheaper to manage for Microsoft. It seems like everyone wins in this situation.
The report ended by saying that Amberker and his team are taking advantage of blockchain technology to bring "open, efficient confidence to the Xbox royalty payment process." This is just another way Microsoft Azure is helping the gaming division and the parties associated with it.
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