Xbox will now use blockchain for gaming rights and royalties

Microsoft and the professional services network Ernst & Young (EY) have announced that they have expanded the Xbox Enterprise Blockchain Platform to provide a financial system of record for gaming rights and royalties management.

The blockchain-based system will be used by the software giant to enable its Xbox gaming partners and network of artists, musicians, writers and other video game content creators to gain increased visibility into the tracking, management and payment processing for royalty contracts.

EY expects its other B2B enterprise clients to follow suit and create similar blockchain platforms to help them automate contract-related calculations and processing. 

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The firm's global blockchain leader Paul Brody provided further insight on how enterprises could benefit from implementing blockchain technology in a press release, saying:

“Blockchains could well become the glue that digitizes interactions between enterprises. This go-live represents another big step on that path, extending the level of automation and cycle time compression all the way from digitizing the contract to posting financial accruals. Blockchain solutions like this help raise the bar for enterprise integration, from point-to-point integration to ecosystem-level automation.”

Xbox Enterprise Blockchain Platform

With its expanded blockchain platform, Microsoft will be able to accelerate contact creation using AI based on Microsoft Azure. 

The Xbox Enterprise Blockchain Platform is also now able to seamlessly generate and integrate statements and invoices with enterprise resource planning (ERP) applications to process and record royalties with increased speed, visibility and transparency. Accounting entries can even be generated from the blockchain platform into ERP applications as well.

The expanded solution reduces processing time by 99 percent with 100 percent near real-time calculation of royalties using digital contracts across game development partners. The Xbox Enterprise Blockchain Platform has also been tested to support performance under a high volume of usage and is capable of processing 2m transactions per day.

GM of global finance operations at Microsoft Luke Fewel explained how the recent go-live shows the potential for blockchain and smart contract technology, saying:

“In this go-live, we successfully generated the first round of partner payments utilizing blockchain and smart contract technology. This expanded solution will help streamline financial and operational processes with the ability to scale, reduce heavy manual overhead and improve the experience for Microsoft’s gaming partners. We look forward to continuing to scale this solution across our royalties ecosystem — improving our processes and the continuation of our modern finance journey.” 

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