polycade OP t1_izb5ukc wrote
Reply to comment by itoddicus in Hi everyone, I’m Tyler Bushnell, Founder of Polycade, the modern arcade gaming platform! I’m here to talk about all things gaming, art, design, and Polycade. Let’s talk! AMA by polycade
Always good to explore the "smoking hole" scenario (you arrive at work and there's only a smoking hole left of the place)!
We've been around for 7 years now, so that's a first step towards "staying power". However, if for whatever reason Polycade went out of business, the software that runs on our machines would get a final update that allows it to function without our centralized servers. Also worth mentioning that our arcade machines are purposefully built to be "modular" - you can install different arcade software on them, we use generic hardware components that you can swap with other generic components, etc.
For the Polycade Limiteds titles, I mentioned that we aim to move towards full decentralization, so if that has been achieved in our "smoking hole scenario", then the games live on pretty much no matter what.
If we have not achieved full decentralization, then the games persisting becomes dependent on the business model. What I mean by that is this: When a company goes out of business, more often than not another company will buy that defunct company's assets, and if the assets earn money, they will keep them around and running, and likely even expand on those assets. Because Polycade Limiteds has a built in royalty that earns money for our company (or a company that acquires us), and because hosting servers to serve up our games is inexpensive, it's going to make the most sense for any buyer of our company to continue running the Polycade Limiteds services.
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