Playtron wanted to take on Windows and SteamOS with their GameOS, now they're announcing a cryptocurrency

Reading the press release sounded like a late April Fools joke, but I think we all saw where Playtron were heading. After originally announcing PlaytronOS (now GameOS), their Linux-powered gaming system, they're now directly moving into crypto.

Because of course they are and to the surprise of no one I think.

They've previously released a few Alpha builds, gathering funding from a few investors (like Square Enix) and talked a lot of big talk to the point that I'm sure some people were originally excited about Playtron — somewhere out there anyway. Especially considering they pulled in developers working on various popular open source stuff like Lutris, Heroic Games Launcher, ChimeraOS, Box64 and others. However, this continued crypto nonsense makes me continue to believe it won't go anywhere outside of the crypto-bro crowd.

They're calling it Game Dollar, a "stablecoin" that will be used in GameOS to power purchases, subscriptions, and rewards across Playtron "and other gaming ecosystems in the future". And this goes back directly to the incredibly weird web3 SuiPlay0x1 handheld that will ship with Playtron's GameOS. They're doing this with support from the stablecoin platform M0 and payments platform Bridge.

From the press release:

“Playtron's GameOS reimagines how we play the games we love. Through this lens it became clear: stablecoins will become a financial backbone for the $500B global gaming economy. That’s why Playtron is excited to announce Game Dollar, the stablecoin built for games and ready to handle massive transaction volume over the next decade,” said Kirt McMaster, co-founder and CEO of Playtron. “Game Dollar will unlock new economic models for developers and marketplaces while enabling consumer incentives only possible via programmable dollars.”

“Programmable stablecoins are the next evolution of digital assets, and Game Dollar is a powerful example of how this innovation unlocks utility for one of the world’s most dynamic sectors,” said Adeniyi Abiodun, Co-Founder and CPO of Mysten Labs. “We’re witnessing the start of a new era where gamers not only play, but participate in dynamic, self-sustaining economies.”

“We’re excited to see Playtron harness M0’s universal stablecoin platform to reimagine the gaming payments experience in a unique way,” said Luca Prosperi, co-founder and CEO at M0. “This collaboration highlights the power of programmable money applied to real-world use cases, and our vision is that this is how the payments and rewards experiences of the future will look like.”

“Gaming is a global community, and financial access shouldn't be a barrier. With Bridge powering seamless entry and exit points for Game Dollar, we're making digital economies more inclusive for players—and radically simpler for developers,” said Zach Abrams, CEO at Bridge. “They get stable, ready-to-use payments infrastructure that takes care of compliance and enables a global reach out of the box.”

At this point, if you're interested in Linux gaming or any kind of alternative to Windows, you're going to be much better off looking elsewhere. Unless crypto is your thing, I guess. Like Valve's own SteamOS when it eventually gets a public Beta, or Bazzite.

When it comes to hardware vendors for PCs, handhelds and more, what are they going to pick? There's Microsoft's Windows, Valve's SteamOS, various other forms of Linux, or weird crypto-fuelled Linux? I really just cannot imagine a serious normal hardware vendor ever jumping in for this.