Tony Pierce’s Journey Through Time and Space – Cointelegraph Magazine

Tony Pierce and Reality +

For Pearce, working with huge clients like BBC Studios and being ahead of the game is nothing new. His own journey through time and space reflects his ability to be there at the beginning of each new wave – but more on that later.

In the year In 2017, the London entrepreneur had his crypto light bulb moment on an island off the coast of Dublin called Labay Island.

Co-founder of the London networking event, Centurions Piers held it at the Century Club in Soho and then held quarterly events in New York, Istanbul, Berlin and Munich. But that year Pearce took the event to Lambay Island for the first time.

“The success of Centurion gave me the confidence to take it further, so I invited influencers from the blockchain and web3 world to join me on Lambai Island. “I wasn't familiar with the technologies, but I knew something big was coming, so it was important to be around and listen to people who understood,” he said.

“It was the best three-day course of my life, and I realized it was a game-changer. Suddenly, not only was that digital currency clickable, but blockchain and Web3 were the future, but I bought some bitcoins for $1,000—not the worst decision of my life.

Pierce returns from Lambai to launch the company's new mobile game, Reality Clash. Twelve months after the lightbulb on the Atlantic, the game claims to be one of the first mobile games to integrate NFTs. Five years later, Reality+ is one of Europe's largest Web3 companies.

“He was reckless. Why don't players want to own their in-game items and have the ability to sell them or transfer them to another game? By tokenizing these items on the blockchain, this is now possible. These were later known as NFTs, but when we first started, the term NFT didn't even exist,” he says.

First job selling TV commercials at 19

Pearce is a serial entrepreneur and gaming pioneer who has been involved in gaming, technology and mobile for over 25 years. But his story begins much further than that.

“I've always been interested in technology and what's next. My first real job was advertising selling airtime in the UK for Television Southwest when I was just 19 years old.

Pearce moved into the media business at an advertising agency in 1985, with clients including airtime for Polygram Records, Air Miles and Nestlé, and joined British Satellite Broadcasting (BSB) before merging with Sky in 1989.

In fact, it worked with amazing technology as a square, obscure, mass-market satellite receiver and was shut down in 1993. As many entrepreneurs know, being early to market isn't always a winner. Professions.

Pearce then moved to Telstar Records, BSB's biggest client, and ran their new video game division, Telstar Electronics Studios. Lone Soldier created one of the first PlayStation 1 games before selling the business to game publisher Take 2.

Early model technology

“Those were very good and very happy days. I found Digimask, a digital technology company where users can create a 3D image of their head from two photos. Then you could see them playing soccer or driving a car in video games. That seems crazy now, because of how things went, but, at the time, no one else was doing it. I am still very proud of this work.”

It's been crazy and tough days traveling to America and working with Hollywood studios to take their content to another platform. Without that experience, Truth+ might not be what it is today.”

Pearce then moved to DigitalBridges, the first European VC-funded mobile games company.

“We secured the rights to Space Invaders on that platform, and I was the first person in the world to sell a downloadable mobile game to Vodafone in 2004. It was the Wild West at the time; anything seemed possible.”

Pearce set up mobile games publisher X 12 months later. The company was named by Library House as one of the fastest growing VC-backed companies in the UK in 2005, before being acquired by Spanish mobile content company ZDD a few years later.

Brands in the Metaverse

So, fast-forwarding to today, Pearce is waxing lyrical about Web3 and Reality+ and brands in the metaverse.

“It's not just the BBC and Doctor Who. We work with ITV Studios and recently relaunched their TV brand Thunderbirds and created Tracy Island in The Sandbox Metaverse, which allows users to interact with Thunderbird characters and go on rescue missions.

“We are also working with global brands, including FIFA and others, to develop a Web3 platform that enables brands to launch and manage their Web3 strategies that include blockchain games, multi-chain NFT experiences and metaverse development.”

Last year's FIFA Women's World Cup 2023 in Australia and New Zealand was a big one for RT+. They have launched Own The Zone, an officially licensed FIFA Web3 game where fans can predict what will happen during live matches.

“We built a unique platform called The Spatial Platform that received real-time FIFA data sent directly to our platform during the match,” he said, adding that fans with the best predictions won digital blockchain collectors and real-world prizes. “It was a lot of fun to play, and the plan is to take our special platform to new sports games like basketball and NFL that allow our fans to really get involved in the action.”

After recently announcing our partnership with Paul Frank, we are looking to disrupt the fashion industry. Remember Julius the monkey? The character has been emblazoned on clothing and accessories since the mid-1990s to become an international phenomenon.

The plan is for fans of the character to buy physical clothes and wear their digital twins in the metaverse. There will also be new games built around Paul Frank's collections.

Wait isn't the metaverse dead?

The momentum behind Metaverse and Web3 dissipated during the bear market when the NFT market collapsed in 2023 and the latter rally began in earnest. After ChatGPT went public, the narrative transformed into AI seemingly overnight.

But Pearce is convinced that this is just another technology cycle where bursts of demand are over-anticipated before the next wave of innovation – call it Web3 2.0 if you will.

“Web3 is not going away. In the next two to three years, brands will lose their audience if they don't have a Web3 strategy,” he says.

“We have a dedicated team of 60 people, and we know that big brands trust us as their custodians, knowing that we can push them into the Web3 era. It may sound like bravado and overconfidence, but I feel like I've been here more than once.”

That remains to be seen, but Pearce's enthusiasm is certainly contagious. It may sell oil to Saudi Arabia, but for now it remains loyal to Web3 and is in the final stages of its next funding round, which it says is “very exciting” and “another game changer.”

“I'm also a consultant at Block Dojo, a global blockchain incubator that helps small companies turn into the next big thing. I'm a big believer in the power of blockchain, and I love spending my time helping new entrepreneurs take their ideas and dreams to the next level.”

“There are two startups I've created on Block Dojo that I can mention. Buzz Mint is a media and entertainment game that helps brands create NFTs digital assets to sell and market to their customers. I also love Ninja Punk Girls, which goes without saying!”

Pearce currently has no plans to fly from London to Dublin and visit Lambay Island, as he prefers to look to the future instead of looking back.

In the year

Not a bad development for the 19-year-old who started selling TV commercial airtime.

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Monty Munford

Monty Munford writes regularly for the BBC, The Economist and CT AM and was a technology columnist for Forbes and the Telegraph. He also runs a growth and visibility consultancy and has appeared at over 200 events and conferences, interviewing the likes of Tim Draper, the late John McPhee, Sir Tim Berner-Lee, Steve Wozniak, Kim Kardashian, Guns N' Roses and many others. .

Follow the author @montymunford