Google Cloud and Somnia Forge Partnership to Revolutionize AI-Driven Gaming and Blockchain Development

Google Cloud and Somnia bring AI to gaming and game development

Game Development Google Cloud and Somnia bring AI to gaming and game development Tuesday, July 1, 2025 Austin Harris Somnia partners with Google Cloud to deliver AI-driven NPCs, enhanced security, and advanced tools for blockchain games, as Google Cloud and Somnia bring AI to gaming and game development, enabling scalable, intelligent, and secure entertainment experiences. Somnia, the high-performance Layer 1 blockchain supported by a $270m fund and designed for reactive, fully on-chain applications in gaming and entertainment, recently announced a collaboration with Google Cloud. This collaboration integrates Google Cloud's sophisticated technical infrastructure, AI agent development platform and frameworks, and robust security features with Somnia's entertainment-driven blockchain. The new collaboration, announced during EthCC in Cannes, will redefine creativity and what's possible for gaming developers worldwide. Google Cloud and Somnia bring AI to gaming and game development Somnia's collaboration with Google Cloud is engineered to improve products for the gaming industry which is increasingly building on blockchain technology. Recently, Somnia achieved a significant milestone of 1 billion transactions on its testnet, demonstrating the platform's scalability and robust infrastructure capabilities. Remarkably, the testnet network processed 250 million transactions in less than a month and reached an impressive 80 million transactions in a single day, showcasing exceptional performance. The network is supported by a strong validator ecosystem including BCW Group, Luganodes, B-Harvest, Kiln, and many others. Somnia's existing architecture is designed for the technological demands of game developers with capabilities exceeding 1 million TPS (transactions per second), sub-second finality, sub-cent transaction fees and decentralized design for handling mass volumes of simultaneous activity. The Somnia network has onboarded over 60 active projects on its testnet including games such as Sparkball, Variance, Masks of the Void and Maelstrom. "Working with Google Cloud marks a huge step forward in setting the foundations for a truly agentic, on-chain internet. With their support across validator operations, BigQuery datasets and AI agent tooling we're redefining how games are built and giving developers an accessible platform to build immersive, intelligent projects that can flourish," said Paul Thomas, Founder of Somnia. Adding greater capability into game development In addition to enhanced security and AI agentic functionality on its network, Somnia's work with Google Cloud also unlocks greater opportunities for developers to utilize best-in-class cloud infrastructure, enhanced security and AI agent technologies. This furthers Somnia's mission to make blockchain entertainment development more accessible and attractive for game and entertainment developers and entrepreneurs. Benefits of the collaboration for Somnia and developers include: Google Cloud as Network Validator: Google Cloud will operate as a validator on the Somnia network, enabling Somnia to utilize its enterprise-grade technical infrastructure to bolster network security, reliability, and decentralization. Integrated Cloud Platform: Somnia developers will have seamless access to Google Cloud's fully integrated Cloud, data and AI platform that includes real-time blockchain data streaming via Google Cloud Pub/Sub, and indexed Somnia datasets within BigQuery for powerful analytics. Enhanced Threat Intelligence Powered by Mandiant: Recognizing the unique security challenges of Web3, the partnership integrates Google Cloud's security capabilities, spearheaded by Mandiant. This provides Somnia and its ecosystem with proactive threat intelligence, expertise in securing Web2 and Web3 infrastructure interconnections, and tailored security solutions for key risk events like mainnet launches, token generation events (TGEs), smart contract deployments, and incident response. Mandiant's focus includes securing private key infrastructure, signing processes, and mitigating risks from sophisticated actors. Empowering Agentic Ecosystems: Somnia is integrating Google's AI agent ecosystem, including ADK, A2A, and MCP, to enable intelligent, interoperable agents within on-chain games and applications. This unlocks advanced use cases such as dynamic NPCs, AI-driven market participants, and reactive game features that leverage Somnia's high speed and low fees. James Tromans, Managing Director - Web3 at Google Cloud comments "Google Cloud is dedicated to supporting the Web3 ecosystem with our secure, scalable infrastructure and powerful AI capabilities. To empower Somnia's developers, we're excited to collaborate and provide a scalable platform, powerful data streaming and robust security intelligence, and to support Somnia developers as they create agent-driven applications." This collaboration between Somnia and Google Cloud will be integrated with the Somnia network this summer with developers being invited to Somnia's testnet to build and deploy projects leveraging this new capability. The integration represents a significant milestone in the infrastructure and tooling required for a future where intelligent agents and decentralized technologies converge, supporting developers and the wider industry in this new age of blockchain entertainment. Become a subscriber of App Developer Magazine for just $5.99 a month and take advantage of all these perks. 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Somnia Partners With Google Cloud in a Big Boost for Gaming Developers

Somnia has partnered with Google Cloud in a bid to integrate its tools and make it a validator on its blockchain network. Somnia, Sony's gaming and entertainment focused blockchain has announced a major partnership with Google Cloud. With the partnership, it has integrated its AI Agent tools and will operate as a validator on the Somnia network. The partnership was unveiled at the Ethereum Community Conference (EthCC) in Cannes, marking a significant milestone in Somnia's mission to enable immersive, on‑chain gaming experiences at scale. Founded with backing from a $270 million fund led by Improbable, Somnia boasts a novel multistream consensus mechanism and its proprietary IceDB database, enabling throughput exceeding one million transactions per second (TPS), sub‑second finality, and transaction fees below one cent. The network recently surpassed 1 billion transactions on its public testnet -- processing 250 million transactions in under a month and peaking at 80 million in a single day -- demonstrating its readiness for demanding, real‑time applications. Google Cloud to Become Somnia's Validator Under the partnership, Google Cloud will operate validator nodes on Somnia's network. It will leverage its enterprise‑grade infrastructure to bolster decentralization, uptime, and security. With this, Somnia developers are set to gain seamless access to Google Cloud's AI, data‑streaming, and analytics services. These include real‑time blockchain data ingestion via Pub/Sub and indexed Somnia datasets in BigQuery for rapid prototyping and deep insights. As per the press release shared with BrandTalk, Somnia is integrating Google's AI agent ecosystem, including ADK, A2A, and MCP, to enable intelligent, interoperable agents within on-chain games and applications. This comes as the latest Google Cloud's publicly announced blockchain‑related partnerships in 2025. It is already partenering with CME Group, piloting its Universal Ledger -- a private, programmable distributed‑ledger network -- to explore tokenization of derivatives and streamlining of settlement and clearing processes. Further, in early 2025, Google Cloud joined Injective as an official validator node operator. This collaboration leverages Google's infrastructure to secure Injective's DeFi‑focused Layer 1 network, improve transaction validation throughput, and give developers access to real‑time blockchain data and tooling on GCP. This comes as the broader industry is also rebounding. In Q1 2025, GameFi platforms hit 1 million daily active users, led by Solana and Ethereum L2 titles. While Q2‑specific wallet counts aren't yet aggregated, weekly reports show strong engagement on Layer‑2 chains. For example, Mythos is exceeding $650 million lifetime trading volume and momentum in Metaverse‑style games. After Q1's dip to 5.8 million dUAW, Q2 has also seen stabilization and even slight rebounds. April saw 5.6 M dUAW while May witnessed 4.9 M dUAW (a modest uptick from April's lows. Gaming accounted for 19.4 % of all dUAW in May, narrowly outpacing DeFi and AI‐driven dApps.