Web3 clip at the gaming event GDC: Reflections on economic models, transformation of traditional game vendors
As officially stated, there is only one way to describe this year's conference: “GDC is back.” And for such a grand event with the theme of “The Future of Gaming,” blockchain games are of course essential.
The Game Developers Conference 2023 (GDC 2023), the annual game industry event, was held in San Francisco, USA from March 20-24. According to official GDC data released on March 29, GDC 2023 attracted more than 28,000 participants, totaling more than 1,000 speakers and 700 conferences, seminars, and round tables. You should know that due to the pandemic, the GDC conference has been cancelled for two consecutive sessions, and it seems that it is no longer popular even after recovering in 2022. Only 12,000 people attended, which is far from the 27,000 participants at the unprecedented GDC 2019. As officially stated, there is only one way to describe this year's conference: “GDC is back.”
The core of GDC is an annual main stage presentation. This year's theme is “The Future of Gaming,” which coincides with the concept of blockchain games that have only recently entered the public eye and are booming. At GDC 2023, there are over 20 conferences dedicated to blockchain games, hosted by established Web3 unicornsPolygon、ImmutableThere are also traditional game giants that have transformed and developed Web3 games such as W, Nexon, etc. Also participating in the project areAvalanche、Boba Network、Chainlink、CronosCryptographic infrastructure, and Web3 game development teams such as Createra.
Overall, the chain game circuit was quite lively during the conference. A number of companies joined forces to announce strategic cooperation, and game publishers that have successfully transformed Web3 shared their experiences in building games and platforms. This article will introduce some noteworthy information during GDC 2023.
A number of leading institutions have joined forces to establish cooperation
pursuantDelphi Digitalreport,EthereumThe layer-2 scaling solutions Immutable X and Polygon game ecosystems both received a cumulative investment of nearly 900 million US dollars in 2022, becoming the veritable leaders of the chain game circuit. Just as GDC opened, Polygon Labs and Immutable X parent company Immutable first released big news. The two sides announced a strategic partnership to accelerate the development of Web3 games and will work together to create Immutable zkEVM, an EVM-compatible zk-rollup scaling solution built on Polygon's zero-knowledge technology. It is worth mentioning that on the day I made this announcement, Immutable also announced two utility upgrades to IMX: 20% of the platform fee must be paid with IMX; IMX will be used as the core gas currency of Immutable zkEVM and become the native network token.
Polygon has also set its sights on Asia, supporting South Korean gaming giant Nexon's entry into the blockchain industry. On the second day of the GDC conference, Nexon announced that it is creating a Web3 game called “MapleStory Universe” and will receive a “dedicated application chain” for the game via Polygon Supernet. “MapleStory Universe” is based on Nexon's 2D horizontal scroll online game “MapleStory” (Maple Valley, also known as “Adventure Island”), launched in 2003. The latter has been popular for nearly 20 years and has generated more than 4 billion US dollars in revenue so far, and has accumulated over 180 million registered users. The MapleStory Universe development team said in a statement that they will work closely with the Polygon Labs team to develop and market this new game.
Although no further strategic cooperation was reached, Polygon Labs also joined the GDC conference with Korean gaming giant NEOWIZ to promote Intella X, an innovative Web3 game platform developed by the latter, and showcase the upcoming FPS game “A.V.A” and the NFT PFP project “Early Cats' Club”. In addition, OPPO, a mobile phone brand well known to Chinese people, has also reached cooperation with the metaverse platform Createra in terms of ray tracking technology, which will jointly bring users a better gaming experience. The two sides will also jointly participate in the US Gaming Conference (GDC).
On the fourth day of the GDC conference, Near Foundation announced the establishment of a strategic partnership with Korean game company WPooling, which has successfully transformed into Web3. Near Korea Hub, which oversees Near Protocol's business development in Korea and Asia, played a key role in this collaboration. Wsigned a business agreement with Near Foundation to jointly support initiatives to increase mutual brand awareness; invest in cross-chain research and collaboration; host more community events such as hackathons and bootcamps; and explore potential Web3 business opportunities to nurture the next generation of Web3 developers.
Immutable X continues to expand the Web3 gaming landscape
Immutable X is one of the fastest-growing unicorn companies in the Web3 field. It has absorbed many chain game projects in a short period of time and is still maintaining a rapid development momentum. During the GDC conference, Immutable X announced partnerships with three game studios: BazooKatango, Bit Fry Game Studios, and Studio 369. Immutable X will complete game development with three studios through Immutable zkEVM, a joint launch with Polygon to further expand its web3 game series.
The collaboration between Bazooka Tango and Immutable X aims to revive the already “cool” chess game “Shardbound” by combining Web3. This game was first launched by Spiritwalk Games in 2015. It has beautiful graphics and art design, and has garnered a passionate community of players, but due to lack of funds on the part of the development team, etc., the game development was incomplete, so it soon became difficult to Nishiyama, and its copyright now belongs to Bazooka Tango. Immutable X and Bazooka Tango have yet to decide which gaming platforms the new Web3 version will be released on, with Steam and the NFT-friendly Epic Games Store being considered.
Bit Fry Game Studios is an indie game studio that focuses on various sports games, and has received support from game-focused venture capital company BitkraftVentures and the late former NBA president David Stern. By partnering with Immutable X, they are working to disrupt the sports game genre, and their first step was to announce a partnership to launch Infinite Victory. This is a futuristic tech-style arcade sports game. Based on “Ultimate Rivals” released earlier by Bit Fry Game Studios, it uses P2E and NFT mechanisms to create a fast-paced game combining various sports such as basketball and hockey.
Studio 369, famous for its VR mechs game “World of Mechs” on the Oculus Quest 2, is developing MetalCore, the first open world mechanized fighting game in Web3, and is partnering with Immutable to further optimize its Web3 strategy and obtain technical support. To successfully develop the game, Studio 369 raised $15 million in March, with investors including Bitkraft Ventures, Immutable, etc. In the game, players will fight for alien territory by winning vehicles and machines, crafting equipment, recruiting pilots, developing land, and selling and trading their equipment on an alien planet rich in minerals. At the end of last year, the game received the GAM32022 Best Shooter Award.
Wisely shares the experience of business transformation
At the GDC conference, Wemix highlighted its WEMIX PLAY platform and held three sessions around it. WEMIX PLAY uses a “four-module system” including Tokenomics, GameFi, Marketplace, and Community to meet the needs of various game types and platforms, and provides a comprehensive solution to transform traditional games into blockchain games. About 500,000 people are currently using the platform, according to W.
Related reading:《Does WeMix build a chain game ecosystem, recreate a new “legend” or plan a new “scam”》
Henry Chang, CEO of Wealth, gave a keynote address on the future of gaming and the impact of blockchain technology and gaming. It discussed its successful launch of more than 25 Web3 games, the advantages of the platform, and tips for serving blockchain games. He said that all games will eventually issue their own tokens and NFTs to improve game playability through blockchain technology and tokenomics. However, he also stressed that “games that make money by playing” will not have long-term success because they lack attractive gameplay and sustainability; on the contrary, incorporating tokenomics into games that are already loved by players is the key to making blockchain games prosper.
Wonil Suh (Won for short), Executive Vice President of Wealth, dives into the evolution of tokenomics in Web3 games, detailing the transformation process from first-generation games with low quality and mandatory application of NFTs to third-generation games with good gameplay and a more balanced in-game economy. He stressed to game developers that they should be careful about business models that only rely on selling NFTs, because not only will competitors easily launch challenges, but more experienced gamers will no longer buy easily. Won also shared five key lessons learned from WPools' Web3 game: a nice token curve is scarce; too easy to supply can cause token prices to drop; limiting supply too early can hurt players' interest; monitoring the game's tokenomics is critical; and even the best tokenomics won't save games that need to cool down.
Additionally, Wemphasized the importance of collaboration and partnerships within the gaming industry. He believes that cultivating a sense of community and working with other developers, platforms, and stakeholders can lead to innovative solutions and further develop the Web3 gaming sector.
Com2uS talks about how to shape Play to Own
Kyu Lee, president of Com2usUSA, hosted a conference on sustainable tokenomics at GDC, shared insights on “play-to-own (P2O)” and explained how to build a stable and enhanced tokenomics structure for Summoners War: Chronicles.
Summoners War: Chronicles is a fantasy RPG based on the “Summoners War: Sky Arena” IP with over 180 million downloads. The game was launched in Korea in August of last year, and after being released in more than 170 countries on March 9 this year, it had sales of over 10 billion won (approximately $7.65 million) within a week. In July of this year, the blockchain game version of Chronicles will be released on XPLA, a blockchain gaming platform launched by Com2uS itself.
Kyu Lee said that the tokenomics structure of existing Play-to-Earn (P2E) games focuses on the inflow of players through a simple token reward system, which attracts a large number of players who aren't really interested in the game. In this case, the tokens players receive are not used to further activate the in-game economy, but are taken out of the game, eventually causing the exchange rate between the tokens and the in-game currency to collapse.
“Unlike P2E games, the play-to-own (P2O) model aims to build sustainable tokenomics. P2O is about creating core game content for real players, so they can spend time and effort to produce valuable in-game items and then encourage these items to circulate continuously within the in-game economy.” He cites “Summoners War: Chronicles” as an example of ideal tokenomics and said the game will be the first successful case of linking an AAA game to the blockchain mainnet and will be a “milestone in sustainable Web3 gaming.”
summed
As can be seen from the GDC 2023 conference, game industry insiders have always been concerned about experiments, changes, and developments in the field of Web3 games. However, it is clear that the Web3 game development team's technical skills, production standards, and even awareness levels need to be improved urgently. Whether it's “Web3,” “metaverse,” or “NFT,” these tags themselves don't arouse widespread interest among most gamers. Even due to excessive emphasis on issues such as financial attributes and perfunctory design, quite a few game developers don't care about playability and only delve into the token economy system.
A number of game awards and nominations were also announced at the GDC conference. Among them, the dark fantasy action RPG game “Elden Ring” (Elden Ring) became the biggest winner, winning four major awards: TGA, Gold Joystick, DICE, and GDC. Of the nominations for various awards, none of the Web3 games were shortlisted. It can be seen from this that returning to the game itself, Web3 games have no advantage over traditional games at this stage. Many project parties talk a lot about tokenomics, which has become an empty house in boring game design.
Despite the current limited level of development, the entire Web3 industry has always had extremely high expectations for the gaming circuit in recent years, which is also reflected in the upward flow of capital in the primary market: according to the first quarter report of the metaverse published by DappRada, blockchain games and metaverse projects received the most capital in the first quarter of 2023, accounting for 32.7% of total investment.
As many traditional game giants in different regions actively embrace Web3, and blockchain infrastructure companies continue to iterate, they are building the underlying technology more suitable for large-scale games. More and more people believe that games are likely to become the gateway to Web3 traffic breakers. And what opens up this portal will probably be a really high-quality game that will be able to laugh at a future GDC conference.
Will it be two years from tomorrow? Let's wait and see.
