An up-and-coming crypto gaming project has pulled off an incredible 300% rally in the past 30 days as digital asset markets continue to show strength following the crack of 2023. WEMIX (WEMIX) is a platform that supports blockchain-based games for over 378,000 gamers, according to its website. WEMIX’s ecosystem includes at least 20 games at […]
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Many casual gamers are still reluctant to play games that use blockchain tech, but gaming execs believe one good game could change that.
The casual gaming market will remain a crucial audience for blockchain games and nonfungible tokens (NFTs) in gaming, according to three blockchain gaming company co-founders.
Casual gamers, people who play games somewhat regularly but rarely invest significant time, make up the largest segment of players in the industry.
Kieran Warwick, co-founder of the blockchain role-playing game Illuvium, called casual gamers “critical” because of the sheer number of them.
There are more than 3 billion gamers worldwide as of 2023, and it’s estimated that at least 1.95 billion are casual gamers, according to Exploding Topics.
Warwick said gamers interested in earning in-game yield, who are primarily from developing countries and are especially attracted to mobile gaming, are becoming increasingly important as well.
However, Warwick admits there is a “major challenge”closing to coaxing casual gamers into the market because of the perception that blockchain games are of inferior quality.
Despite this, he was optimistic that NFTs, blockchain and Web3 will have a bright future in mainstream gaming.
“NFTs, blockchain, and Web3 have a place in mainstream games in the long term, as mainstream game developers are already working on incorporating these technologies into their games, despite some backlash from their communities,” Warwick said.
“As more fun and engaging NFT-based games are developed, it is likely that players will experience the benefits of ownership and not want to go back to traditional games,” he added.
Yat Siu, the co-founder and chairman of Animoca Brands shares a similar view calling the mainstream casual audience "absolutely critical" for blockchain and NFT games, arguing:
“Games are still games regardless of whether they're casual or mid-core. One of the things that actually made mainstream gaming larger was casual games.”
According to Siu, the mainstream gaming industry hit a rough patch around 2010 and 2011 and “stopped growing.” The introduction of mobile games helped revitalize and attract a whole new generation of gamers, a feat blockchain games need to replicate.
Siu believes all it will take is one good game to kick off a blockchain gaming boom — and he predicts it could start in the next 18 to 24 months with hundreds of millions of gamers entering the space.
“I think we're charting a pretty good chart, but you know, you're not gonna convert everyone overnight, right? But it's beginning and people are having fun and also the games are getting better,” he said.
“All you need is one game that’s actually going to be reasonably successful and you’ll basically get large news, and because it's Web3 what’ll happen is that once it’s very popular, it’ll bleed into the other games.”
NFTs in games have faced backlash from mainstream gaming audiences, forcing several high-profile companies to abandon plans to incorporate them, but Siu believes this is only temporary until gamers learn more about how the technology works.
“I think they’re trying to be sensitive to their audience. I mean, so that’s the right thing to do as a company. You can't just say, well, whatever your opinions don’t matter,” he said.
“Most gamers I speak to say they are all about having digital ownership in games but are still against NFTs, but over time, education will fix that,” Siu added.
Related: Opinion: 2023 is a ‘buidl’ year for crypto gaming
Bozena Rezab, co-founder and CEO of GAMEE, a blockchain mobile gaming platform, believes mobile games will have a part to play in attracting casual gamers.
“Casual mobile games are the easiest step into gaming, with the ability to engage a mass audience. This is what these can offer to a quest of onboarding gamers to NFT / blockchain games,” she said.
However, the gaming exec thinks several aspects must be changed first, such as dropping paywalls, shorter sessions and easier setups for casual players.
“We are still on a path of exploring the use of blockchain tech in games, the concept of ownership of assets is very powerful and will stay. The exact game genres, game economy models and mechanics that will define the future are yet to be explored,” she said.
AXS price has formed a "gravestone" doji on its daily chart that coupled with its recent token unlock event hint at a potential bearish reversal ahead.
Axie Infinity (AXS) has rallied 135% month-to-date to reach approximately $14 on Jan. 23, its highest level in two months. Nonetheless, the AXS/USD pair could suffer major losses in the coming weeks owing to a flurry of negative technical and fundamental indicators.
The AXS price formed a "gravestone doji" candlestick on Jan. 23, which technical analysts view as a bearish reversal pattern.
A gravestone doji appears when an asset's opening, closing, and the lowest price comes to be nearly identical except for the highest price, as shown in the chart below. The long upper wick shows that the bears pared all of the gains printed by the candle during the given session.
AXS seems to have been forming a similar candlestick pattern as of Jan. 23, with bears rejecting its advance above the $14 price level, triggering a 10%-plus intraday price drop.
In addition, the rejection came as the AXS/USD pair's relative strength index (RSI) crossed into overbought territory, coinciding with its price testi the 200-day exponential moving average (200-day EMA; the blue wave in the chart above), which has served as resistance in January 2022 and April 2022.
These three factors have raised AXS's possibility of undergoing a price correction in the coming weeks. The nearest downside target for AXS comes to be near its 50-day EMA (the red wave) at around $8, or a 40% drop by March.
From a fundamental perspective, the Axie Infinity price could fall in the coming weeks due to its latest supply unlock.
Related: Axie Infinity is toxic for crypto gaming
On Jan. 23, AXS's circulating supply grew by 4.8 million, about 1.8% of its total supply of 270 million, after a scheduled vested token unlock. Theoretically, more supply could push prices lower if demand does not increase.
$AXS #AXS
— KalababaS crypto world (@KalababaS) January 23, 2023
Token unlocking coming ⚠️⚠️⚠️
Dont #fomo guys this one …looks like #bulls are doing exit pump on $axs pic.twitter.com/azSvRYjZ7m
On larger-timeframe charts, however, AXS appears to have formed a falling wedge, which analysts treat as a bullish reversal pattern.
AXS's ongoing recovery run has resulted in its price breaking out of the wedge that's been in place since May 2022.
In theory, such a move could mean that the price could rise by as much as the the wedge's maximum height. In other words, the bullish target for AXS price is now around $22.50, up nearly 70% from current prices.
This article does not contain investment advice or recommendations. Every investment and trading move involves risk, and readers should conduct their own research when making a decision.
The tournament, “0xMonaco: Battle of Titans,” is scheduled to kick off on Jan. 29 and will bring together developers from around the blockchain space.
MatchBoxDAO — a collective of developers, artists and designers building on-chain gaming infrastructure with StarkNet — has announced the launch of MatchBox Arena, an esports experience specifically designed for developer participation. Dubbing it the “World Cup of the Web3 companies,” the team said the gaming tournament is designed to find out which company has the best technical team.
We are finally launching: "Matchbox Arena"✨
— MatchboxDAO (@matchbox_dao) January 17, 2023
With the "Battle of Titans" as the first CTF competition released on the platform, we'll officially release "Matchbox Arena" tomorrow where the players will be able to upload their code.https://t.co/vGbEuyzus0
More info below
The tournament, titled “0xMonaco: Battle of Titans,” will bring together Web3 developers from companies such as Uniswap, Ledger, Polygon, Chainlink and Near. The team said it will be livestreamed and feature esports commentators.
On-chain games for developers take a unique approach, focusing on strategy games in which players use smart contracts to code their strategies. 0xMonaco and future games of its kind will require high technical skills, creativity and quick adaptability to win. MatchBoxDAO promised to create an enjoyable experience for developers and entertain viewers, through video simulations that depict the actual code logic during the round.
MatchBox Arena plans to host closed tournaments for the best teams in Web3 and open challenges for everyone to participate in. Players can enter the arena, upload their code strategy and participate in rounds with other players. Additionally, players and viewers will be able to track their favorite team’s progress on a leaderboard and watch video replays of the matches.
Related: Expect better blockchain games in 2023, says Animoca Brands CEO
The Web3 ecosystem continues to influence and evolve the gaming landscape, and game developers are now looking beyond play-to-earn and focusing more on the gaming aspect of their platforms.
On Jan. 7, Cointelegraph reported that artificial intelligence could also influence Web3-based gaming. OpenAI could potentially allow developers to create better art, more challenging encounters, and superior narration, leading to a more immersive and rich experience for players.
Animoca Brands CEO Robby Yung believes we will see many great blockchain games released during the first nine months of 2023 as developers begin to deliver after raising funds in 2022.
The celebrated union between blockchain and gaming has encountered several hurdles that have left many wondering if the new sector of crypto and gaming will ever live up to its potential.
In the fifth episode of the Hashing It Out podcast, Cointelegraph’s Elisha Owusu Akyaw and Animoca Brands CEO, Robby Yung, discuss how the blockchain gaming industry is striving forward regardless of the challenges.
Robby Yung believes that there are issues on both sides. Regarding blockchain developers, Yung argues that the industry has not been able to educate the masses on the benefits of blockchain technology. According to Yung, people need to understand that owning their digital property is groundbreaking technology.
On the flip side, Yung highlights that the gaming industry has a conservative streak, where gamers have been reluctant to change. Yung recalled the backlash mobile gamers and free-to-play games experienced as prime examples of the conservative culture among gamers.
Yung recalled how mobile gamers were disliked by the personal computer (PC) and console game communities, who felt that mobile phones could not provide an authentic gaming experience. He also cited the pushback free-to-play games received for introducing the concept of playing for free and paying for in-game items. Yung believes that the value of blockchain technology will eventually convince traditional gamers.
Related: Music NFTs are helping independent creators monetize and build a fanbase
Some analysts argue that blockchain games are not fun and monetary rewards alone may not be enough to attract adoption. The Animoca Brands’ CEO believes such criticism is unfair for an infant industry barely three years old. According to Yung, decent games take time to make. He referenced the mobile gaming industry, where the majority of games that launched before Angry Birds are not memorable and development can be slow in the gaming industry.
In the episode, Elisha and Yung also discuss:
For the complete picture of the gaming industry, listen to episode five of Hashing It Out on the new Cointelegraph Podcasts page or Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, or TuneIn.
In 2023, GameFi developers should focus on building out quality more than quantity.
2022 was a huge year for the play-to-earn (P2E) gaming scene. An influx of capital and users was followed by a sharp downturn in blockchain game token prices and a decrease in players — and the market is still reeling. And, with fallout from the FTX disaster reaching into every corner of the industry, play-to-earn’s prospects seem bleak on the surface. But peeking under the hood, the numbers tell a different story: Strong funding this year has set the stage for serious “buidling” in 2023.
A consistent flow of strong raises for Web3 gaming studios has been silently infusing the market with funding for months. In August, UnCaged studios raised $24 million, contributing to nearly $750 million raised by Web3 gaming studios in that month alone. The momentum continued through September when Revolving Games raised $25 million, and October, when Odyssey Interactive, Stardust and SkyWeaver pulled in $19 million, $30 million and $40 million, respectively. Thirdverse raised $15 million for Web3 and virtual reality (VR) games in November;
These numbers directly contradict the plunging asset prices and player enthusiasm about the Web3 gaming space. But even as gamers and tokens falter, venture capitalists are betting big on the future of blockchain gaming. Which studios will win out in the year ahead? And why?
One noteworthy element throughout the raises that have taken place in recent months is that the majority of studios that have received funding are not conducting seed or pre-seed rounds. Rather, they’re holding Series As.
Of course, there are exceptions to this rule. Some studios have successfully completed seed or pre-seed rounds. But even then, their founding teams have serious gaming experience. For instance, Ruckus Games, which recently raised $5.5 million in seed funding, is a game studio started by former Gearbox and Riot Games developers. This indicates that VCs are focusing on studios with gaming experience — a departure from the early days of Web3 gaming.
During that early period, many Web3 gaming projects received robust funding without having a clear roadmap toward the launch of their products nor founding teams with the proven experience to make it happen. Indeed, the YOLO days of late 2021 and early 2022 are long gone. Today, the studios that are receiving funding already have a level of proven success building Web3 games. VCs are now thinking farther into the future, even as far as five to ten years down the road.
Related: 2023 will see the death of play-to-earn gaming
While this timeframe may seem many lifetimes over in the crypto world, this horizon is normal for studios in the traditional gaming sphere. The shift to longer-term thinking also shows that studios are beginning to understand that individual games have shelf lives — and that investing in the studios that build the games is a more effective approach.
Looking at these raises combined with long-term trends in Web3 gaming, we start to see that some patterns are beginning to shape the industry’s future.
So what will the impact of all the raises be in a few years?
Related: The feds are coming for the metaverse, from Axie Infinity to Bored Apes
We can certainly expect a strong emphasis on mobile gaming. In September, DappRadar reported that hyper-casual mobile blockchain games brought more than 1.7 million users from Web2 into Web3 gaming in a single week.
With these changes underway, it seems likely that Web3 gaming will enter the “mainstream” and that within the next five years, the global index of the top 100 gaming studios will contain studios that have strong blockchain elements.
We probably haven’t seen the last of the large-scale raises that have been happening in the Web3 gaming space these past months. The Web3 gaming hype cycle has officially passed, and the space is in “buidl” mode. And this time around, investors are interested in studios that are playing the long game (pun intended).
This change in focus, combined with the significant fluctuations in the larger blockchain technology industry, will create new dynamics and opportunities for builders in the P2E market in 2023. Raised expectations from both players and funders will separate the wheat from the chaff. Priorities in 2023 and beyond will focus on quality over quantity. In the end, those who can create the most outstanding games will win. So game on.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
Alex Connelly says the technology provides “very cool storytelling opportunities.”
The creation of smart contracts and Web3 interfaces has led to an entirely new play-to-earn or nonfungible token (NFT) genre of video games. But during the 2021 crypto bull market and subsequent crash of 2022, many of the games in this niche went through incredible ups and downs in terms of player count and transaction volume.
Despite this volatility, one Web3 gaming executive who spoke to Cointelegraph says that new innovations in artificial intelligence (AI) will make the genre better than it has ever been.
Alex Connelly is the chief technology officer of Immutable, developer of the Gods Unchained digital collectible trading card game and Immutable X NFT platform. He told Cointelegraph that OpenAI, an AI-focused American research laboratory dedicated to developing friendly AI applications that can assist with a variety of tasks, software will allow new possibilities for Web3 games, letting developers create better art, more challenging encounters and superior narration, leading to a more immersive and rich experience for players.
Recent: Crypto companies aim to build trust within future products and services
Connelly said that the area his team is looking at the most for OpenAI applications is art. In the past, video game artists often had to create multiple versions of the same images. For example, there often needed to be multiple sizes of the same images or slightly different versions that emphasized different parts of a piece of art. This sometimes led to a lack of efficiency. But with OpenAI software, artists are now able to experiment with letting AI create different versions of a piece of art, freeing up the artists to spend more time creating original work.
Beyond the immediate benefit of creating better art, Connolly said that there were other areas where OpenAI may improve gaming further into the future. One subject that the team has been discussing is the creation of AI that can dynamically adjust to players’ skill levels, creating encounters that are just difficult enough to be fun, without becoming overwhelming. Connelly stated:
“I think we are really excited about the potential for this technology to create more meaningful counter-play for opponents, so one challenging thing in things like trading card games or things like RPGs is building an AI that is the right degree of difficulty for and is tailored somewhat to the needs of the players. I think we think we can create really deep and immersive, ongoing learning curves for players that sort of match up to where they're at in the games.”
“I think that's a really important thing for making sure that you don't have something that's so easy that no one plays against it or so hard that it's just not fun to play against, finding that nice curve and making that player customized. That's an awesome use of this technology,” he added.
Of course, video game developers have always attempted to make AI programs for computer opponents that would provide the right difficulty for players. But the Immutable exec says that OpenAI provides a better approach when compared to the strategies used by developers in the past:
“I think a lot of what's been built previously in games has been what I call ‘manually written’ AIs where the opponent in the game is basing their decisions on a bunch of programmed rules that a programmer has introduced there.”
Connelly continued, “You're having to tell it what to do, as opposed to just saying ‘Hey, we're an AI that plays the game. The goal of the AI is, is it to win all the time? Is it to win about 50% of the time? Is it to win about 50% of the time against this player?’ [...] There's a lot of fuzziness and black box in the middle of that model, [...] with this new technology putting people in a position to actually create more customized experiences for games.”
Connelly said that this new technology will not only make creating AIs for computer-controlled opponents easier; it will also lead to a “more tailored, personalized content, full single-player experience.”
One of the newest pieces of OpenAI software is Chat Generative Pre-trained Transformer, also known as ChatGPT, which has already been used to create trading bots, blogs and even crypto songs.
In response to a question about whether Immutable is planning to use ChatGPT in its games, Connelly said that the team is only in the very early stages of considering it, given that it is so new. However, he did say that the team has been using a previous incarnation, GPT-3, to experiment with ways to create an AI narrator that will tell stories based on the plays that occur within a card game, as he explained:
“We think there are very cool storytelling opportunities with this technology. We've explored ideas such as, let's say, you're in a card game and you're playing cards getting GPT-3 to stitch that together into a story. […] No human could ever go along and write down a story that ties together the input for a whole game. It would just be impossible when we're talking about millions of games here, right?”
Despite this optimism, he warned that the team has run into some kinks when trying to implement this story narrator idea. Initial tests have resulted in “spam” narration that distracts from the game instead of adding to it, so the team is still trying to figure out how to put the right amount of narration into a card game.
“We did this thing that sounded cool. But, when we actually play, it confuses them [players] or it doesn't resonate directly with them. We're still finding the right balance between, how do we make sure that if we do this, it doesn't just create a lot of spam content? I think that's one thing where NFTs and gaming, there are some potential uses for reducing the amount of spam that gets produced or in introducing some costs there so that people are still able to have [...] richer experiences,” he stated.
Connelly said that it’s not only Immutable that is looking to use this technology to improve games. He also sees partner developers that are releasing items on Immutable X becoming increasingly interested in experimenting with OpenAI.
Recent: What is institutional DeFi, and how can banks benefit?
In his opinion, Web3 studios tend to be the most enthusiastic about using these new technologies when compared to other studios. Although all game studios want to use OpenAI to improve their games, he says large studios face an “innovator’s dilemma” that makes it more costly for them to take the risks of implementing OpenAI features. For that reason, he expects that Web3 and NFT games will lead the way with these technologies in the future.
Developers have been focusing more on tokens than on making fun games. As a result, GameFi has been dying.
Play-to-earn gaming enabled by blockchain technology has grown exponentially over the few years.
Gamers have embraced the opportunity to collect cryptocurrencies or nonfungible tokens (NFTs) that have been produced in blockchain-based games.
Through the advent of this new technology, players have been able to generate income by selling in-game NFTs or earning cryptocurrency rewards, both of which can be exchanged for fiat cash.
Because of this, according to data from Absolute Reports, the estimated value of the GameFi industry will grow to $2.8 billion by 2028, with a compound annual growth rate of 20.4% over the same period. But such predictions may well prove to be unfounded.
Given the rate of exponential growth over recent years, one might think that there was absolutely no reason to believe the trend would not continue well into 2023 and beyond. Right? Wrong.
As we have seen with the ignominious case of former crypto king Sam Bankman-Fried and the implosion of FTX, a castle built on a flimsy foundation of sand can be easily washed away when the tide comes in and goes back out again.
Related: GameFi developers could be facing big fines and hard time
Or, as legendary investor Warren Buffett liked to put it: “Only when the tide goes out do you discover who’s been swimming naked.”
We may be about to learn who these people are. The fact of the matter is the play-to-earn gaming industry is not built on firm foundations. The foundations are fragile and flimsy, and this could well spell trouble in 2023. The whole edifice looks set to come crashing down.
The structure of the current GameFi market is token-centric and this can create a number of issues. Project owners issue their tokens which are listed on exchanges first before they announce that they are going to build games. Games are a utility of tokens they issue. So tokens come first, and contents later. This is why the quality and design of games in the blockchain space are so underrated.
An environment has been created in which the players are not all that interested in games themselves, which is a strange state of affairs for a gaming industry to find itself in. More and more of the players are, in reality, investors who want returns on investment.
The current structure creates the wrong kind of incentives and this is one of the reasons why the system is not working as it should. I would argue that DeFi Kingdoms, which is one of the better-known play-to-earn blockchain games out there, has been screwing with its tokenomics relentlessly by creating perverse incentives.
By now, generally speaking, the token market is in a downtrend and the speculative trading market is dead. An industry can survive for a certain amount of time on promise, expectation and unjustified hype. But, it can only do so for so long. Eventually, people begin to notice that they haven’t received what they have been promised. Patience starts to wear thin. They get angry, they get frustrated and they begin to withdraw. This begins as a trickle of the savviest players, but that can soon become a flood.
Related: Anonymous crypto developers belong in prison — and will be there soon
Those who have planned to secure funds by listing their tokens will have to reassess. Many will be forced to close their projects due to insufficient funds. The situation is becoming so acute that even hitherto bullish crypto venture capitalists (VCs) are also pausing new investments.
So, who is going to survive this investment drought? It looks unlikely that GameFi will. However, other blockchain gamings might do so.
One example is the Ethereum-powered, NFT-based fantasy football league operator Sorare has become a Web3 unicorn. While many of its competitors struggle, Sorare keeps on increasing its users and revenue during the darkest period. Their daily auction volume is impressive, at around 300-400 Ether (ETH), and the number of users keeps increasing.
Though its back end relies on blockchain, users do not perceive it as a GameFi project. They do not provide their native tokens, but they do provide their content first on Ethereum, which very much looks like the way to go for the industry at large.
So GameFi may well die in 2023, but that does not mean that all is lost. Death is a necessary part of evolution. From it, new life may already be beginning to emerge.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
Gumi, a Japanese mobile gaming company, has partnered with Square Enix and SBI Holdings to build new business opportunities around the metaverse. The deal, which also includes the issuance of new stock valued at $52.7 million dollars, will allow the company to acquire financial and content creation experience. Gumi Raises $52.7 Million in Metaverse-Driven Alliance […]
From creating e-sports competitions with huge prize pools to making game tokens more relevant to holders, members of the community share their thoughts on GameFi.
As the GameFi space continues its journey to attract gamers to a new gaming paradigm, community members shared their takes on what they think a mature GameFi project needs to succeed.
From creating e-sports competitions with huge prize pools to making the game tokens more relevant for the token holders, GameFi community members shared their takes on what the space needs.
One Reddit user suggested that GameFi projects need to appeal to several target audiences. This includes whales who will provide funding, earners who are mostly kids and people from developing countries and those who play for fun that will leave good reviews for the game.
Another community member pointed out the need to improve the reputation of the space. According to the Redditor, there are some that consider GameFi a scam and this needs to be changed. In addition, the community member also highlighted that it would help if GameFi projects held e-sports competitions with high prize pools as rewards.
Meanwhile, one user said that a matured GameFi project must have a way to make its token relevant for gamers. This suggests that further use cases must be added. In addition, the user also suggested the integration of decentralized finance (DeFi) liquidity mining for the tokens.
Going back to the basics of gaming, a community member highlighted that the most important factor that GameFi projects should focus on is making the game fun. The Redditor believes that making the game fun and engaging will make users come back “day in and day out.”
Related: Big Time and other Web3 games take home the gold at the inaugural GAM3 awards
While some gamers may be against GameFi, a recent survey showed that some are willing to play more blockchain games if they are given opportunities to earn cryptos like Bitcoin (BTC). The survey also showed that more gamers are interested in earning BTC while playing compared to earning nonfungible tokens (NFTs).
