Recently, we are seeing a series of famous names in the web2 game market such as: Pubg, Ubisoft,… encroaching on the web3 market through releasing games on Blockchain. So what is so special about Web3 Gaming that makes famous game companies pay so much attention? Let’s find out with Weakhand in this article.
Before jumping into the article, everyone can refer to some of the following projects to better understand.
- What is GameFi? GameFi’s operating mechanism
- The journey from GameFi to Mass Adoption still has many challenges
- What is Play to Earn? The trend opens a new era for Gaming
The Formation and Development of Web3 Gaming
What is Web3 Gaming?
Web3 Gaming refers to games that use Blockchain technology to bring high transparency, security, democratization, and user control over in-game assets.
Web3 games do not depend on a single place (or server in web2 games) to store player data but instead are stored decentralized on the Blockchain. This provides more transparency and security for user data in the game.
Web3 Gaming is a new industry full of potential, giving users more control, creating more earning opportunities, and bringing people from all over the world together with a common love of gaming. new games and technology.
Web3 Gaming is gradually attracting the attention and interest of the community
The first game on Blockchain was introduced in 2014 when Huntercoin was introduced as a way to test the adoption of games on Blockchain.
After Ethereum was launched, CryptoKitties launched in 2017 was a huge success in demonstrating the potential of Web3 Gaming and at one point it accounted for more than 25% of Ethereum network activity. However, Web3 Gaming is really mentioned by everyone in 2021 with the Play To Earn trend with the leadership of Axie Infinity.
Predict the development scale of Web3 Gaming
When considering the development scale of Web3 Gaming projects, we see that in 2019, most Web3 Gaming projects are only built by a small group of developers and very few projects can call for capital. at the beginning of construction. At that time, there was only 27M USD from VCs poured into Web3 Gaming projects.
But when it comes to 2021 onwards, we have seen many Web3 Gaming companies or Web3 Game Studio born and calling for huge capital of tens of millions of dollars from VCs such as: Kratos with 20M USD, EVE Online with 40M USD,… The total amount of money that VCs poured into Web3 Gaming projects has reached more than 8B USD. This shows the maturity of Web3 Gaming projects and is increasingly receiving attention and attraction by VCs in the market.
In terms of market size, 2019 only saw 300 Web3 Gaming projects present on the market, this number has increased to 3,629 projects by 2023. All of the above figures show the potential for development. Big growth and important position of Web3 Gaming segment in the market.
Web2 Gaming Giants Are Approaching Web3 Gaming
In recent times, a series of large Web2 game companies such as: Ubisoft, Konami, Sega,… are approaching Web3 Gaming to improve their services. The foray into Web3 Gaming also opens new doors for traditional game publishers, introducing features such as a player-owned economy and real asset ownership.
Next, let’s learn in detail the activities of traditional game companies in the Web3 market:
1, Ubisoft
Ubisoft – the developer behind the famous game projects Assassin’s Creed and Far Cry is actively working in the web3 market. They launched the Assassin’s Creed NFT collection on Polygon and most recently in June 2023, Ubisoft also revealed their first blockchain game titled Champions Tactics – a tactical role-playing game on PC. The game will be developed on the Oasys blockchain as it is optimized for gaming.
Not only simply deploying the game on Blockchain, Ubisoft is also planning to launch free token airdrops to attract players. They are also looking to expand into the metaverse highlighted by the implementation of their Rabbid characters in the Sandbox.
2, TSM
Leading esports team TSM has also partnered with Avalanche to build a competitive Web3 Gaming platform called Blitz.
TSM will use Avalanche’s Subnet technology to bring Blitz to the Blockchain, where they will organize tournaments and support players. Gamers can also purchase and store digital assets seamlessly thanks to the Core app.
3, Krafton
Krafton – the Korea-based game manufacturer behind the popular battle royale shooter Pubg is entering the Web3 Gaming market with the launch of many products and different game titles such as: Launching a platform metaverse platform called Migaloo or the creation of a separate Blockchain called Settlus – a Layer 1 Blockchain built on Cosmos.
Settlus will be the Blockchain that Krafton is oriented to develop towards Gaming and Metaverse. But there is an interesting feature on this Blockchain: the gas fee is paid with Stablecoin USDC. This is based on the cooperation between Krafton and Circle in supporting the construction and development of its Blockchain.
4, Konami
In 2022, famous Japanese game publisher Konami is coming up with ideas to build and develop a Web3 Gaming and Metaverse system to bring a more interesting experience to users.
In addition, Konami is also applying NFTs into its games. This trend of Konami and especially Asian game publishers is showing their proactive approach to Blockchain and Web3. This also shows the ambition to become a leader in the Web3 Gaming scene that is receiving a lot of attention today.
Highlights that Web3 Gaming Brings Compared to Traditional Games
Highlights that Web3 Gaming brings compared to traditional games
It is no coincidence that Web3 Gaming has received the attention and attention of so many big players in the Web2 market. Let’s look at the highlights that Web3 Gaming brings compared to traditional games as follows:
Ownership and interoperability
Web3 Gaming gives players true ownership of their in-game assets and in-game interactivity. With the emergence of NFTs comes an innovation for web3 games, where players actually own their assets and can buy and sell them on NFT Marketplaces.
Another thing is that in traditional games, users buy an in-game item to participate in gaming. But what happens if a player switches from one game to another? That item will be wasted because it will no longer be used.
For web3 Gaming, the ability to interact brings a special point and partly overcomes the disadvantages that traditional games encounter above. Users can move items encoded as NFTs across multiple games, and if they no longer want to use them, they can sell them on NFT Marketplaces.
Accessibility and openness
Web3 games are built on a distributed system so users do not have to rely on servers like traditional games. If that geographical location does not have a game server, it will be difficult for players to reach it, and even if they can reach it, the quality of the game experience will be very poor.
We can take an example of the game League of Legends. When playing games on Vietnamese Server, the Ping status is quite stable and helps players have a smooth gaming experience, but when switching to Servers like Korea or North America, the Ping status suddenly increases and operations in the game change. Play will be delayed, causing discomfort for the player.
For Web3 games deployed on Blockchain, users only need the Internet to access them anywhere in the world, providing higher accessibility for users. Additionally, in some games users have the right to vote to add new features to the game. This makes web3 games an open system where users and developers can interact more closely.
Opportunity to make money
The next generation gaming platform will allow players to earn money playing their favorite games anywhere. Users participating in the game not only satisfy their passion and love, but also earn money from the game’s rewards in the form of Tokens or NFTs. This can also disrupt the Gaming industry and provide a significant source of income to help players overcome financial difficulties especially in financially struggling countries.
Challenges That Web3 Games Are Facing
Despite receiving a lot of attention and concern from not only VCs in the crypto market but also big players in the traditional Web2 market. But it must be admitted that at the present time, most games are still quite simple and really do not bring great appeal to players.
In today’s increasingly competitive gaming market, allowing Web3 games to reach a large number of users in the real world is facing many challenges, including:
- Blockchain technology is still developing and has limitations in transaction speed and scalability. This poses the challenge of handling increased player counts while also providing a smooth in-game experience.
- Transaction costs: Transactions on Blockchain often encounter high and unstable transaction fees, especially when the network is overloaded. A number of dedicated Blockchains for Gaming have been launched but have not really completely solved the above problem. This also brings challenges if you want to bring Web3 Gaming to reach users in the real world.
- User acceptance: Blockchain technology and Web3 aspects can be new and confusing to new users. So to truly exploit the potential of Web3 Gaming, user adoption and education are extremely important.
summary
Web3 Gaming is truly an extremely potential segment and promises to change the gaming industry in the future. Although it receives a lot of attention from the giants in the traditional gaming industry, we must also truly acknowledge that currently Web3 Gaming still has many shortcomings that need to be overcome if we want to reach a large number of users in the industry. the real world.
