Innovation Of These Two Areas Will Change Crypto Gaming Forever
Expect To See Some Improvements In The Future
Introduction
The wealthiest and most successful investors identify and ride the waves of change in markets before everyone else. A huge part of making it in crypto gaming will require you to have the foresight to see where the sector is headed and what the next innovations will be. Recently, the team has been having some pretty lengthy discussions on the outlook of gaming and where things could ultimately be headed. We’ve been spending a lot of time diving into the sector and looking at everything – well almost everything – it has to offer in order to form a thesis of where we can see things going. Our sentiments are derived from common pain points and obvious opportunities of disruption that we’ve been seeing and taking note of.
Today we’d like to share our thoughts on a few innovations that we can see arriving soon that will improve crypto gaming and ultimately catapult it into the mainstream. Here comes the part where I give you all my famous disclaimer before continuing:
It is to be noted that any projects discussed in this article is not a smoke signal to buy or take any positions without first doing your own due diligence. Everything mentioned are projects that we believe highlight the picture we are painting. If you automatically invest into any project SOLELY based on someone’s opinion who you deem to be an expert, there’s a great chance that things will not end well for you.
AAA Level Gameplay
Currently, the gameplay for crypto games have been decent, but far from great. This is an area of the sector that is in prime position for a complete overhaul.
The industry is filled with auto battlers and a few promises of AAA RPGs. The latest trend has been 2D dungeon crawlers. Needless to say, there is a lot to be desired.
A lot of the crypto native games today can be described as:
Basic
Lacking polish & fun
Many times incomplete.
An oversaturation of simple, turn based games
So, where will the next wave of innovative gameplay come from? Ideally, what would it look like?
Our thesis is that there will be a splintering of mainstream gaming companies that will result in a lot of the developers diving into the crypto gaming industry. One of the major gripes is that current crypto gaming developers either have a habit of exaggerating their experience or lack any real experience at all.
There have been countless examples of teams listing huge brands on their websites (Ex: Riot Games, Rovio, etc) to make it seem as if the developers were building the games of said companies. However, upon further research it is discovered that the “developers” were basically admins at those powerhouse brands.
This has been a major reason for the lackluster gameplay that has been plaguing the industry.
We believe that many AAA studio teams will be drawn to the opportunity to build, and dramatically increase the competition in the crypto game space. This means that developers with real track records will assist in creating much better experiences.
This will force the industry to evolve.
Actually, this isn’t just a pie in the sky dream. We’re already seeing this come into fruition. There are currently a number of upcoming projects with teams that have experience shipping real games from major brands. A few examples are:
The team has previous experience working for HBO.
The CEO, Mark Long, is the former Head of Microsoft’s Xcloud. He has been in the gaming industry for 26 years.
Mark has also shipped over 32 titles on multiple platforms ranging from Sega Genesis to Oculus Rift.
The Head Of Studio, Don Norbury, has worked on games like Bioshock Infinite, Sunset Overdrive, and Crackdown 3.
Founder, Ric Moore, is one of the developers of Stardew Valley.
He also led a successful acquisition of his company, Bossa, after growing it to over 100 employees.
Ric is also the Game Director on Dragons Watch and a BAFTA award winner.
The cofounder, Gina Nelson, is also an industry veteran. She has worked in the gaming industry for over a decade as an Artist & Art Director.
She has shipped over 14 titles. She was also the lead artist for the very popular mobile game, Temple Run.
Gina has also partnered with popular projects like Gears of War, Star Wars, Hasbro, Disney, and Lionsgate to name a few.
Everseed is being produced by the Amihan Entertainment team.
Amihan is made up of a team of previous Riot Games veterans.
The Game Director and Co-Founder, Naomi McArthur, was previously the Senior Game Designer at Riot.
The CTO, Paul Loy, was the Technology Lead at Riot.
It’s important for us to highlight that the people developing these games are not just mediocre employees at these studios. They are core contributors with serious game development experience.
We’ve also seen gaming executives abandoning their roles to join the Web3 community. Last month the YouTube’s Head Of Gaming – Ryan Wyatt – announced that he was leaving YouTube to take on the role of CEO of Polygon Studios.
As the industry progresses, the barrier to entry will only increase – it’s already beginning – and leveling up the gameplay will be a requirement in order to get ahead. Plus, lower tiered blue chips (if we can call them that) have already staked their claims.
Sustainable & Profitable Gaming Economies
In our last Deep Dive, we discussed the importance of the economic models of crypto games. Game economies create positive feedback loops of incentives that attract new players and keep players engaged & excited to continue to play more. This is the make or break mechanism of every game in the sector.
We saw this play out with many of the P2E games that hit the market this year. Millions of players flocked to games for the economic incentives alone.
We’ve seen one of the biggest projects in the crypto gaming space mess this up. It took a while for players and investors to notice that the Axie economy was broken, but once they did, it became (and still is) a huge issue. Even today, Axie is still struggling to recover.
As you all can see, Axie’s in game currency – SLP – reached a height of $0.39 at its peak and now sits at a low of $0.019.
A similar situation occurred with Thetan Arena as well.
THC – Thetan’s in game currency – reached a height of $0.98 and now sits at a low of $0.031
Both examples point to a huge portion of their player base entering a stable economy & leaving as the economy crumbles and economic incentives are less favorable. Situations such as these erode the community & the player base.
We see the same thing in real world economies, people will go where they feel safest, enjoy themselves & earn the most. Metaverse & crypto gaming economies mimic this pattern.
These examples are not meant to be FUD (these games can still recover). They are used to illustrate the severity of the expansion and contraction games experience without finely tuned economies.
Every game economy is going to go through expansion & contraction phases, just like any normal economy. But, the severity of these phases has a significant effect on the player base and investors alike.
As the sector moves forward, we can expect to see some innovative economic models emerge. Let’s be clear, this isn’t something that should happen. This MUST happen.
If crypto gaming economies can’t be perfected, we may as well kiss the entire sector goodbye. Is that a dramatic hot take? It sure is.
I also have no problem making such a strong declaration because I know that founders are actively working on developing economic models that make sense.
Heroes Of Mavia is a good example of an upcoming project that is working on delivering a revolutionary crypto gaming economy.
In order to ensure that their economy doesn’t eventually crash and burn, the team is using a simulator to test the economy’s stability. Next. Level. Thinking.
Aside from Heroes Of Mavia, we have also seen mainstream examples of thoughtful gaming economies. One of the most popular examples of this is World Of Warcraft.
WoW has been at the top of the MMORPG pack for over a decade now with no signs of slowing down. This is largely due to the success of their micro-economy.
Founders could learn a lot from studying the economic layout of WoW.
The key takeaway is that sustainable economies will be important in the market for the next gaming/metaverse wave to grow and maintain a player base, while protecting investors the games player base.
Conclusion
I’m sure you all probably expected an exhaustive list, but the truth of the matter is that it doesn’t take a bunch of bells and whistles to drive innovation in the crypto gaming industry at the moment. Now, there are other developments that will occur as we move forward.
However, these are the two most glaring areas that are ready and begging for innovation. Projects that manage to nail these two areas will already be winning 95% of the crypto gaming battle.
More importantly, finding projects early that meet the mark will be equivalent to finding the express lane to Valhalla.
Yo I miss you guys no lie
This is so right on QUE!!! You have the best content out of tons of youtubers that claim they know the best games and so on. I do my own research I`m not looking for a list but sometimes a heads up on new up and coming games is important because we can`t keep track and do research on all of them unless we had a team as awesome as yours. Listen I am not blowing smoke up anyones dress but this is one of the best deep dives I have ever read about gaming. Hey, don`t listen to all the haters out there Ellio. Keep it real like always. Thanks.