What information is worth paying attention to on the game event GDC 2023?
From March 20th to 24th, the annual game industry event Game Developers Conference 2023 (GDC 2023) was held in San Francisco, USA. According to the official data released by GDC on March 29, GDC 2023 attracted more than 28,000 participants, a total of more than 1,000 speakers and 700 meetings, seminars, and round tables. You must know that due to the impact of the epidemic, the GDC conference has been canceled for two consecutive sessions, and it seems that it will no longer be popular after it resumes in 2022. Only 12,000 people participated, which is far from the 27,000 participants of the unprecedented GDC 2019. As it's officially said, there's only one way to describe this year's conference: "GDC is back".
The core of GDC is the annual main stage display. This year's theme is "The Future of Gaming", which coincides with the concept of blockchain games that have only entered the public eye in recent years and are still in the ascendant. At GDC 2023, there were more than 20 conferences dedicated to blockchain games. The organizers included Web3 unicorns Polygon and Immutable, as well as traditional game giants WeMade and Nexon that transformed and developed Web3 games. The participating project parties also included encrypted infrastructure such as Avalanche, Boba Network, Chainlink, and Cronos, as well as Web3 game development teams such as Createra.
Generally speaking, the chain game track was quite lively during the conference. Many companies joined forces to announce strategic cooperation, and some game publishers who have successfully transformed into Web3 shared their experience in building games and their platforms. This article will introduce the GDC 2023 Some noteworthy information.
A number of leading institutions have joined forces to establish cooperation
According to Delphi Digital’s report, Immutable X, Ethereum’s layer 2 expansion solution, and Polygon’s game ecosystem will both receive a cumulative investment of nearly US$900 million in 2022, becoming veritable leaders in the chain game track. Just as GDC opened, Immutable, the parent company of Polygon Labs and Immutable X, released big news first. The two parties announced the establishment of a strategic partnership to accelerate the development of Web3 games, and will cooperate 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 the news public, Immutable also announced two utility upgrades of IMX: 20% of the platform fee must be paid in IMX; IMX will be used as the core Gas currency of Immutable zkEVM, becoming Native network token.
Polygon has also set its sights on Asia, backing 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 obtain a "dedicated application chain" for the game through Polygon Supernet. "MapleStory Universe" is based on the 2D side-scrolling online game "MapleStory" (MapleStory, also known as "Adventure Island") launched by Nexon in 2003. The latter has been popular for nearly two decades and has produced more than 40 games so far. million dollars in revenue, and more than 180 million registered users. In a statement, the development team at MapleStory Universe said it will work closely with the team at Polygon Labs to develop and market the new game.
Although no further strategic cooperation has been reached, Polygon Labs also participated in the GDC conference together with the Korean game giant NEOWIZ to promote Intella X, an innovative Web3 game platform developed by the latter, and showcase the upcoming FPS game "AVA" and NFT PFP project on the platform "Early Retired Cats Club" etc. In addition, OPPO, a well-known mobile phone brand in China, has also reached a cooperation with Metaverse platform Createra on ray tracing technology, which will bring users a better gaming experience together. The two parties also jointly exhibited at the American Game Conference (GDC).
On the fourth day of the GDC conference, Near Foundation announced the establishment of a strategic partnership with WeMade, a Korean game company that has successfully transformed Web3. The Near Korea Hub, which oversees Near Protocol's business development in South Korea and Asia, played a key role in this cooperation. WeMade and Near Foundation have signed a business agreement, both parties will jointly support initiatives to increase mutual brand awareness; invest in cross-chain research and cooperation; hold more community activities, such as hackathons and training camps; and explore potential Web3 business opportunities, cultivate The next generation of Web3 developers.
Immutable X continues to expand the Web3 game territory
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 still maintains a momentum of rapid development. During the GDC conference, Immutable X announced a partnership with three game studios, BazookaTango, Bit Fry Game Studios, and Studio 369. Immutable X will complete game development with three studios through the joint launch of Immutable zkEVM with Polygon to further expand its web3 game series.
The cooperation between Bazooka Tango and Immutable X aims to make a comeback of the already "cool" war chess game "Shardbound" by combining Web3. This game was originally launched by Spiritwalk Games in 2015. It has exquisite game graphics and art design, and has gained a passionate player community. However, due to the development team’s lack of funds and other reasons, the game development was incomplete, so it quickly As the days go by, its copyright is now owned by Bazooka Tango. Immutable X and Bazooka Tango are still undecided on which game platforms the new Web3 version will be released on, with Steam and the NFT-friendly Epic Games Store currently under consideration.
Bit Fry Game Studios is an independent game studio that focuses on various sports games and has received backing from game-focused venture capital firm BitkraftVentures and the late former NBA commissioner David Stern, among others. By partnering with Immutable X, they are on a mission to disrupt the sports genre, starting with announcing their partnership for Infinite Victory. This is a futuristic arcade sports game based on the "Ultimate Rivals" released earlier by Bit Fry Game Studios, through the application of P2E and NFT mechanisms to create a fast game that combines basketball, hockey and other sports. Rhythm game.
Studio 369, known for the VR mech game "World of Mechs" on Oculus Quest 2, is developing the first open-world mechanized fighting game "MetalCore" in Web3. The cooperation with Immutable aims to further optimize its Web3 strategy and Get technical support. In order to smoothly develop the game, Studio 369 completed a financing of US$15 million in March 2019, with investors including Bitkraft Ventures, Immutable, etc. In the game, players will fight for alien territory on the mineral-rich alien Odaily by winning vehicles and machines, crafting equipment, recruiting pilots, developing land, selling and trading their equipment, etc. At the end of last year, the game won the GAM 32022 Best Shooter Award.
Wemade Shares Transformational Business Experience
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WeMade CEO Henry Chang delivered a keynote address on the future of gaming and the impact of blockchain technology and gaming. Discussed its successful launch of more than 25 Web3 games, the advantages of the platform, and its know-how for serving blockchain games. He said that all games will eventually issue their own tokens and NFTs, thereby enhancing game playability through blockchain technology and token economics. However, he also emphasized that "games that rely on playing to make money" will not achieve long-term success because they lack attractive gameplay and sustainability; on the contrary, integrating token economics into games that are already loved by players, It is the key to the prosperity of blockchain games.
WeMade Executive Vice President Wonil Suh (Won for short) dives into the evolution of token economics in Web3 games, detailing the transition from low-quality first-gen games with mandatory NFTs, to games with good gameplay and more balance The transformation process of the third generation game within the economy. He emphasized to game developers that they should be cautious about business models that only rely on selling NFTs, because not only competitors will easily challenge them, but more experienced gamers will no longer buy it easily. Won also shared five key lessons learned from WeMade's Web3 games: beautiful token curves are rare; supply too easily can cause token prices to drop; limiting supply too early can damage player interest; monitor the game's token Economics is crucial; even the best token economics can't save a game that's dying.
In addition, WeMade also emphasized the importance of collaboration and partnership 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 space.
Com 2 uS on how to shape Play to Own
Com 2 uSUSA President Kyu Lee hosted a session on Sustainable Token Economics at GDC, shared insights on "Play-to-Own (P 2 O)" and how it will contribute to Summoners War: Chronicles" builds a stable and enhanced token economics structure.
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 South Korea in August last year. After it was released in more than 170 countries around the world on March 9 this year, it achieved sales of more than 10 billion won (about 7.65 million U.S. dollars) within a week. In July this year, Chronicles’ blockchain game version will be released on XPLA, Com 2 uS’ own blockchain game platform.
Kyu Lee said that the token economics 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 are not really interested in the game. In this case, instead of being used to further activate the in-game economy, the tokens earned by the players are taken out of the game, eventually causing the exchange rate between the tokens and the in-game currency to collapse.
Summarize
Summarize
It can be seen from the GDC 2023 conference that people in the game industry have always been concerned about the experiments, changes and developments in the field of Web3 games. But it is clear that the technical strength, production level and even the cognitive level of the Web3 game development team need to be improved urgently. Whether it is "Web3" or "Metaverse" or "NFT", these tags themselves do not widely arouse the interest of most gamers, and even due to excessive emphasis on financial attributes and perfunctory design, a considerable number of game developers are not interested in playable I don't care about sex, but just delve into the token economic 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 with "no suspense" and won four awards from TGA, Golden Joystick, DICE, and GDC. Big award. Among the nominations for various awards, none of the Web3 games were shortlisted. It can be seen that returning to the game itself, Web3 games do not have advantages compared with traditional games at this stage. The token economics that many project parties talk about has become a castle in the air in the boring game design.
Although the current level of development is limited, in recent years, the entire Web3 industry has always had high expectations for the game track, which is also reflected in the flow of funds in the primary market: According to the first quarterly report of Metaverse released by DappRada, Blockchain games and Metaverse projects received the most funding in Q1 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 build underlying technologies that are more suitable for large-scale games. More and more people believe that games are likely to become a traffic portal for Web3 to break the circle. And what opens this entrance may be a really high-quality game that can be proud of a certain future GDC conference.
Will it be in the next two years? let us wait and see.
