In 2023, the emerging blockchain gaming industry continues to grow, and more refined gaming experiences are beginning to emerge, but the progress is slower than in 2022.

According to data in a report published by DappRadar and BGA, investment in blockchain games reached US$1.4 billion between May and November 2023 alone, but the number of investments and transaction values ​​in the broader gaming industry continue to decline.

According to Game 7’s report, the vast majority of blockchain games are independent or mid-sized projects, with AA and AAA funding levels accounting for only 6% of the market. Game 7 found that half of all new blockchain games this year came from Asia, with the total number of game-focused blockchains growing by 84% year-on-year.

Pitchbook called blockchain games forgotten but not lost in its gaming report for the third quarter of this year, arguing that while the initial hype cycle for such games has faded, some important games are still in development. So what will happen to blockchain gaming in 2024?

Keep the game entertaining

Based on the roadmaps of some blockchain game projects, we can predict that 2024 will be the year when many blockchain games will finally be released. Were seeing a lot of compelling games coming out in 2023, but many of them arent finished or are in early access. Despite this, they continued to move closer to their target. Many in the industry have realized that these games need to be optimized to be fun. What can be seen is that many new games do contain the entertainment that games should have.

Josh Jones, co-founder and co-CEO of open-world blockchain game Cornucopias, said that in the new year, games that truly focus on improving the user experience - that is, games that are fun, easy to use and have engaging storylines - will became a big theme. We may see a lot of blockchain-based games trying to remove the jargon from the terminology so that both crypto-native and non-crypto users can easily get started. Jones sees crypto terminology as a barrier to entry into the Web3 game and doesnt think the narrative around crypto gaming will change until then. Cornucopias co-CEO also emphasized that generative AI may bring more improvements to the game in 2024, allowing for more customization based on player choices.

Ryze Labs research analyst Fred Li said that on-chain games will tend to become open-world games where players can set the rules. He said he expects the emergence of autonomous worlds reminiscent of Minecraft: people are not content with just being consumers of PGR (professionally generated rules) games; there is an increasing need to become creators of UGR (user generated rules) games. Large, fully on-chain games enable people to create autonomous worlds.

Despite platform restrictions, game still finds audience

Although Epic has a large number of blockchain games on its shelves in 2023, one called Gods Unchained was removed from the shelves shortly after being added to Epic because the ESRB Video Game Rating Board rated it as Adults Only. According to the ESRB, any game that offers players items with real-world value, such as NFTs or cryptocurrencies, could be assigned such a rating, which would prohibit them from being listed on some potential gaming platforms.

While Gods Unchained is back on the market after being taken down for investigation, and Epic says it will no longer block games rated Adults Only purely because of their blockchain integration, incidents like this remind us that there are still no guarantees for blockchain games Distributed on Web2 third-party platforms.

In comparison, Web3 native game distribution platform is a more common solution. While this will hinder many Web2 users, if a blockchain game is attractive enough to players, it will find an audience regardless of other potential limitations.

Blockchain gaming trends in 2024

At the same time, blockchain games will continue to show an increasing trend throughout Asian countries. According to a study conducted jointly by DappRadar and Japanese encryption company Pacific Meta, Asian gamers are expected to account for the vast majority of the Web3 gaming market. Research has found that Asia already has 55% of the worlds gaming population and 1.7 billion players, and is likely to account for 80% of all Web3 gamers.

Sy Lee, CEO and co-founder of crypto IP company Story Protocol, predicts that blockchain gaming will dominate wallet activity by 2024, up from the current range of around 30-40% of all Dapp transactions. Lee also believes that more and more game developers will support user-generated content and mods; games like Deaddrop and Shrapnel already place a heavy emphasis on supporting community-produced game content.

Urvit Goel, head of business development at Polygon Labs, believes that although funding in 2023 will be significantly lower than in 2022 and 2021 - down about 70% year-on-year, the relatively small financing round in 2023 will not prevent some excellent games from being launched in 2024 .

Chris Akhavan, chief gaming officer at NFT marketplace Magic Eden, said that a Web3 game released in 2024 will likely gain enough success and popularity to attract the attention of large traditional game studios and hope to replicate this success. This will promote non-Web3 game companies to start Web3 research and development work again, and investors will continue to invest in Web3 games on a large scale.

In 2024, more Web2 players may enter blockchain games through mature games that use encryption technology. We may see two or three large Web2 native IPs and games merge or switch to the Web3 infrastructure layer, which will become a catalyst in the blockchain gaming field.

References:

1.https://dappradar.com/blog/blockchain-gaming-34-industry-share-145m-investments#Chapter-4

2.https://pitchbook.com/news/reports/q3-2023-gaming-report

3.https://dappradar.com/blog/asia-has-potential-to-dominate-web3-gaming-market

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