IOSG Ventures: Is GameFi Dead? A glance at the entire ecological industry map of encrypted games

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Odaily资深作者

2023-01-10 04:00

This article is about 4292 words, reading the full article takes about 7 minutes

The future of GameFi needs to think about how to acquire users and maintain a high retention rate!

Original Author: Fiona

Original source: IOSG Ventures

We are currently in the midst of a transition from focusing on Infra to focusing on users, and why:1) Just like the prosperity of DeFi and GameFi in the past,

The infrastructure is relatively mature for building vertical applications;2) Many developers acquire users by building applications such as vertical DeFi/GameFi/SocialFi, but the user base is very small. therefore,

In the future, we need to think about how to acquire users and maintain a high retention rate.

GameFi is a fairly large ecosystem that includes more than just games and studios. Below we will describe GameFi's users and their value transfer more clearly from the perspective of users.From a macro perspective, the entire GameFi consists of 8 parts——Client side aggregator, game, multi-game platform/publisher, liquidity provider/financial instrument, blockchain solution provider, game engine, developer/studio and chain.

Let us follow the industry overview in the figure below to take a deeper look at these major categories:

Source: IOSG Ventures

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It is an interesting new trend for GameFi projects to migrate or be copied to new chains, just like the previous situation of DeFi. Currently BSC/ETH/Polygon/Wax are leaders in the GameFi field, and more than 80% of the games on the chain are deployed on them. Meanwhile Arbitrum and zkSync are ambitious new challengers. For example, Beacon on Arbitrum, an action rogue-like game, has gained a lot of attention with a DAU of 21,000 in less than a month after its launch. Active on zkSync is Tevaera, an arcade action game that was one of the first titles just launched on its mainnet.

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Game Engine

Most games today, whether Web 2 or Web 3, are built on Unity and Unreal Engine. Just like the unreal engine developed by Epic Games, some Web 3 game studios, such as Planetarium Labs and Lattice, are also developing their own Web 3 game engines, allowing developers to write complex game logic and interactive content.

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Blockchain Solution Provider

When the gameplay is designed, developers or publishers need to integrate blockchain technology into the game, including selecting partners on the chain, embeddable wallets, NFT coins and markets, compliance solutions, and SDKs / API or other services built for token economy and governance. As players grow, their needs gradually diversify. At the same time, with the addition of traditional game companies, this type of demand will be even higher. Because most traditional game builders don’t know much about blockchain, they will struggle with blockchain integration and economic model design.

According to the different services that solution providers provide to game developers or publishers, we further divide them into 8 industry types.- One-stop service provider:

They usually have the most comprehensive blockchain integration technology stack and provide related services for developers and publishers. For example, Forte includes almost all of the features above and helps offload blockchain technology work from AAA game studios, helping them transition to blockchain games.- Web 3 Integration SDK:

Basically includes most of the Web 3 development frameworks and tools. They have segregated a game suite specifically for games built on the blockchain. For example, Thirdweb offers a Unity SDK that provides out-of-the-box contracts such as marketplaces, NFT staking, and airdrops.- Studio SDK:

It is a service provided by game studios, including Bigtime's Open Loot, Horizon (skyweaver)'s Sequence, etc. They use their experience to help Web 2 developers and games get to market. Open Loot is also providing marketing support, payment support, comprehensive game analytics, and more.- System Simulation:

Popular in game design, especially in Web 3 games, because economic cycles are important to Web 3 games. Maintain a healthy game economy by simulating, testing, and monitoring gamefi systems. Currently, more than 20 Web 3 games have cooperated with Machinations and announced their cooperation on its official website.- Certified Supplier:

Using their Unity and Unreal Engine SDKs to onboard players, reduce friction and lower learning costs for players to accelerate blockchain adoption among mainstream audiences.- Data API Provider:

- On / Off Ramps：Build web2 and/or web3 databases and allow developers to read and write user data in real time, such as exporting analytics data to websites and apps, creating in-game leaderboards, exporting wallet addresses for whitelisting, etc.

Allows developers to integrate their SDKs to buy and sell cryptocurrencies in-game without worrying about KYC.Includes tokenomics design support, branding services, and more.

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They are to-C game publishers (some of whom are also developers) that provide players with different types of games. Gala, Sandbox, and TreasureDAO are leaders in this space. TreasureDAO is building a decentralized gaming platform and publishing platform with a community of 100,000+ players and the #1 gaming and NFT ecosystem on Arbitrum. This kind of platform can establish a set of infrastructure and ecology to meet the needs of independent developers, and form an economy by accumulating player activity content. It is not affected by the short cycle of a single game, so it has a stronger ecosystem resilience.

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Liquidity/Financial Instruments

Financial instruments include loans, leases, investment derivatives, guild services, markets, etc. But most services are still in their early stages, as each game has its own independent financial model and demand for the service is not clear. For example, leasing agreements are not difficult to set up compared to lending agreements, so there are a lot of projects in this field. But the need for this service is often questioned for several reasons:

1. Large game studios will establish their own rental system (easy to create), while small games have a short lifespan and a small number of meaningful user bases, which cannot support rental needs;

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game

- RPG：Based on Steam's classification and top-grossing mobile game genres, we've summarized 5 categories and 11 subcategories to cover current crypto games. (See the Explanation of Terms at the bottom of the article for definitions of each type)

MMORPG, Team Battle, such as Bigtime is the first MMORPG that landed the fastest. Players can get nft and tokens by forming a team of 6 to do tasks in the dungeon. It has the largest community of Web 3 players with over 400,000 members in Discord.- Strategy category:

Cards, Board & Auto Battle, Real Time Strategy & Tower Defense, Grand & 4 X, DeFi & Gambling. For example, Illuvium is laying out and launching a series of closely connected and interoperable games. One of the core gameplays is to explore the open world with an automatic combat mechanism core.- Mock class:

Farming, Space & Science Fiction, Life & Leisure & Casino. Castaways, for example, is a fishing game where players drift across the ocean to find islands, collect resources, and fish to survive. It got huge traffic 2 months ago with over 70K DAU.- Action class:

Shooting, fighting and other action games. For example ev.io is a very popular FPS game (first person shooter) with 1.3 million visitors in April 2022 (compared to an average of 550,000 in the most recent quarter).- Sports category:

For example, MixMob: Racer 1 is a very special card battle racing game developed by veteran gamers who have participated in FIFA, Halo, Battlefield and other games.

According to data.ai and SensorTower analysis, the most popular Web 2 game genres (mobile) over the past two years are: RPG games, strategy games, action games, simulation games, and sports games.

To give a concrete example, Rise of Kingdoms is the game with the most player spending in 2021. Its gameplay is similar to "Rise of Kingdoms", which belongs to the strategy RTS subgenre. The second place is "Lineage M", a multiplayer online role-playing game. The rest are: Fate / Grand Order (team battle RPG, Japanese fantasy style), Slotomania (casino, simulation), Homescapes & Candy Crush (competition, casual), PUBG (battle royale shooter, action), Monster Strike (team battle RPG), Professional Baseball Spirits A (sports), Roblox (sandbox, simulation).Based on this fact, Web 3 games can benefit by improving the player experience, creating an efficient secondary market for items, introducing a more engaging and healthy economy, and allowing new content creators to join the ecosystem. Capturing the game market for Web 2.

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client aggregatorApart from spectators, there are 3 main types of GameFi users,

From reward-driven to fun-driven.
Web 3 users (crypto-native users)
Web 3 Players (Crypto-Native Gamers)

Web 2 users (traditional gamers)Currently, there are 400,000 addresses active in Web 3 games (source:The flow of capital and talent behind Web3 Games) is still small compared to 3 billion users in traditional games.Client aggregators are critical to providing a seamless experience in order to engage traditional gamers,

There are 8 types of each:P 2 E Guild/Scholarship:
The genre has become very popular due to the rise of Axie Infinity, led by YGG and its sub-DAO.Esports/Tournaments:
Some guilds have found that the scholarship model may not be profitable in the future and have turned to establishing tournaments for esports and gaming. This is very early in Web 3, but mature and common in the traditional gaming world.Incubator:
Launchpad：For example, Everyrealm is incubating game-related businesses, including The Row, Fantasy Islands, and Narcos. Metaverse, and Hometopia. It also operates esports guild and competition platform Bedlam, and manages a portfolio that includes holdings in more than 30 platforms and more than 4,000 gaming properties.
IGO and INO, which help players or investors to participate in the game, are the place where players interact with the game and the metaverse, because usually players need to buy NFT to obtain the right to use the game.Player Credentials:
A unified Web 3 gamer identity to maintain their reputation across games and experiences, driving cross-game engagement and high player retention.Content/Community:

Group gamers and provide them with services such as content distributors, streaming services, KOLs or communities, education, etc.

Thanks to TJ Kawamura (Co-founder at Everyrealm), Alex Qin (Founder at Ubiloan), Alex Liu (Game Studio Advisor), and Yele Bademosi (Founder at Metaverse Magna) for their support and valuable comments on this article.

Explanation of technical terms:
RPG: A role-playing game in which each participant takes on the role of a character, usually in a fantasy or sci-fi setting, where players interact within the game's imaginary world.
MMORPG: Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game, is a role-playing game that can be played online by a large number of players at the same time.
Team Battle: In this type of game, the player can play as multiple characters, or as the commander of a team.
Strategy: In strategy games, players are not restricted, and their independent decision-making ability has a greater impact on the game results.
Card & Board & Autobattler: A card game is any game, whether traditional or specific, that uses playing cards as a core element.
Board Game: (like checkers, chess, or backgammon) is played by placing or moving pieces on a board.
Autobattler Game: Autobattler games often have chess-like elements in which players place characters on a grid-like battlefield during a preparation phase and then battle opposing characters without requiring any direct input from the player."RTS and tower defense: real-time strategy games allow all players to play simultaneously"real time
A game where players participate in a competitive economy, gaining an advantage by managing limited resources to expand multiple game elements. In tower defense games, players need to use strategy to build towers to defeat enemies.
Grand & 4 X: Grand games are the most complex strategy games, taking into account politics, economics, war, diplomacy and more. A 4 X game (abbreviation for Explore, Expand, Exploit, Exterminate) is one in which players have extensive control over their empire, including warfare, research, agriculture, and government.
DeFi & Gambling: This is a category specially listed by the author, and its core is a Gambling strategy with simple gameplay.
Simulation: A simulation game is one in which the game mimics the activities the player sees in the real world.
Farming: A farming simulation game where the player enjoys the growth and experience gained while farming.
Space & Sci-fi: A genre that pushes self-invention, imagination, and storytelling to the limit. Science fiction pushes our current reality across the ocean, exploring the logical end of human endeavour.
Life & Hypercasual & Casino: Lifestyle gaming is any genre that takes the form of a hobby itself and masters it deeply. Hyper-casual games are lightweight, instant-playable games that players often play over and over because of their short round lengths and fun.
Casino Game: A casino game is a type of game in which players use chip gambling on various possible random outcomes or combinations.
Action: is a fast-paced game genre that usually focuses on movement, combat, hand-eye coordination, and reaction time.
Shooter: Shooter games focus on defeating enemies with the weapons the player has.
Fighting & Other action: Fighting & other action games require the player to control a character on the screen and engage in close combat with opponents.