PRESS RELEASE. GAIMIN (www.gaimin.io), the world’s leader in delivering decentralised data processing power through gaimin.cloud (www.gaimin.cloud), and io.net (www.io.net) one of the world’s largest Decentralized Physical Infrastructure Network (DePIN) for AI compute have agreed to investigate how the synergistic technologies from both companies can be integrated to deliver the processing capability to support the growing […]
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GAIMIN is creating the world’s largest GPU-based DePIN to address the increasing worldwide demand for data processing power. GAIMIN’s DePIN, called gaimin.cloud, currently focuses on delivering data processing services for Artificial Intelligence (AI), Video Rendering (VR) and the powering of blockchain computations. GAIMIN’s approach is based on users allowing their devices to participate in GAIMIN’s […]
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GAIMIN, the world’s leading provider of DePIN (Decentralised Physical Infrastructure Networks) today announces the world’s first L2 blockchain focused on delivering Web3 technology and services to the gaming industry. The incorporation of Web3 technologies, such as blockchain, crypto currency based economies and owner retained NFTs within the gaming industry has been slow to develop, primarily […]
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Metaverse technology company Improbable announced in an end-of-the-year statement on Dec. 18 that it had sold its gaming venture, The Multiplayer Group (MPG), to Keywords Studios for £76.5 million ($97.1 million).
Herman Narula, co-founder and CEO of Improbable, called Keywords “a like-minded business partner” and said he was delighted to see MPG embark on a new chapter. Keywords works with large names in the gaming industry, such as Activision Blizzard, Bethesda, Zenimax, Epic Games and 2K.
“Nurturing and fostering ventures across Sports, Web3 and fashion is at the heart of our philosophy and allows us to realize lasting value.”
Narula said this deal is a part of its venture strategy for 2024. Improbable originally acquired MPG in 2019 for around £30 million.
Related: Web3 firm sees future where gamers rent out their in-game assets for crypto
Improbable also released its 2024 predictions, stating the metaverse and Web3 are not “yesterday’s news.”
Narula said:
“The metaverse is poised for growth in 2024, fueled by the convergence of gaming, VR/XR, and Web3 technologies.”
He told Cointelegraph that the metaverse in 2024 is going to “define the future of virtual events.” He also commented that in this upcoming year, he expects to see more businesses leaning towards decentralized metaverse platforms.
“Brands are graduating from experimentation run on platforms, but ultimately want sovereignty and the right business model,” he said. “That’s why we expect to see a lot more experiences in decentralized environments.”
According to the Softbank-backed metaverse developer, 2024 will also see more consolidation and streamlining in the gaming, Web3 and crypto sectors, which it says will result in a “stronger, more resilient, and more cohesive startup ecosystem.”
In 2023, Improbable partnered with Major League Baseball to create a virtual baseball stadium for fans to join in on games in digital reality.
Improbable forecasts more physical-digital crossover experiences in the gaming world and the growing use cases of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in content creation and business applications.
Peter Lipka, the company’s co-founder and chief operating officer, added that AI has revolutionized how businesses operate and predicts AI-generated 3D interactive objects will surface in 2024.
Improbable isn’t alone in anticipating a big year for Web3 and gaming. In a recent interview, two GameFi executives, Yat Siu and Johnson Yeh, told Cointelegraph they believe more users will step into Web3 next year via blockchain games.
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South Korean gaming giant Wemade has begun a collaboration with the Dubai Chambers, a non-profit public entity, to enhance the development of blockchain gaming ecosystems in Dubai and the wider UAE region, according to a Nov. 28 press release.
The deal was officiated through a meeting between Wemade CEO Henry Chang and Dubai Chambers President and CEO H.E. Mohammad Ali Rashed Lootah.
Dubai Chambers is known for championing the interests of the Dubai business community and plays a pivotal role in connecting businesses with the government and nurturing a conducive environment for business growth.
It consists of three separate entities – the Dubai Chamber of Commerce, Dubai International Chamber, and Dubai Chamber of Digital Economy; prior to 2021, all of these entities existed under one entity: the Dubai Chamber of Commerce and Industry. It was restructured in 2021 into its current arrangement of three distinct entities.
As the first major South Korean game developer to engage in formal discussions with Dubai Chambers, Wemade has set a precedent for international cooperation in the gaming industry.
Wemade said the venture is a testament to its commitment to fostering blockchain gaming ecosystems — an area where Dubai and the UAE have shown considerable dynamism. Under the deal, Wemade will leverage its expertise in gaming development to support key initiatives, including the Dubai Program for Gaming 2033.
Chang expressed enthusiasm about contributing to Dubai’s dynamic gaming sector and aiding in nurturing the next generation of gaming industry talent. From the perspective of Dubai Chambers, this alliance is a strategic move to innovate and advance Dubai’s digital ecosystem.
Dubai is one of a handful of jurisdictions that have established a comprehensive regulatory framework for the crypto industry in recent months, including setting up a regulator specifically for digital assets.
The Emirate has managed to attract major players in the industry, like Binance, through its proactive approach to regulating the sector and has continued to build upon that foundation as part of a larger goal to become a digital economy.
Earlier in November, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the Crown Prince of Dubai, officially unveiled The Dubai Program for Gaming 2033, an ambitious plan that exemplifies the Emirate’s vision to establish a thriving new industry. The Emirate has set its sights on becoming one of the top 10 cities in the gaming industry. The city is particularly interested in the Web3 gaming sector.
Dubai believes establishing a strong gaming industry in the city can contribute an additional $1 billion to its GDP by 2033. The city wants to create 30,000 new gaming-related jobs within the next decade.
Web3 has shown signs of resurgence in this ‘Uptober,’ according to DappRadar’s latest industry report, suggesting the dApp market may have finally found its footing after a long bearish trend. The analysis points towards a potentially imminent bull run, as crucial metrics have either stabilized or recorded growth.
| Chain | Unique Active Wallets (Sep) | Unique Active Wallets (Oct) | Average dUAW, % change MoM |
|---|---|---|---|
| Near | 641K | 687K | 7% |
| BNB Chain | 446K | 433K | -3% |
| Wax | 328K | 313K | -5% |
| ZKsync | 302K | 242K | -20% |
| Polygon | 194K | 199K | 3% |
NEAR Protocol continues to lead with the most daily average unique active wallets (dUAW), growing by 7% to 687,000. Gaming dApps have seen a notable increase in activity, with their industry dominance rising to 62%. This sector now accounts for 1.66 million dUAW, a 17% increase from September.
The Decentralized Finance (DeFi) landscape, while seeing a 14% rise in Total Value Locked (TVL), has experienced a 13% drop in dUAW. Ethereum maintains its stronghold in the DeFi space, with a 10% increase in TVL, but Solana outpaces all with a 40% surge.
The NFT market has broken its year-long decline, with trading volumes spiking by 32% to $405 million, nearing August levels. Notably, Ethereum dominates this uplift, while other chains have seen reductions in sales volumes.
Security within web3 has improved significantly, with a 93% reduction in funds stolen via hacks and exploits. The reported $800,000 average loss per incident in October is the lowest in the year, hinting at a growing savviness among web3 users.
DappRadar’s analysis underscores a cautious optimism for the dApp industry’s future, linking positive trends in gaming and NFT trading with potential market recovery. This bounce-back in web3 is paralleled by the fall in exploit cases, suggesting an overall maturation of the space. However, consistent growth across several months is needed to confirm a true market turnaround.
The full report is available on the DappRadar website.
Neopets CEO Dominic Law speaking at the gamescom Asia event in Singapore. Ever since the $4 million takeover of Neopets in July, Law and his team have been on a “reactivation campaign” to draw players back to the game.
Koelnmesse Pte Ltd / gamescom asia
Moving abroad can be a lonely experience. For Dominic Law, moving from Canada to Hong Kong at 9-years-old in 1996 — before calls over Wi-Fi were widespread — meant that contacting friends was nearly impossible.
In an interview with CNBC at Gamescom Asia in Singapore, Law, who is now the new owner of virtual pet website Neopets said, “Back then, we only had a landline number, and IDD calls were so expensive. So when I went back to Canada to visit, that’s where my friends introduced me to Neopets… and I played a lot with them and reconnected with all my friends back in Canada.
“It’s great that we can have a platform that transcends public geography and connects people, and I think that’s a big part of my childhood.”
Nearly two decades later, Law is now the CEO of World of Neopia, the team that bought Neopets in July for $4 million from Chinese company NetDragon Websoft.
For those who grew up in the early years of the internet, the bright yellow interface of Neopets would be a familiar sight.
Neopets website displayed on a phone screen and Neopets website displayed on a laptop screen in the background are seen in this illustration photo taken in Krakow, Poland on July 19, 2023. (Photo by Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Nurphoto | Nurphoto | Getty Images
Neopets was launched in 1999, and the game allowed players to care for cartoon pets, chat with other users, and play minigames. The game has a total of 150 million registered users and at the height of its popularity in 2005, the game had 35 million monthly active users, Law tells CNBC.
The World of Neopia CEO previously worked for NetDragon Websoft, helping the company restructure their education technology business, which included Neopets.
In that role, Law said he saw “the power of the Neopets community,” pointing out that despite Neopets being a 24-year-old game, it still has over a million active users.
While the current numbers are a fraction of its peak user base, he said the game is still cash generative.
That’s despite what Law said was poor management, leading to little evolution over the past decade. For example, many of the site’s minigames — essential for earning in-game currency — have become unplayable due to the discontinuation of the Adobe Flash software on web browsers.
Since buying Neopets, Law said his team is in the process of restoring those minigames and modernizing them to enhance the experience.
Some games on the site, like Poogle Racing, were still not restored due to Adobe Flash being unsupported in 2020
Source: Neopets.com
A check by CNBC revealed that while not all the minigames could be played and some features were still displaying a notice that Adobe Flash was no longer supported, most of the site could still run.
While Law is optimistic, he is aware that Neopets was born in a different era of video gaming.
The industry landscape has changed substantially in the 24 years since Neopets’ inception. It’s a tall order to become not only financially sustainable, but also competitive in today’s market where gamers are spoiled for choice.
For example, mobile games offer convenience and portability, while PC and console games deliver graphics and gameplay environments light-years ahead of Neopets’ webpage browsing experiences and Flash minigames.
However, Law said that “the silver lining for Neopets is that we basically didn’t do anything new for the past 10 years, and we’re able to actually keep the early internet gaming culture in its purest form.”
“You can do whatever you want, you can choose your own adventure. There’s no set way of playing Neopets,” he added.
Law explains that this stasis also meant that Neopets didn’t evolve like the rest of the gaming industry, which he thinks has been “very focused on just profitability, microtransactions, and ways to milk every dollar out of your pocket.”
“We’ve always been a game that is more about fun and entertainment. And I think in the long run that will always win. And one of the main reasons why we’ve been able to survive for more than 20 years is that we probably created a fun enough game.”
He acknowledges that Neopets is probably not going to directly compete with triple-A mobile games like Genshin Impact, developed by Chinese developer miHoYo, or PC and console heavyweight shooter Call of Duty, developed by Activision.
Instead, it will find its niche by capitalizing on the nostalgia that players had for Neopets.
“We’re like a living relic, like a museum that you can always come experience and have a different way of playing games.”
Law said that having new users experience what players did 20 years ago with Neopets is the game’s unique selling point — and this is an experience that the big game studios will find hard to replicate.
Law’s team has been on what it calls a “reactivation campaign” to win back players, appearing at gaming events and enlisting prominent figures like singer John Legend as brand ambassadors to launch “a new era for Neopets.”
Unlike a completely new game, Neopets already has brand awareness, which in turn lowers the “cost to acquisition” — the effort needed to bring players back into the game.
As Neopets accounts are attached to email addresses, Law noted that Neopets can send reactivation materials to former players via this channel. He claimed small scale testing has shown that “we can basically do zero performance marketing and still get enough of a core community to come back to play any new experiences we push out.”
Performance marketing refers to online campaigns in which advertisers pay marketing companies or advertising platforms for results achieved.
A restored Neopets minigame, Kass Basher. The team has managed to utilize modern technology to allow players to play these games that were deprecated after Adobe Flash was no longer supported by modern browsers.
Source: Neopets.com
Law is confident that a good portion of “lapsed players” will return as game features are fixed, saying his team’s efforts are already bearing fruit. He said user engagement, user activity and revenue has hit a five-year peak, and Neopets.com is one of the top 25 video gaming sites in the U.S. in terms of traffic and user engagement.
Still, Law doesn’t expect these reactivated players to stay long. “They may come back to say hi to their pets, but they won’t be sticky because they just, graduated from the game.”
Neopets’ revenue comes from advertising, in-game purchases and subscriptions. So while revenue may climb alongside an initial bump in website traffic as lapsed players return, that cash would also taper off if users don’t stay.
To bolster Neopets’ long-term financial stability, Law plans to license intellectual property to sell merchandise and develop new games. Some partnerships planned for 2024 include a collaboration with board game Monopoly and Upper Deck, a company that makes trading cards.
In his keynote speech at Gamescom Asia, Law explained that while “lapsed players might not come back to play Neopets, but I can come back to buy my childhood memories” in the form of merchandise.
He noted that merchandise generates more than 80% of revenue for other major intellectual properties like Disney’s Mickey Mouse and Nintendo’s Pokemon. For Neopets, Law said the merch business would include both physical, like plushies and clothing, and digital, such as in-game purchases.
Law is also looking at “phygital” products, where a player can buy a physical product, and via a QR code, get digital bonuses in the games as well.
“The main goal is to get as many of the players to come back, and also to expand this world to the next generation of potential players.”
The company hopes to attract new users to the Neopets brand as more people interact with the Neopets IP through new games, or the original site.
In 2024, Law’s team is planning to launch World of Neopets, a 3D simulator game that will utilize the existing Neopets world, but in a modern gaming environment. Law describes World of Neopets as a “3D open world simulator,” adding that while a lot of the elements will stay true to the current Neopets experience, others, like minigames, will become more sociable and may incorporate multiplayer elements.
“The game environment will be a way for them to be able to reignite their childhood memories, but also having something that’s a lot more comparable to what they would expect as a modern game… it’s kind of like how Pokemon evolved over the years,” Law explained.
Does this mean that new Neopets games will replace the 24-year old Neopets.com? Not so, said Law. The original Neopets will always be there for the long term, with players always able to play the minigames they remember, haggle with shopkeepers over items, and of course, take a piece of the Giant Omelette.
The Neopets Giant Omelette, where players could pick up free food for their pets.
Source: Neopets.com
Layer-1 blockchain Avalanche is known for its speed, low cost, scalability, and security.
Blockchain horse racing game NEOBRED has announced that it is integrating with blockchain Avalanche to provide players with a superior gaming experience by leveraging the network’s speed and cost-effectiveness.
A spokesperson from NEOBRED said of the integration:
“We are excited to integrate with Avalanche and offer our players a new level of gaming performance and efficiency […] Avalanche’s speed, scalability, and low costs have the potential to make NEOBRED one of the most enjoyable blockchain horse racing games on the market.”
NEOBRED allows players to own, train and breed horses which they can use to take part in races and earn rewards. Finishing in the top ranks in races is a key way to win prizes in the game and so players have to choose steeds with genetic combinations ideal for a race-horse. As part of an intensive 40-turn training period, players have the chance to make strategic decisions to turn their newly minted steed into a “uniquely skilled and diverse racing-ready horse.” The training focuses on specific attributes such as speed, power, stamina, and elemental abilities.
Upon retirement, NEOBRED horses are converted into GENEs. A GENE inherits the horse’s attributes and can be paired with DNA to breed a new generation of steeds. Players have the option of taking part in the full-gaming experience from breeding to retirement or they can choose to specialize in gaming aspects like breeding, training, or racing.
Layer-1 blockchain Avalanche is known for its speed, low cost, scalability, and security. It is one of the fastest smart contract networks by time-to-finality and asserts that it uses “the same energy as only 46 US households each year.” According to NEOBRED, these features make it the ideal platform for the game because they provide players with smooth web3 gaming that does not incur trade-offs.
“We are excited to welcome NEOBRED to the Avalanche ecosystem,” said Ed Chang, Head of Gaming at Ava Labs. “NEOBRED looks like it will take a proven on-chain game model with racing to the next level by improving gameplay.”
The game is set to launch before the end of the year.
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Mercy Mutanya is a Tech enthusiast, Digital Marketer, Writer and IT Business Management Student.
She enjoys reading, writing, doing crosswords and binge-watching her favourite TV series.
The world embraced artificial Intelligence (AI), hoping to see it transform complex and day-to-day processes. While generative AI models won millions of users, discussions around the transformative potential of AI in all walks of life became mainstream.
Today, AI is being tested across all business verticals as entrepreneurs challenge the status quo, streamlining and automating processes in varying industries. This drive also resurrects ecosystems that have lost their vigor over years of trial and error.
In the quest to find the true potential of this technology, humanity continues to infuse AI elements into existing systems in the hopes of outperforming current limitations.
The gaming ecosystem sees AI as a means to supersede incremental upgrades. From reutilizing seasoned hardware to squeezing out the price-performance ratio from the latest graphics processing units (GPUs), the gaming industry sees AI’s potential to redefine how gamers of the future will consume their products.
“AI will be one of the most important tools for game developers to improve their work output and production, and unlock rich and new experiences for gamers,” said Ryan Wyatt, the former global head of gaming partnerships at Google and former head of gaming at YouTube.
Wyatt’s exposure to gaming — on both professional and personal fronts — allowed him a special viewpoint at the intersection of a gamer’s wishful thinking and an entrepreneur’s reality check.
Wyatt garnered over two decades of gaming experience before entering crypto as the CEO of Polygon Labs, eventually retiring as the president to take up an advisory role for the blockchain company.
Speaking to Cointelegraph, Wyatt reveals how AI could potentially transform the gaming ecosystem and what it could mean for the future of blockchain gaming.
Cointelegraph: What is the role of AI in the gaming ecosystem?
Ryan Wyatt: The term “AI in gaming” has been overused to the point of exhaustion. In my opinion, it is simply another powerful tool in the developer’s toolkit, which is already extensive and continues to grow. This expansion of toolsets — AI being one of them — will enable a variety of new gaming experiences that we have never seen before and allow game developers to do more. We often talk about AI as a replacement for the work being done in gaming, but I strongly disagree. I see it as a powerful tool that will allow game teams, both small and large, to do more than they ever could before, which may require human resources to be leveraged differently but not minimize or diminish the importance of the many roles required to make a game. And in return, gamers will get to experience games that were never deemed possible before.
CT: Can AI potentially take up the heavy computational tasks that currently rely solely on GPUs? Do you think AI could allow us to repurpose legacy systems that contribute to e-waste, or is it just wishful thinking?
RW: This is a tough one. I do think it is wishful thinking to assume that AI can repurpose all these legacy systems and reduce e-waste. Based on the track record of how hardware has grown and advanced so much over the last two decades, there’s no indication to believe we’re moving in the right direction here, as we’ve continued to increase e-waste over the last 10 years. From a technology standpoint, we’re constantly evolving, and the necessity and demand to expand on hardware, specifically with the GPU, continues to increase significantly. I believe there will be a number of optimizations that AI can introduce to the problem: offloading more resources to the CPU, optimizing for legacy systems, etc., but I think it’s wishful thinking to assume we can reduce e-waste as we continue to push the limits of technology and hardware to create things that were never imaginable before. This seems like a problem that isn’t going to be meaningfully resolved over the next decade, and, in fact, I anticipate it to get worse before it gets better, with AI exacerbating the issue in a 5–10 year time horizon.
CT: If AI could be used for graphics optimization, unlimited (free world) map rendering or a storyline that never ends, but you could choose only one, which one would you choose as a gamer, and why?
RW: This is a matter of personal preference, but I hope we see both. I believe that storylines and NPCs [non-player characters] could evolve greatly from where they are today. We have seen amazing and beautiful open worlds expand in parallel with computational and hardware improvements. While not unlimited, expanding worlds have played a meaningful role in games over the last decade.
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To me, one area that needs to evolve is how we engage with NPCs in games. This has been rather archaic for quite some time and has largely relied on linear lines of pre-programmed communication and dialogue. This is already changing with companies like Inworld AI and the work they are doing; their tech helps a game developer craft unique and memorable AI NPCs with its fully integrated character engine.
Their engine goes beyond large language models (LLMs) by adding configurable safety, knowledge, memory and other controls in place. The characters then have distinct personalities and contextual awareness, which is insane to see from a gamer’s perspective.
We haven’t had these kinds of dialogue interactions inside of games before, so it’s hard to wrap your head around how it will change the industry because it’s just something that was once unfathomable. Once these developer tools are seamlessly integrated into proprietary engines of large AAA publishers, you’ll see a new era of immersive game experiences. I also believe you’ll see a huge burden lift on the game development cycle that will allow for expansive worlds by not just large studios with companies like Kaedim; you effectively reduce all of the hours lost in modeling by simply generating stunning 3D art with nothing more than an image. These are the types of tools that are going to advance and multiply game development and usher us into a new era of gaming.
The interesting thing is the collision of both of these topics over the next decade!
CT: What are your thoughts on blockchain gaming? How did you find it different from traditional/mainstream titles?
Blockchain gaming is another tool in the toolbelt for game developers and gamers to change the way we interact with games. By storing assets and information on a blockchain, which is not owned by any intermediary, we can expand upon value exchange between game developers, users and gamers (peer-to-peer). This is done inefficiently today, and although some examples come close, such as CS:GO, it is still far from perfect.
The entire crypto space is going through a much-needed reset, washing away bad actors, and from the dust, you will see true, well-intended pioneers and innovators emerge. The unfortunate abuse of the financial aspects of crypto has made many game developers, especially in the West, apprehensive about incorporating blockchain technology into their gaming infrastructure stack, which I believe is temporary.
However, in the East, we are seeing top gaming developers (e.g., Square Enix and Nexon) fully commit to blockchain gaming due to the new game mechanics and relationships that can be created between gamers and developers. I fully expect the re-emergence of blockchain conversations being driven by the application layer in 2024 to 2025, which will do a better job of illustrating the power of launching games on blockchain infrastructure stacks, even if only certain aspects of games are built on them. The last three years of crypto have been dominated in conversation at the infrastructure (blockchain) layer and finance (decentralized finance (DeFi) sector, and ironically, the abuse has come from bad actors of centralized platforms (such as FTX) that don’t even embrace the core values of decentralization.
CT: From a gamer’s perspective, what do you think AI can do to help the widespread adoption of blockchain gaming?
RW: I’m not sure if blockchain gaming will become widely adopted anytime soon; we’re still years out from this, and there are great companies that are pushing the envelope here, like Immutable, but I do think that as AI becomes materially indistinguishable from reality, there is value in blockchains holding accountability over the advancement of AI. This is because blockchains are transparent and immutable, meaning that they can be used to track and verify the provenance of AI-generated content. This is important because it will help to ensure that AI is used ethically and responsibly and that it does not create harmful or misleading content.
I am certain that we will see blockchains in the future host authentic and verifiable information in a world where things coming from AI become indistinguishable from reality. This is because blockchains provide a secure and tamper-proof way to store data, which is essential for ensuring the authenticity and reliability of AI-generated content.
CT: Despite the involvement of the people behind mainstream titles, the blockchain gaming industry has not taken off, unlike other crypto sub-ecosystems. What could have been done differently?
RW: I think this is largely misguided due to timing expectations and the underwhelming first iteration of blockchain games. Game development cycles are so long, and the first batch of blockchain games were either rudimentary, rushed to market, had the wrong incentive mechanisms, were not highly produced or had other issues. There also have been blockchain infrastructure woes that have needed time to overcome, [such as] gas costs, difficult user journeys to navigate and other infrastructure challenges that are just now starting to be resolved by layer-1 and layer-2 protocols.
However, I’ve seen a lot of amazing blockchain games in development that will be released in 2024 to 2025. These games will truly explore the uniqueness that blockchain games have to offer. Games are such a monumental lift to create, and the ones that go deep with either small or large teams will ultimately need more time to show their work. There has been an outsized amount of capital deployed into blockchain games, in the several billions of dollars, and we’ve only seen a single-digit percentage of releases from that cohort of investment.
CT: What went wrong with blockchain gaming? Why don’t gamers buy into the idea of play-to-earn?
Play-to-earn as a philosophy isn’t that crazy. Game developers are always looking to reward gamers for spending more time in their game because longer session times equate to more value, which is captured by the game developer. So, conceptually, this idea of putting time into a game and being rewarded for it isn’t a new game mechanic.
Play-to-earn in blockchain games tries to expand upon this concept of value exchange from developer to player.
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However, the economies are really difficult to balance when you don’t have the autonomy over every aspect of them due to the nature of them being decentralized. Ultimately, this has either led to pure abuse of the category, unfortunate attempts to do right and fail or will need more tinkering to ultimately find the right token and economic strategy.
CT: Speaking from a different angle, what benefit could AI and blockchain bring to mainstream gaming? What could compel developers to adopt and infuse the tech into their existing gameplay?
RW: There is certainly a chicken-and-egg issue here. Game developers need to push the limits of what these technologies can do, learn from it, iterate on it and then showcase it to gamers to see if this is what they truly want. But at the end of the day, the large games continue to dominate viewership on YouTube and Twitch.
Steam’s top games, such as DotA and CS, have remained juggernauts, and breakout hits like Minecraft and Roblox are generational unicorns. Both of these games took over a decade to materialize into what we know them to be today. In order to achieve mass adoption, you will need to see these games permeated with the technology. I believe that both of these technologies — AI and blockchain — will have breakout moments from native app developers and indie game devs. However, for true mass adoption, larger players will inevitably need to incorporate the technology.
Disclaimer: Wyatt is an angel investor in many AI, Gaming and blockchain companies, including Immutable and Kaedim, both of which are mentioned in his responses.
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Saudi Arabia has ramped up its economic diversification efforts driven by its ambitious Vision 2030.
In a bid to diversify its economy away from a dependence on oil, the kingdom has embraced emerging technologies, such as blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI), and tapped into booming markets like gaming.
But while the country has yet to leave a significant mark in the global game and AI development, the ripples of its investments in the gaming sector could extend far beyond — at least, that’s what Web3 experts say.
“Based on our work and communications that we have, Saudi [Arabia] is very, very interested in Web3,” Animoca Brands co-founder Yat Siu told Cointelegraph.
Given the kingdom’s partnerships with entities such as The Sandbox and even Animoca, Siu sees that there’s an effort from Saudi to venture into the new iteration of the internet. The executive said:
“I think Saudi [Arabia] understands the principle that Web3 gaming or blockchain gaming — the one that we actually prove the owner assets — is going to be the future of gaming.”
Thanks to the interest of its young, tech-savvy population, Saudi Arabia, along with the United Arab Emirates, is driving the growth of the Middle East’s gaming market. According to a Boston Consulting Group report, the kingdom represents 45% of the sector in the region, with a value of more than $1.8 billion. It also boasts one of the largest game revenues in the area, according to game content studio Allcorrect.
In 2017, the kingdom established the Saudi Esports Federation to regulate and develop the country’s gaming industry.
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Bloomberg reported in April that Saudi Arabia, through its Public Investment Fund, invested $38 billion in the sector as it looks to become a global gaming hub.
Although the Saudi government understands the “high-level concept” of Web3, its potential, and how it can align with esports — where teams can own stakes in games they play — Siu said it remains unclear what its integrations to gaming would be due to the absence of clear rules on cryptocurrency and other virtual assets:
“Cryptocurrency is something that is still to be explored. It’s being investigated. I think [Saudi Arabia is] quite forward about how to deal with it. But they haven’t come up with anything yet.”
“In places like Hong Kong, Japan and the UAE, there’s much more clarity as to what you can do with crypto and Web3. You can map out a strategy,” Siu added.
While it remains to be seen what Saudi Arabia’s Web3 gaming applications would look like, Siu noted that the kingdom is looking at other markets and learning.
“That’s why they’re talking to us. Because they want to know what the best practices are and how they can learn,” the executive explained. “There are very few places in the world that we’ve seen such a hunger and desire to sort of be at the cutting edge.”
“You can feel sort of the desire to have progress and to lead in Saudi Arabia. I think that’s kind of unique,” Siu added.
While pushback from the traditional gaming community and developers persists, Siu claims a successful conversion of users into Web3, whether it’s in gaming or not, should come with financial literacy.
“You can’t really be a true Web3 user if you don’t have at least a certain level of financial literacy that goes above and beyond having a bank account,” Siu said.
The Animoca co-founder claimed that most Web2 users are not capital investors because they’re mostly labor people compared to Web3 people who understand investing.
“What we found is that the path to Web3 mass adoption isn’t giving [Web2 users] just a wallet. That’s actually the easiest part. The harder part is how to make them aware that what they now have is an asset that has potential value, and it could do things and has different network effects that need to be maintained as real value.”
Meanwhile, Mythical Games CEO John Linden told Cointelegraph that he already sees Web3 adoption in the gaming sector, albeit at a slower pace.
“I think we’re seeing some [adoption] already. We’re seeing people that they’re introducing the [Web3] concept. They do understand the concept of buying and selling assets,” Linden said.
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The gaming industry veteran pointed out that Web3 should enhance user experience and not just give them the means to generate income:
“[Web3 gaming developers] have to focus on new game models. When you start doing that, it introduces creator economy, digital supply chain, ownership of guilds and the ability to come up with your own theory within the game itself.”
“Those are principles I think gamers will attach to,” Linden added.
The Mythical Games CEO projects that the Web3 gaming segment could onboard 50 to 100 million players in the next two years, with their own titles targeting 10 million by the end of 2023.
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