Taking blockchain mobile - how mobile games will power the next generation creator economy

Hi everyone. Whoa, that was quite loud. Um, I'm Hugo from Play Ember. So, we're a mobile game studio. Uh, we were web two.

Um, and about a year ago, we started to make the transition to web 3. We've kind of built a Unity to near SDK. So, making it really simple for web 2 mobile game studios to kind of make their first foray into web 3. Um today talking about taking blockchain mobile and how mobile games will power the next generation creator economy. Um first of all we'll go into the state of blockchain gaming and the mobile game industry to the infrastructure and tools available for mobile game studios which have improved massively over the year.

Um new monetization channels for creators and brands to find new audience and distribute their arts and goods. and then a bit of a crystal ball moment and what we think the future holds. So the first thing is it's really positive at the moment. I think in a bare market we can kind of get down on ourselves but actually gaming um is is here to stay. So I think in the first kind of gamefy 1.

0 we found out more what doesn't work than what does work and I think that's a big opportunity. Um, as Miko said just before me, there's a ton of VC money still coming in and pouring in, and they're all bullish on gaming. Um, and I think it's kind of on us as mobile game studios to find a path uh for sustainable games and profitable games cuz I think this kind of magic web 3 money will or it has started to kind of go away. Um, yeah, and we need to push for profitable games. Um, obviously we need to make it easy and seamless for users for that mass on boarding as at the moment it's really annoying and we've seen a real change from IPs and brands and all these communities that have raised money have really big communities and always have a game in their road map.

Um, and I think they have now understood that they need good mobile game studios or game studios to come in and make those games. Quick one about us. So, we're a top 20 blockchain game project. Um, over 20,000 unique active wallets. Um, and we've done about 250k wallets.

Uh, top web 2 game studio, 100 million downloads, 5 million MAU, and we've got investors such as Shima, Big Brain Holdings, and Hobi. So, yeah, the state of web 2 and web 3 gaming. So there are billions in funding for web 3 games and I think this just means there are loads and loads of great teams working on amazing games. I think in reality we're about 12 24 months out um until these games really start to surface. Um and unsurprisingly Polygon Immutable X Ethereum were the big big winners.

And uh a really cool stat, I'm not sure if it's actually up here, um but 5.7% of web 3 applications and DAPs are games, but gaming activity makes up about is it 52% of unique active wallets. So it really is a critical metric when gauging interest. And while gaming investment took a bit of a dip, I think the fundamental indicators push that gaming is a way to to the mass market. Web 3 gaming absolutely still firing in 2023.

Um, DAP radar said that $156 million was raised um, in January. Legacy gaming companies like um, Unix or sorry, Square Annex are coming into the space and I think this is a positive when big kind of web two companies come in. Um, and YG, one of the biggest guilds is starting a new fund of $75 million. Mobile games certainly seem to continue to drive the game market. So over 50% of revenue on gaming overall is from mobile.

And that's a huge opportunity for web 3. And then certainly where web 3 lags behind web 2 um is game discovery. So on iOS 8.4 4 billion downloads in 2022 and 47 billion from Google Play. And I think what we need to do is effectively find a way to work with these guys.

So, uh, the the web 3 mindset is kind of it's a walled garden with Google Play and the App Store. Um, but actually with the NFT news, which was met really negatively, I think it's kind of positive news. At least now we can kind of experiment. um and we can test things and okay they're going to get 30% but they it's a huge huge multi-billion dollar companies um and I think we need to start to work with them and as Miko said before um yeah work with them so who are web two and web 3 gamers so I think you need to know your audience I think it's the first step of any um any mobile game or any game you want to yeah think about your user uh sorry yeah think about your user and who you're building it for. I think we made the mistake.

So we've got this kind of light web 2 or sorry light web 3 unity to near SDK and actually we're going after the web 2 market and trying to make it more rewarding for end users and bringing them over to web 3. We made the mistake at the start of kind of having 100 200 kind of closed alpha testers who were very much web 3 on Discord. Um, and I think sometimes you start to get in a a bit of a web three echo chamber and everything becomes more and more web three which actually the mass market don't want. thought this was a really cool graph from Navic and I think it just shows it's even more complicated to kind of pin down your audience for web three whereas kind of web two you talk about your whales um and your ad players your IP players basically you've got investors earners and players with web 3 and I think it's our job as mobile game studios to try and get as many players in as possible I think if the players are in they enjoy the game. They enjoy the gaming experience.

That's where this kind of web 3 mobile gaming becomes more sustainable. And again, a really cool stat. So for web two, um, basically you make all of your money in the US or the EU5. And it's almost the reverse with web 3. So you kind of take uh Africa, Asia, Brazil, really really big for NFTTS and it's a a huge opportunity because certainly with web two mobile games it's hard to make money there but with this web 3 element um actually $5 a day for some of these countries is really big.

Um so they will keep on pushing and building up your community. and then onto the infer and tools available to game studios. So this has got so much easier or there's so much more choice um over the last year. So you've got kind of magic eden fractton on fractal on Salana a mutable tzos near they've all kind of got these unity SDKs GameStop with a mutable RA with a near deal but really this just shows that you can kind of be picky and you can find your best uh your best fit for your project. Again, similarly, there are kind of huge advances daily with making this really seamless for users.

So, Sequence, they work with Cool Cats. Um, super super easy wallet um, uh, wallet product. Same with Venley and same with Intella. And I think this is something Web 3 does really, really well and much better than Web 2, these kind of gaming and creator Dows. We've worked with Ready Player Dow before now.

So, a group of um a group of influencers um and they kind of put up a bounty and they create videos and everything like that for your game. And then web 3 publishers as well. So, I think it's effectively if you want to concentrate more on the game development and less on the publishing, you can kind of go to these guys now. And it's quite interesting kind of looking at it. So you've got the web two guys that are kind of coming into the space.

So the scope please tilting points boom lands and I think there's there's some great um great experience there and they build profitable games. And then I think you've got the web 3es one. So, Joyide, Block Games, Exterior, and they certainly, I think, have an upper hand when they when it comes to understanding communities and the nature of web 3 a lot better. And I think also they perhaps have a fairer commercial model, less of a yeah, a copy from the web 2. But yeah, the a big point there is you've got a lot of choice again, whereas a year ago, I don't think you did.

So, on to web 3 monetization opportunities for creators and brands. Thought this was a a really cool stat to kind of look beyond the game. And I think as a mobile game studio or game developers, you just kind of concentrate on the game, but actually 53% of the ways people engage with your game content are not playing. So, you've got 47% playing and then everything else is more things on the web two side. Okay.

Uh, watching videos on Twitch or YouTube. Um, and I think web three, web 3 is even more so. So, user generated content. Uh, take Sandbox or shrapnel for example. And I think lots of these companies are kind of coming up around games.

So this kind of Axi one, it's a number one fan site for Axi Infiniti. Helps players and guilds increase ROI, sorry, ROI and earnings. And the total time spent on this website equals about 14 years. So there's so so many kind of different products and projects that are building around one game. And then game X.

So, there are a lot of new gamification models. Um, Genopets, Sweatcoin, um, Sleepergoti, which I downloaded last night. It was like a sleep and earn, which is quite cool. We've got a fight and earn game coming out. But these um I think especially with Sweatcoin these kind of habitual models where you will go in daily you'll check you'll check your steps is really really good for brands and brands are kind of all over this and coming into coming into this space and then also web 3 games obviously are going mobile.

So you've got AXI obviously started out on browser but they're pushing more and more into the app stores. Blast Royale really really cool game. So native mobile web3 game on the App Store and Google Play. They kind of pay their 30% tax but it's a really really good user experience. And then yeah, our kind of crystal ball moment uh and where we think web 3 gaming will be huge and the next frontier in commerce.

So yeah, uh you've got kind of the saga saga phone. So it's like the web 2 OEM uh model of preloaded apps, but it's all completely run on crypto. And then we had a call with Jambo the other day. So they raised I think it was 30 million in their uh series A round and they're kind of going after the super app of Africa. But what they're doing really really well is kind of turning gaming soft currency into real rewards.

So James, their CEO, kind of said to us, imagine you're a 20 21 year old uh in Lagos and you watch some ads, you play some games, and then use that coin you just earned to top up your air time, top up your phone bill. And I think what's really really cool about that is you don't actually change the user experience at all. You're just making that experience a lot more rewarding. And that's also what we're kind of trying to do in this web 2, web 2.5 mass market uh way that you play the same game you always have done, but actually it's a more rewarding experience for the user now.

So yeah, ju just like to leave you with it's really positive for gaming at the moment. Um we found out more what what doesn't work than what does. Um, that's a huge opportunity. Feces are super bullish on gaming. There's a lot better tooling than there was a few months ago.

Um, and there's certainly been a real change in mindset from web two brands and IPs and they really want to get involved with with skilled mobile game and game studios. Thank you.