At this time, my X Feed is full of people who are renouncing the web 3 games. I understand. More than $ 12 billion have been carried out in risk capital funds since 2020 and have not seen the type of success that many expected. Even the best games have not reached anything close to the conventional scale. Token prices are low. The studies are closing. And everyone is exhausted.
But measuring web 3 games for Token prices is just like calling the Internet a failure due to the blocking of points of the score: ignore how far the technology has arrived and where it is directed. Real history is missing.
In essence, web3 Gaming is about providing players with a real property, not only of the articles in the game they buy and win, but also their identities and achievements. In traditional games, players invest time, effort and money in digital assets that finally belong to the editor. Web3 changes that. By placing assets in the chain, players can really possess what they earn, whether they are negotiable elements such as weapons or lands, or non -transferable reputation badges, history of the guild or verifiable ability. It is not just about buying and selling things: it is agency, persistence and obtain the proper recognition of what you have built and what is really yours in the ecosystem.
The concept is not new. Players have wanted more control over their assets in the game for years. Look at the mass markets for CS: Go Skins or World of Warcraft Gold. But so far, those economies have been fragmented, restricted or at risk of closing if a centralized editor decides to close it or change the rules. Web3 makes these economies open, interoperable, owned by players and driven by the player.
The property has always been the basis of web 3 games, and the game for EAR was an experimental model that showed the potential of open virtual economies and without blockchain permits. Now, the industry is evolving with a stronger approach in sustainable economies and a better tokenomic, a deeper game and a long -term players commitment.
But if you are comparing the web3 with the web2 games, it will be disappointed. Traditional games have had decades to adjust the design of the game, build bases of mass players and develop business models that work, while web3 gaming is still in its experimental phase. Of course, billions of dollars of investment can accelerate things, but throwing money in a new category does not buy it magically a history or instantly creates new games that people love.
I have been making games for more than 20 years and I have seen that all important changes are discarded before it took care. No one believed that mobile games could compete with PC or consoles until it became bigger than both. Free-to-Play was called a scam until he earned more money and reached more players than ever. ESports was a joke until the stadiums sold out and the awards reached millions. Digital skins were “without value” before becoming a billionaire market.
And now, web3 Gaming is in that same turning point.
When I heard for the first time about Blockchain in 2018, everyone I knew in Fintech were talking about that. So, of course, I thought it was boring and I ignored it. It wasn’t until I learned about cryptokisies that I really realized. When I saw people collecting, exchanging and possessing these beautiful cats in the chain, it was when I got excited because I knew they were not like other assets in the game. Cryptokitties were digital things that no one could take away. As someone who has spent his life in the games, and his career convincing others to grind the same, without really getting anything, that idea of digital property gave me a completely new way of thinking.
So I went everything in Blockchain Games. But 2018 and 2019 were really difficult times. Just anyone else cared at the time. There was no support, nor real funds, nor a clear idea of what these games could be beyond speculation, and (outside a handful of believers) there was very little conviction. The market was in a deep bear cycle, and many teams surrendered or were left without money before they were able to launch it. Even so, some of us continue to build. We were thin, we experienced and learned everything in the difficult way. It feels equally bad now, but not as bad as it was then. Looking back, I am so happy that we have not packed it when the success was just around the corner.
When Axie Infinity went through 2021, everything changed. Founders of Web3 as Jeffrey “Jihoz” Zirlin de Sky Mavis, Yat Siu of the Marks Animoca, Sebastien Burget of the Sand box and I went from being called crazy to visionary overnight. Suddenly, we were talking on the main stage at conferences where we used to see at the audience. We made news holders and “more influential” lists. Investors who ignored our emails asked how much they could put. My email input tray filled with fundraising covers launching the next YGG.
Then, in 2022, the market crashed, and with the same speed, we were crazy again. But that never bothered me because crazy people are the ones that make great things happen.
Now, everyone is asking: When is the next Big Web3 game? The answer is this: good games have been. And if you look beyond the red candles to take note of what already exists today, you will see how many progress we have achieved since our industry was sown in 2018:
- In 2020, Axie Infinity had less than 500 daily players. Today, Ronin, the block chain it built, has millions of active users, with 17 new sets released, and 134% growth in the NFT negotiation volume in 2024 compared to 2023. It has also not allowed, which means that there will be more games, faster development, stronger network effects and unpredictable advances. Some of the greatest innovations in games, such as free modification and electronic sports, come from unexpected places. By reducing the entrance barrier, a Ronin without permission invites the type of experimentation that could lead to the next success at Axie scale.
- Pixels, an agricultural game in Ronin, reached a peak of 1.3 million daily active users (Daus) and now stands firm with around 250,000 Daus even with its token 96%. The players are spending more than they charge, buying land, improving assets and actually returning money to the game, feeding the economy instead of extracting from it. This is how virtual economies should work, with a real demand and strong retention. The most important thing is that it is an indication that the game model to EAR can work if it is done well.
- Parallel, a game of exchange cards (TCG) in Ethereum, has just organized a world championship in Las Vegas in the Hyperx Arena, a place that has organized some of the largest electronic sports competitions of “League of Legends All-Stars” to the “Capcom Cup of Street Fighter V’s Capcom”. This was a prestigious event that saw some of the best TCG players in the world cross of traditional titles such as Hearthstone to become some of ESports web3’s first legends.
These are just some examples, but they show the type of traction we are seeing: better infrastructure, growing communities, more sustainable virtual economies, digital property.
Those that FUD Web3 Gaming do not understand today. Cryptokities were lost in 2018, Axie in 2020, YGG in 2021, and the next wave will also be lost because they are measuring the wrong metrics. Web3 is growing and innovating faster than any other sector in games. It is not time to quit smoking. It’s time to duplicate. Let them call us as they want: crazy, delusional. Visionary, pioneer. It does not change what we do. We have been here before. Keep the way.
