Another year, another TOKEN2049, and what an absolute whirlwind of innovation and enthusiasm it has been. Surrounded by some of the brightest minds in web3 and the game development industry, there was a palpable energy at TOKEN2049 that signalled not just the evolution of web3 gaming but its revolutionary transformation.
Attracting over 10,000 attendees, the conference was held in Singapore’s Marina Bay Sands. Here, web3 developers, founders, game devs, and investors assembled to shape the future of web3.
This year, certain themes echoed consistently, whether it was from web3 enthusiasts, skeptics, or absolute newbies in the space.
Here are the vital takeaways from TOKEN2049 about the future of web3 gaming:
Asia’s Rise in Web3 Gaming
South East Asia has always been a leader in gaming, but our visit there strengthened our conviction in the market. We extensively used public transport — the Singapore Bus Service and the MRT metro service, and walked around a lot (I personally love walking, I would have been a STEPN millionaire if I tried) — and 95% of the people walking and travelling were glued to their phones in Singapore, all doing on thing; gaming.
This observation was indiscriminate across age and gender — old, young, men, women, children — all of them were actively playing mobile games. We saw 70 year olds play Candy Crush as they waited for their ramen bowls to be ready, and some other elderly folks were playing what looked like a Chinese game with a lot of religious symbolism.
Many younger people were TCG games, and a vast majority of the kids were hooked on co-ops and MMORPGs (i saw PUBG, Genshin, and some other anime-inspired MMOs).
Games specifically targeted SEA audiences, and a proliferation of SEA gaming media projects, reminiscent of platforms like Twitch, made their mark. It is very easy see why games and web3 games would be excited about this market — SE Asia is a ripe market full of high-intent players.
An Avalanche of Web3 Games
This year, there were so many web3 games at TOKEN2049. All of them were being developed/already built by asian teams — for asian markets.
Most of these games had launched their token and NFTs on mainnet, or were planning to launch on mainnet, and were actively debating which L2s to use for hosting their on-chain logic.
On a broader scale, there was a discernible pattern at Token2049: most games followed the “web2 game genres ported to web3 by tokenizing their currency” model. New chains are increasingly gravitating towards games, possibly viewing them as strategic tools to showcase on-chain activity.
Demystifying Web3
The rise of more player-friendly terminology, like “digital collectibles” instead of “NFTs”, is making the web3 space more approachable. But despite the buzz, there’s a lack of broad understanding of what web3 is. The transition from web2 to web3 remains enigmatic for many.
Most games were just tokenizing their currency and calling it a day. There is a real need for game developers and designers to be educated on all the cool web3 mechanics they can integrate into their game to bring more of the game logic on-chain while making the game economy more sustainable.
Clarity in terminology and better communication can pave the way for a more inclusive web3 universe, and we’re excited to be working on our Gaming SDK which aims to solve this very problem.
In conclusion, while TOKEN2049 was more of a general web3 event, games definitely let their presence be known there. And with Asia, especially regions like SEA, emerging as a significant force in the global gaming narrative, the trajectory is only upward.
If the xRaise team’s recent experiences are any indication, Asia’s influence on the global gaming landscape will be profound and lasting.
Learn More About xRaise on:
website: https://www.xraise.io/
docs: https://docs.xraise.io/
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