An anonymous reader quotes the TechCrunch report: Top crypto VCs consistently tout the potential of video games as one of the most compelling uses for blockchain technology. […] TechCrunch spoke with Justin Kahn, co-founder of Twitch and most recently Solana-based gaming NFT marketplace Fractal, to find out what it takes for this subsector of the web3 to live up to the hype. Kahn said web3 gaming has a long way to go – while there are about 3 billion gamers worldwide, including those who play mobile games, he noted that far fewer have purchased or interacted with any kind of blockchain-based gaming asset . Kahn sees this gap as an opportunity for blockchain technology to fundamentally change the way video game studios operate. “I think the idea of creating digital assets and then taxing everyone for all the transactions around them is a good model,” Kahn said.
In some ways, web3 games were created in response to the success of games like Fortnite, which were able to open up a profitable monetization avenue for game studios through microtransactions of users buying custom items like outfits and weapons. Web3 game developers hope to take this vision even further by allowing players to use these proprietary digital assets between different games, turning games into an interoperable, immersive ecosystem, Kahn explained. According to him, Kang has made about 10 angel investments in web3 gaming startups, including NFT-based shooter studio BR1: Infinite Royale. However, he admitted that creating this interoperable ecosystem, which he sees as the future of video games as a whole, doesn’t technically require blockchain technology at all. “I think blockchain is exactly what can happen because there’s a lot of cultural momentum around people equating blockchain with openness and trusting things that are decentralized on the blockchain.”
[T]The appeal of an open gaming ecosystem has more to do with principle than making a living. “I really think people equate NFTs and gaming with this ‘play to earn’ model where people make money and do their jobs [by gaming]and I think it’s completely unnecessary,” Kahn said. “Having digital assets in your game can work and be valuable even if nobody’s making money and there’s no speculative upside or value appreciation on your assets,” he added. It it’s common for popular games to attract new developments in addition to their existing intellectual property. Kahn shared the example of Counter-Strike: Global Offensive (CSGO), a video game in which custom “skins” sell for $150,000 each. “I funded a company that builds on CSGO skins,” he said. “CSGO changed the rules on what was allowed and actually confiscated over a million dollars from this campaign alone – so yeah, I don’t want to build on top of these undiscovered platforms anymore.” “Kahn sees blockchain-based gaming as a ‘more economically exciting’ version of the marketplaces that already exist in video games,” adds TechCrunch. “He doesn’t think that users are flocking to blockchain games but just to make money.”
“I think web3 gaming is just becoming more open and saying that instead of a black market, we’re going to make it a real market, and people’s economic participation is going to be different at different levels. There will be people who only play the game and never buy things with money. There will be people who earn extra money because they are really good at the game and they get some stuff in the game they sell [or trading].”
He added: “For this market to really become big, it needs normal people who want to play games for fun to play these games. This does not exist yet. I think most of the market today is people who are crypto-native.”
