Is 2024 the year of web3 gaming? [video]

Is 2024 finally the year blockchain and web3 gaming will break through? This question was discussed by our panel of experts at PG Connects San Francisco x Game Connection 2024.

To evaluate whether web3 games are about to see their major breakthrough and reach mass adoption, the first question needing to be addressed is why blockchain gaming is still struggling to gain general traction?

One factor pointed out by Horizon co-founder and chief storyteller Michael Sanders is that games take a long time to build, but as we’re expecting some of those games to launch this year, we should also start seeing more players enjoy those games and understand the benefits of web3. He is positive that “with attributes such as ownership and tradability, and other rewards and incentives, players will come to demand those things from the next generation of games.”

Auto Legends CEO Peter Pham is also realistic about the time frame and adds that even though his studio is launching its game this year, it’s going to take time to bake in the player experience and bring in web2 players.

Meanwhile, Immutable Strategic Partner Success, Cathleen Lyu finds evidence of the future breakthrough in crunching past data, commenting “In the last bull market during 2021 we had about 800 web3 games launching, the year before that about 80 and the year before that 40. Last year, in 2023’s bear market we still had 220 games launching. So looking at this year, the crypto bull market is back, I do think in the context of web3 that this year it will be a breakthrough. I still remain hesitant because the UX is still a bit clunky, but there are a lot of innovators building in this space.”

Hit Box Games owner James Seaman highlights how his team has intentionally adopted two different ways of onboarding web2 and web3 players, “Web2 players who don’t want to be involved with web3 don’t have to, we can create non-custodial wallets for them, and all their in-game items will go into that wallet. Then we show them in the tutorial that you can trade these items with other players, so we’re kind of baby-stepping them into it. 

On the web3 side we built a backend where you can come in with any chain and trade your token, so you’ll never leave the game. In this way the whole onboarding process for both web2 players and web3 players becomes very simple.”

Dive into the full discussion, moderated by Yoda Labs marketing director Bobby Kunta, from PG Connects San Francisco 2024.

Are you interested in attending any of our forthcoming PG Connects conferences? On 1-2 May we return to Dubai for the GameExpo Summit 2024 powered by PG Connects, which is running alongside the Dubai Esports and Games Festival, and on 1-2 October we return to Finland for our popular PG Connects Helsinki event.