Games need bots? Illivium CEO admits ‘it’s tough,’ Web3 games 42X upside: Web3 Gamer

Is a game even a game without bots? Pixels CEO doesn’t think so

Some think that bots in games is a sign of the apocalypse, or perhaps just the makers trying to fill up an empty venue to make it look popular.

But Pixels founder and CEO Luke Barwikowski says that conversely, if people aren’t trying to fill your game with bots, then it’s probably because the game isn’t exactly the talk of the town.

“If people aren’t trying to bot your game — it’s not because they can’t — it’s because they don’t care enough to do it.”

According to Barwikowski, if you’re making a game that doesn’t have any bots and flaunting it, that’s not something to boast about.

“It’s not always the flex you think to say you don’t have any bots in an ecosystem,” he declares.

To be fair, bots do bring with them some perks – such as shorter wait times for gamers and a guaranteed opponent whenever you are up for a game.But the bots are starting to take over.

In November last year, anti-botting company Jigger analyzed more than 60 games and services and found 200,000 bots. 

About 40% of all GameFi users are bots, and for certain titles like MetaGear, AnRkey X, and ARIVA, it’s a massive 80%. And brace yourself — for Karma Verse Zombie, it’s a mind-blowing 96%.

Web3 Games: The easy pick for crypto firms to throw shade at

Web3 Games have been catching a lot of flak lately, with frequent criticisms including their sky-high failure rates and that many games aren’t much fun.

A recent CoinGecko highlights that three out of four blockchain games have flopped since 2018. This year, a whopping 70% of games launched have bitten the dust. Still, their figures are unusual, suggesting the failure rate in 2022 was a mind-bogglingly unlikely 107%.

Kieran Warwick, co-founder and big boss of Illivium, isn’t second-guessing the numbers, though. He tells Magazine that creating a Web3 game ain’t a walk in the park like releasing a memecoin.

“It makes sense; it’s tough for a game to be successful,” he says. “You need a combination of fantastic gameplay, huge funding and effective marketing,” he declares.

Although he’s on the same page with the masses about NFT games being a letdown.

“Almost every game released has been sub-par when you add the need to create sustainable economic models using bleeding-edge blockchain technology, the likelihood of succeeding declines again.”

Fortunately, Warwick believes there is a ticking clock on when these crazy failure rates in Web3 game reports are gonna turn around.

“Good games also take a long time to build. In the next few years, once the games that have been in development for 3-5 years start releasing, sentiment will quickly shift,” he declares.

Warwick believes there’s no magic moment when everyone’s gonna ditch regular gaming for Web3. He suggests it’s not rocket science; it’s just straight-up logic for when the switch will happen.

“Once gamers experience a blockchain game just as good as its mainstream competitor and have ownership of their assets, they aren’t returning to the game they used to play,” he says.

Meanwhile, crypto analyst Miles Deutscher recently told his 383,000 followers that crypto gaming is still a small fry in the vast gaming world. But that just means it has a lot more potential.

“The total gaming space is projected to hit $610b by 2032. Crypto gaming is currently valued at just $14.5b. That’s a 42x discrepancy. We’re still so early.”

Hot take: Galaxy Fight Club

Galaxy Fight Club is a PvP battle game built on the Polygon blockchain. It has a fairly impressive turnaround time from downloading the game to being able to jump right into the chaos of online shooting with random players in no time.

Getting matched into a game had a similar ease to joining a game in Call of Duty or Battlefield. 

You can dip your toes in as a guest, get a feel for the game, or go all in by creating an account linked to your crypto wallet. 

If you’re sitting…