Web3 Gamer – Cointelegraph Magazine

As the year winds down, every gaming company and its dog are dropping year-in-review reports.

A recent report from blockchain gaming accelerator Game7 suggests that many game developers had an enforced nap instead of pumping out new games.

This year, just 223 Web3 games were launched which is a 65% drop from the 640 games launched in 2022, and even more distant from the 811 games launched in 2021.

So what’s the deal with the sudden nosedive in output?

Well, the optimistic answer is Rome wasn’t built in a day.

It seems to be what Immutable co-founder and president Robbie Ferguson believes…that many great Web3 gaming hits are on the way…but patience is required. 

Speaking to Magazine, Ferguson says there has been a significant surge of money into Web3 games lately, and developers are focusing on crafting standout hits:

“The last year has been really interesting, Web3 gaming has had such an influx of investment, it’s just the time-lag of the production of games until we start seeing hits…roughly $15 billion US has been invested in Web3 gaming over the past 3 years.”

Similarly, Stefanidis also mentions the amount of cash flowing in the Web3 gaming scene, even though new money from retail is yet to flow back into the overall crypto markets.

“The appetite has significantly increased. Projects are minting out and raising money again. I think the belief in Web3 has continued to grow, even in the bear market,” Stefanidis says.

But in 2024, the real hits won’t just be tossing money around to keep players hooked, at least according to Gabby Dizon, co-founder of Yield Guild Games.

In a recent interview with Cointelegraph, Dizon declared that the most successful Web3 games in 2024 will pivot from play-to-earn (P2E) to instead focus on being entirely free-to-play to attract players.

Keep an eye on Shrapnel, the AAA first-person extraction shooter blockchain game to see whether it will emerge as a hit or a flop.

The game has been getting a ton of hype in the industry. 

It’s set on Earth in the year 2038, where the objective is to gather valuable in-game assets and safely extract them, while facing off against enemies and rival players.

〉Getting ready to extract. pic.twitter.com/kq6B07Ub97

— SHRAPNEL 🔺 (@playSHRAPNEL) September 13, 2023

However, John Stefanidis, CEO of Balthazar Gaming DAO, told Magazine that the games that will score big might just be the ones doing the classic, promise less, but deliver way more:

“I think the challenges that games are having right now are trying to deliver on the huge number of promises that they’ve made, and they’re struggling to acquire users off the back of that when there are other games coming out that are promising much less.”

Ferguson predicts that the “first hit” blockchain game will catalyze an entire new narrative as developers will be able to see “the playbook used to make successful games.”

“By the end of this year, there should no longer be any roadblocks for a game that’s successful enough from being able to succeed.”

Blowfish Studios announce early access to Phantom Galaxies

The team behind new sci-fi action RPG game Phantom Galaxies described the gaming space as “challenging and unpredictable” when it announced early access to the game.

Are the developers fessing up to a little bit of market jitters as they roll out the new game?

Thank you, Rangers 🫡

As our Early Access journey unfolds, we want to extend a massive thank you to our team of talented Rangers. Their tireless efforts behind the scenes continue to be the backbone of our success ✨

The gaming space can be challenging and unpredictable, but… https://t.co/F8QMTvKRYw

— Phantom Galaxies (@the_phantom_g) November 17, 2023

It’s probably unnecessary as the title has garnered considerable attention online, already clocking up over 100,000 followers on the X platform, aka Twitter.

Published by Blowfish Studios, a subsidiary of Web3 giant Animoca Brands, Phantom Galaxies is available for free on both Steam and the Epic Games Store. 

Set in the aftermath of an interstellar war the game unfolds as the Commonwealth and the Union come together to establish the Ranger Squadron – an outfit of skilled mecha pilots who guard human colonies on the outer edges of space.

Players join the squadron…