Long Live “Glorbin”!
The authors or their affiliates have ownership or other economic interests or intend to have interests in BTC, ETH, SOL, Axie Infinity NFTs, zCloak Network, MetalCore and associated tokens and NFTs, and may have ownership or other economic interests or intend to have interests in other organizations and/or crypto assets discussed as well as other crypto assets not referenced.
It was a quiet week, full of insightful thought pieces, dystopian foreshadowing, and pure unmitigated gaming fun. Hopefully, you got a chance to play our portfolio game MetalCore over the weekend. There is quite a bit to digest:
- SkyMavis brought over another IP to Ronin
- CoD introduced Nicki Minaj and Snoop Dog characters
- Blizzard came after 3rd party game modifiers
- Monitoring tools started to look a bit orwellian
- Path of Exile promised forward and backward compatibility of assets
- A treasure of trove of thought papers dropped over the week
Let’s dive in!
Ronin Wins Over CyberKongz
SkyMavis continues its bid to become more than the Axie Infinity parent, bringing over CyberKongs to Ronin. CyberKongz is one of the older PFP brands, but one that has kind of got lost in the shadows of Apes, Doodles, and Penguins.
The Genkai mint on Mavis Marketplace may inject some new energy into the community and also bring a new audience to the Ronin ecosystem. In keeping with a forming trend, CyberKongz are expected to develop a game in support of the collection.
SkyMavis has been very active expanding the reach of its brand. The new PFP angle, and recent refocusing of Axie on the Tamagotchi vision, may signal a new commercial strategy. Perhaps soon we will see Ronin branded NFT debits cards.
Games Are Blurring The Borders of Entertainment Genres
CoD continues to introduce pop culture icons into its universe. This time it is Nicki Minaj and Snoop Dog. Movie stars have long been found traversing virtual worlds as characters, and many celebrities have been vocal about the video game affections, so this makes sense.
A video game multiverse has worked well for Fortnite. Epic Games has provided extensive infrastructure capabilities to make game development and deployment simpler. So creators like Hasraf Dulnull with experience in film for instance, can launch games in Fortnite.
Revenue sharing coupled with direct distribution has made this type of opportunity appealing to creators. The rapid expansion of AI tooling should further increase the number of those who are able to contribute to content creation in virtual worlds.
Blizzard Reasserts Control in Diablo IV
Blizzard threatened players who use unauthorized game modifiers with a permanent ban. While some of the third party software can be used for cheating, others provide useful add-on functionality, but Blizzard doesn’t care to distinguish the two.
This underscores the difference between open and closed virtual worlds. The web3 ecosystem has thrived by capitalizing on composability and letting the community push the boundaries of original deployments.
For games this is no less important, as gamers often create dynamics that were not initially anticipated by developers. Moreover many of currently beloved franchises started as mods. Over-controlling game worlds stunts their growth and hurts their long term potential.
Data Collection Policies are Giving Gamers Pause
ESRB’s proposed Privacy-Protecting Age Estimation system offers a convenient parental consent approach, but requires user image analysis raising the questions of privacy and data usage despite ESRB promise of protecting privacy and not using facial recognition.
This is happening with a backdrop of Worldcoin Orb rolling out across several countries. Privacy preserving technology has taken a number of steps forward. For instance our portfolio company zCloak recently published their scheme for on-chain verification using zk-SBT.
However, given the expanding capabilities of AI, personal data collection makes gamers nervous. Recently, the pushback of the Pathfinder community, forced the rollback of AppsFlyer, used for liveops monitoring. The industry needs an open conversation and standards for data.
Back And Forward Asset Compatibility in Centralized Games
Path of Exile becomes the latest franchise to offer interoperability between titles of a franchise, although the execution path is not yet entirely clear. Enabling players to maintain their hard earned gains makes it easier to sell the next installment.
It will be interesting to see how developers handle backwards compatibility in terms of balancing. New content may upset the status quo in the older title, and also create farming opportunities.
WoW Classic has recently seen the effects of rampant inflation, possibly as a result of the token introduction. Studios in web3 should pay attention as cross world integration appears to be part of many teams’ plans in various forms.
Thought Leaders Share Their Takes on The Evolving Gaming Space
Lightspeed Ventures published a paper on the expected impact of AI on gaming, Bitkraft shared a deep dive into web3 gaming infrastructure stack and Javier Ang explained the metaverse in the context of evolution of social interaction.
Although the pieces were written separately, it seems each narrative feeds the other. Simplification of content development and onboarding serves to facilitate consumer interactions. However, we need to keep in mind the end cost to the consumer, which needs to be addressed.
All of the pieces are long reads, so if you find yourself looking for a bit of a lighthearted respite, you can tune into the next chapter of the Glorbin Saga. This time it’s the Destiny 2 community that’s having a bit of fun.
This wraps it up for this entry. As always, if you are working on something exciting in the web3 gaming space, or are a traditional gaming team looking to explore the possibilities, don’t hesitate to reach out to any of us at Sanctor Capital. Have a great rest of your week!
Ilya Abugov (@AbugovIlya)
Disclaimer: This commentary is not investment advice. It does not purport to include any recommendation as to any particular investment, transaction or investment strategy, or any recommendation to buy or sell any investment. It does not reflect any attempt to effect any transactions or render any investment advice.
This post is solely for informational and entertainment purposes. It is inherently limited and does not purport to be a complete discussion of the issues presented or the risks involved. Readers should seek their own independent legal, tax, accounting, and investment advice from professional advisors. The views reflected in this commentary are subject to change at any time without notice.
