GameFi and crypto 'natural fit' for game publishers: KBW 2022

Published at: Aug. 9, 2022

South Korea is considered the fourth biggest gaming market and one of the biggest blockchain adopters. However, the country has banned play-to-earn (P2E) blockchain games due to the crypto integration. The new pro-crypto president Yoon Suk-yeol had hinted at lifting the ban, but the government yet to showed any significant effort.

Anthony Yoon, managing partner of blockchain investment and accelerator firm ROK Capital, in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, said that GameFi is a natural fit for Korean game publishers. Yoon shed light on the current state of GameFi in the country and how game studios are approaching blockchain integration during the Korean Blockchain Week 2022 (KBW)

Yoon explained that there are two thought processes among Web2 gaming companies looking to shift to web3 and blockchain gaming. Where one camp is looking for ways to derive value for their projects and create their ecosystem on blockchain from scratch, and token integration is the last step, while the other camp they are ready to launch a token first and outsource the technology.

Talking about the popularity of global blockchain projects such as Solana (SOL) and Polygon (Matic)  against the native Korean projects, Yoon explained that their popularity is not just dependent on the amount of capital they bring in but more so on the infrastructure and ecosystem they have to offer. He explained:

“From a feasibility perspective, I think something that these gaming studios also look at - are their users on this chain. Is there an ecosystem on this chain? Is there infrastructure on the chain?”

Yoon also said that while native chains do play a key role in developing the ecosystem, but the major focus of game studios is to build for a global ecosystem.

Related: Web2 adoption key to Metaverse success, Klaytn Foundation — KBW 2022

In another chat, WeMade CEO Henry Chang talked with Cointelegraph about current trends in the GameFi sector, its potential future and WeMade's new gaming blockchain platform Wemix.

Chang said that even though crypto-integrated blockchain games are banned in Korea, crypto definitely has a utility in the gaming industry. He added that crypto would find a place in most of the games in the coming years. He concluded by saying - for crypto games to be successful, they must have a formidable in-game economy.

Tags
Blockchain
Nft
Defi
Blockchain Game
Games
South Korea
Play-To-Earn
Related Posts
Dear game developers: Blockchain is not pure evil
Blockchain-based play-to-earn (P2E) games stole the show in 2021, exploding from a fringe hobby into a major part of the decentralized space. They even helped people in developing economies put food on the table, as these games’ economic models do not shun things like farming in-game currency and items to re-sell to other players, which many non-blockchain massively multiplayer online games (MMOs) frown on, to say the least. The mainstream gaming industry was taking notes as the P2E rocketship shot for the moon — and its flight has left the industry bitterly splintered. On the one hand, top executives from …
Blockchain / April 16, 2022
Axie Infinity looking to 'double-down' on Korean market: KBW
Sky Mavis, the firm behind Play-to-Earn (P2E) heavyweight Axie Infinity is looking to “double down” in South Korea and ramp up adoption despite the regulatory hurdles. Speaking with Cointelegraph at the Korea Blockchain Week on Aug. 9 (local time), Sky Mavis co-founder and growth lead Jeffrey Zirlin stated that despite the domestic ban on P2E games still being in place, the “Korean market is one of the most important gaming markets in the world, and we have tons of players in South Korea.” Zirlin added that the company is currently looking at ways to tailor the Axie Infinity game to …
Blockchain / Aug. 9, 2022
AXS, RON and SLP surge after Axie Infinity developers revamp the project’s tokenomics
Since launching in 2018, Axie Infinity has amassed over 2 million daily active users (DAUs) and its decentralized exchange, Katana has a market cap of $5.5 billion, but this growth has not come without challenges. Axie Infinity’s in-game token, Smooth Love Potion (SLP) decreased nearly 93% from it's all-time high in July 13, 2021 of $0.39 as it faces uncontrollable inflation. As such, the team has announced it will significantly remove SLP issuance from the game, making it harder to farm. Gamers and guilds will in turn focus their attention on their strategic competitive edge and the potential increase price …
Blockchain / Feb. 10, 2022
What are the top metaverse projects besides The Sandbox and Decentraland? | Watch The Market Report live
This week on “The Market Report,” we jump right into our main event. Join Cointelegraph analysts Benton Yaun, Jordan Finneseth, Sam Bourgi and Ornella Hernández as they debate each other on the top metaverse projects on the market. First up, we’ve got Bourgi’s pick of Wilder World, which allows you to interact with its immersive 3D world via nonfungible tokens (NFTs) and is also based on the massively popular Unreal Engine 5. Following Bourgi, we have The Market Report first-timer Hernández, who has decided to go with Boson Portal, which aims to revolutionize metaverse commerce. Will its high-profile partners such …
Decentralization / Feb. 15, 2022
Former head of TikTok gaming leaves Web2 to build core Web3 protocol
Cointelegraph had the opportunity to chat with Jason Fung, former head of gaming at TikTok, about his new company Meta0, why he decided to make the leap into Web3 and what he feels the future has in store for him. The former gaming head expressed an elevated level of excitement, proclaiming that it was Day One for the fledgling Metaverse technology startup. Fung explained that he plans to bring his wealth of knowledge and experience in gaming and software development to achieve a grander version of what the Metaverse could be. “Many Web2 companies are trying to figure out how …
Adoption / July 8, 2022