Every new cryptocurrency cycle promises to make Web3 games mainstream, but this never happens.
But since 2018, 80% of Web3 game projects have failed. This time is different, I think … I hope so.
I am optimistic because we finally have the infrastructure-cheap, fast and extensible blockchain, which is necessary to provide players with a frictionless experience.
Combined with the upcoming bull market boom, we are likely to see many games reach crazy valuations, just like Axie Infinity in 2020 (with a market value of $25 billion).
All this is quietly beginning. Look at some of the growth in the past 30 days.
So today I want to share eight best Web3 games that I am personally interested in, and I think you should also pay attention to them.
Disclaimer: Some of the following items have tokens. This article is not investment advice. I don’t even have these tokens.
Illuvium is a sci-fi NFT game ecosystem, including a number of games with a certain degree of interoperability. It has high-quality graphics and provides chain advantages such as asset ownership and governance.
Recently, Illuvium Arena, a game in the Illuvium ecosystem, was launched in Epic Games Store. The platform has more than 56 million monthly active users, most of whom are not on Web3.
This marks an important integration of blockchain games into mainstream platforms.
Then Illuvium plans to launch Illuvium Overworld, an open-world role-playing game (RPG).
Illuvium has developed in the past few years and during the bear market, and they are ready for an exciting future.
Shrapnel is an FPS (First Person Shooting) AAA game developed by Neon Machine Game Studio, which raised $37.5 million for development.
Its official release date in Epic Games Store is scheduled for December, which is only open to early users. Shrapnel is scheduled to be fully launched sometime in 2024.
Due to its shelf effect, $SHRAP tokens have increased by 182% in the past month.
P.S.: The CEO of Shrapnel tried to pay personal debts with company funds, which caused some FUD…… …
Echelon Prime is a web3 game ecosystem, and recently launched the first game on the Base blockchain: Parallel TCG.
The reason why I am excited about the Echelon Prime ecosystem is how they successfully launched Parallel, a simple card game that doesn’t need a wallet and is free to play.
Parallel is similar to popular card games, such as Hearthstone, Magic the Gathering(MTG) or Marvel Snap, etc., which provides familiar experience for card gamers.
This game is also online in Epic Games Store.
Personally, I think Echelon Prime supported by $PRIME tokens is one of the leaders in the field of Web3 games.
Star Atlas is a highly anticipated grand strategy game for space exploration, territorial conquest and political domination.
This game is built on Solana and already has two tokens:
- $ATLAS: In-game tokens that act as currency.
- $POLIS: The governance token of Star Atlas DAO can influence the decision-making process.
The reason why I am particularly excited about Star Atlas is that it is the first game on Solana, and it has been supported by the whole $SOL community. I expect that the Solana ecosystem will continue to develop, and Star Atlas is definitely one of the most cutting-edge participants in this ecosystem.
However, this game has been developed for several years (since the last cycle), so it has made slow progress compared with other games. But in any case, the transaction volume of Star Atlas’s in-game goods market has increased significantly recently, reaching as high as 400,000 US dollars.
Skyweaver is another digital card game developed by Horizon Blockchain Games, which is similar to Parallel.
This is a free game that allows players to collect, trade and use various unique cards to fight.
I’m not so optimistic about Skyweaver, but about the game developer Horizon, which is supported by Ubisoft and Take-Two.
These are the key participants in the Horizon financing round. They participated in the $40 million Series A financing. With strong supporters and an online game, I am very much looking forward to seeing what Horizon can offer in 2024 and beyond.
The above five games and game ecosystems are what I am most interested in. However, there are still some game ecosystems that are developing rapidly. The following are the other three that I am looking forward to and deserve attention.
Ronin is a blockchain built by Axie Infinity. Although it was originally designed to support Axie Infinity, it is now expanding.
In the past 30 days, the number of monthly active users has exceeded 500,000, a five-fold increase.
They welcome new game studio partners like Zillion Whales to develop on Ronin.
They also announced Ronin Name Service, a domain name service similar to ENS, which Ronin users can purchase with $RON to have their online identity.
SIDUS is a game/metauniverse project that aims to combine blockchain with AI.
Although the details are limited, Sidus recently burned a large part of their circulating tokens, which attracted a lot of attention. I will pay close attention to the development of this project.
Treasure DAO is an ecosystem that aims to bring games and players together through its $MAGIC tokens on Arbitrum.
In this article, I share eight games/game ecosystems that I will pay attention to in the next few years. But what I am most excited about is the abstraction of blockchain.
For Web3 games, the biggest obstacle is to hide the blockchain technology from users, which is necessary for mainstream adoption. Nobody wants to set up a wallet, deposit tokens and sign a deal to play games. Those games that can successfully hide Web3 technology will win, and Immutable has gone the farthest in this respect.
On Immutable, users don’t have to pay the Gas fee or sign the transaction. Moreover, the game built on Immutable can also provide offline NFT casting, and the transaction does not require Immutable $IMX tokens.
This is of great significance to game developers, which is why Ubisoft chose to cooperate with Immutable. This is why more than 200 Web3 games will be released on Immutable in 2024.
Immutable has built the infrastructure and tools that developers need to build games throughout the bear market. They are ready to release now, and I think they are perfectly positioned to occupy most of the Web3 game market share in the near future. Although I am optimistic about multiple independent web3 games and ecosystems, I am most interested in Immutable so far, and I think you should be the same.
Disclosure: I own $IMX.
