As 2023 comes to a close, it’s been quite a year to review web3 gaming and the crypto space in general! Bitcoin Ordinals made waves, NFT and gaming platforms were hot, the SEC brought high-profile charges against crypto companies and CEOs, and the intersection between real-world merchandise and NFT ownership began to grow. In the midst of all this, the web3 gaming scene continued to grow and adapt.
Many web3 games are gone or gone in 2023. Some have withdrawn due to redevelopment. And some are barely making ends meet. But plenty of others have survived and are thriving, building and growing, even during the bear market.
The TCG genre has remained strong. Gods Unchained, Splinterlands and Skyweaver have all built on their previous success, while Parallel, a relative newcomer, has captured the attention of the gaming community and won top honors at the recent Gam3 Awards. FPSs haven’t managed to make that much progress. Although we do have a number of eSport contenders such as My Pet Hooligan, Citizen Conflict and Boss Fighters, and highly anticipated titles such as Shrapnel and Deaddrop.
In the world of web3 MMOs, Big Time seems to have the most attention at the moment. Although numerous other competitors, such as Moonfrost, Mirandus and Cradles, are also quickly moving towards releases.
Some vintage cars are still going strong. Axie has already added several new layers of gameplay to their ecosystem and continues to create additional content and use cases for their NFTs. Alien Worlds continues to build on their Planetary DAO system. And as Councils have better worked out how they manage their self-government, we have started to see a wider range of projects and community interactions.
Mobile gaming, side chains and distribution platforms
Mobile games have made huge strides this year, with a number of apps built with NFTs or allowing their users to pay out rewards as blockchain tokens. Additionally, we have a growing number of mobile apps built with web3 from scratch, such as Rogue Nation, Fableborne, and Heroes of Mavia.
The rise of gaming-specific sidechains was another big story this year. Immutable And with the continued integration of their new Immutable Passport, Immutable Gala Games has also made great strides and officially migrated most of their apps and NFTs to their Gala Chain. Axie’s sidechain, Ronin, has grown much more slowly. But they do have The Machines Arena and Pixels which build on Ronin, apart from the various Axie related apps. Topia should finally hit the mainnet in the coming year, bringing their 10,000 Minecraft-style worlds online and available for owner customization.
Distribution platforms are also getting in on the action, with Epic Games and Elixir Games leading the way in the world of web3 game distribution
Web2 Gaming, meet Web3
We’ll also see the rise of web2 integrations in 2023. Whether this is a web2 company dipping its toes in the water, or Zynga diving in headfirst and creating a web3-specific gaming platform, interest from mainstream gaming companies has increased significantly. Along the same lines, we’ve seen a number of web3-first companies working to create versions of their game that would appeal to traditional gamers, and that don’t require the use of NFTs or the blockchain at all!
We also have Microsoft allowing web3 integrations with Minecraft, and even Roblox hints that they could enable NFT integration in the future! 2023 was a big year for web3 gaming, but 2024 is going to be even bigger!
