In pursuit of higher playability, major investors invested a lot of money in various 3A/MMO games last year, but this year, there is no splash. On the contrary, the lightweight stand-alone PC game The Beacon has become popular recently. At this stage, perhaps stand-alone PC games may be more suitable for Gamefi than mobile games MMO.

Why stand-alone?

The user base of Web 3 itself is not large enough to support the user experience of multiplayer online games. Poor user experience makes it difficult to improve retention. If you want to increase the user experience of MMOs, you have to attract Web 2 players to join. Therefore, you have to return to the business model of traditional games and buy traffic through a large amount of advertising.

Nowadays, the cost of buying traffic for games is very high, the conversion rate is low, and long-term operation requires continuous investment in buying traffic, so games have become heavy asset projects. The success of games is somewhat random, and game studios often need to make several games in a row before one game successfully covers the previous losses.

The essence of Web 3 is different from traditional Internet products in that it uses tokens printed out of thin air to replace the traditional cost of buying traffic, and through financial scenarios, the tokens in the hands of users can generate certain value. The business model of blockchain games should also use tokens to buy traffic, so that games can become asset-light investment products.

Why PC?

First, mobile app stores generally need to collect 30% of the channel fee, which reduces the profits of game merchants. Secondly, mobile phone recharges have the risk control problem of malicious refunds (for example, Apple users can get an unconditional refund within 90 days after recharging). Users recharge to purchase assets that can be put on the chain, and withdraw the assets on the chain to their own wallets. After that, they apply for a refund within 90 days, and the users can get the assets on the chain for free.

The problem of malicious refunds makes it detrimental to the interests of the project owner to sell assets that can be put on the chain on the mobile phone. Therefore, the mobile phone can only sell purely off-chain resources, which is back to the traditional Web 2 game. An important narrative of blockchain games is that assets are put on the chain as NFTs, allowing users to have real asset ownership.

Why is it the right time to make a mobile MMO?

Web 2 gamers have certain prejudices against NFT and Token. It is necessary to wait for the game giants to conduct large-scale market education before Web 2 players can accept the concept of Web 3 and accept the business logic of using Token as a means of buying volume. Mobile channel operators need to further improve the relevant refund terms for the sale of assets that can be put on the chain.