[Sandbox co-founder expects AAA game studios to embrace Web3]
In an interview with crypto.news, Sebastien Borget, co-founder and chief operating officer of The Sandbox, discussed the challenges faced by Web3 games entering the mainstream market.
Web3 is disrupting the gaming industry by enabling players to engage with games more deeply than ever before, setting itself apart from traditional gaming platforms. This form of gaming gives players increased control and ownership over in-game assets such as items, characters, and currency, allowing them to trade, sell, and even create their own assets.
Well-known game companies such as Ubisoft have begun to integrate NFTs into their popular games such as "Wire Hunt: Extremis", exploring this new industry to enhance player experience. However, even though Web3 games aim to empower players, they still haven't received an enthusiastic response from the broad gaming community, with many still preferring traditional Web2 games.
According to a report by the Blockchain Game Alliance, 51% of users believe that cultivating players' habits is a major challenge, and 37.2% believe that poor gameplay is one of the problems. Gaming giants like Ubisoft and Sega have recently slowed down the pace of launching new Web3 games as they look for ways to break through to mainstream market acceptance. In the past five years, more than 75% of Web3 games failed because they couldn't attract enough users.
Despite these issues, the Web3 gaming industry is expected to grow significantly, with the market expected to be worth $30 billion by 2030. Borget shared his thoughts on this trend and discussed the strategy of AAA game companies to wait and see what smaller studios innovate in the Web3 space before pursuing market entry.
He noted that large gaming companies are often reluctant to adopt the latest innovations because their existing business models are mostly based on the Web2 model and they already make a lot of revenue. These companies lack the flexibility to pivot to new revenue opportunities, whereas smaller and more nimble studios are more likely to explore and quickly trial and error opportunities.
Borget believes that one of the biggest challenges to the development and acceptance of Web3 games is the lack of emphasis on fun and prioritizing gameplay. In addition, there are challenges in terms of user experience, especially the onboarding process for new users, such as setting up a wallet, which is considered too complex.However, as technology advances and more mainstream game engines such as Unity and Unreal integrate blockchain technology, these technical barriers are gradually being overcome.
