The arrival of the future of gaming

The Web3 Games Summit, or W3GS, happened from November 18 to November 25, 2023. It hosted several experiences, like a 2-day conference, an intense hackathon, and a 3-day expo. There was a special appearance by Manny Pacquiao. There were more than 5,300 participants, including, but not limited to, developers, gamers, creators, investors, and industry leaders. They had come from different parts of the world, being a part of an event that made the brighter future of the segment more evident.

A segment on Web3 game development saw Jeffrey Jihoz Zirlin from Sky Mavis make some crucial announcements. These include the return of Axie Classic and an update on the migration of farming and social MMO to the Ronin Network.

He expressed confidence that the Philippines will remain the beating heart of Web3 gaming. They are entering a new cycle, which stands at 82,000 Filipinos playing Pixels in a single day. The number does not represent the participation of bots but of actual humans.

Michael Wagner, the CEO and co-founder of Star Atlas, talked about the vision of game development. Michael stated that they deliberately leave game development unfinished under their supervision, implying that the work is intentionally left incomplete. He further stated that they anticipate others will continue the legacy in the future.

Simply put, the idea is to launch a product with all possible best capabilities on hand and then leave it to the future generation to do the same.

Sebastien Borget and Brittany Li talked about the power of collaboration. Borget said that they come with opportunities to make everyone a content creator by enabling them to develop their adventure, story, and creation. Then, support them in publishing those developments. Other Web3 events like Web3 Carnival, FinTech Connect 2023, and India Blockchain Week are also expected to host similar discussions.

Rohit Gupta from NYXL talked on the topic Intersection of Web3 & Esports, stating that there is a lot of potential in Web3 to encourage fans to explore their digital journey and strengthen their relationships with fans. He also talked about how ownership is a way to fix the business model by involving audiences in esports.

Additionally, a number of venture capitalists attended the event. This includes, among others, Ken Bassig of Magun Capital, Yuji Kumagai of Emoote, and Augie Ilag of CMT.

The objective of hosting them under the roof was to demonstrate how well a relationship between founders and investors can help the ecosystem grow and the best way to pitch a project to investors. Yuji said that Web3 technologies can be deployed primarily to remove the frictions of Web2 and instill a sense of ownership.

W3GC, YGG, STI College Global City, Globe, and OP Games hosted the hackathon. YGG Web3 Games Summit concluded with the statement that user acquisition is one of the biggest challenges in the industry. Therefore, skill development programs have to be leveraged to onboard new players and bring back interest in dormant users.