Why This Blizzard Vet Thinks The Next Killer Web3 Game Will Come From China

This year, around 3.2 billion people, or about 40% of the world's population, will play games, with total spending approaching $200 billion, estimates the researcher from the Newzoo sector. Web3 vendors want a slice of this gargantuan market. Reviews of the first generation of crypto games, dominated by the play-to-earn model, have already been well documented, so the question for developers now is what decentralized games should look like.

Last July, I wrote that gaming industry veterans agreed that blockchain games should be fun to play and offer a sustainable financial model, two elements missing in games like Axie Infinity . When it comes to genres, many believe that massively multiplayer online (MMO) games have the potential to bring the masses into the web3. The genre, which has spawned epic titles with thriving virtual economies like World of Warcraft and EVE Online, could benefit from having in-game assets in the form of blockchain-based tokens to enable true game ownership. user, they say.

And one country, in particular, has the potential to lead this transition.

"China has the best MMO teams in the world," says Jerome Wu, who worked on the Chinese edition of World of Warcraft during his three years with The9 and seven years with Blizzard, followed by stints at nWay, Baidu Games and 360 Games.

Like many of his industry colleagues, Wu jumped on the Web3 bandwagon. For the past year, he's been working on a space-themed MMO title called Space Nation, which aims to be a AAA blockchain game with co-founders including veteran director Tony Tang and director Roland Emmerich. , which is known for its high budget. disaster movies. The game has a total budget of $40 million.

The team is spread across several countries, with the main development taking place in China, as "the country's MMO developers are the most efficient and profitable in the world", according to Wu.

Although China doesn't produce the most original and impressive gameplay (perhaps that's why Tencent and NetEase recently sought creative directors in the US), game developers in the countries have overtaken their Western counterparts on other fronts.

But if China doesn't have the most creative minds, will its Web3 games live up to user expectations? Blockchain games are still in their infancy and have more pressing problems to solve, argues Wu. “What they need right now is a better economic system and a stronger technical infrastructure, which are exactly where China's advantage lies."

"If NetEase decides to get into Web3 games, it could pose a threat to the rest of the industry," says Wu, referring to the Chinese gaming titan behind the MMO Fantastic Westward Journey, l one of the most profitable video games. of all time.

But neither Tencent nor rival NetEase has made any visible inroads into decentralized gaming. As a former Electronic Arts executive pointed out, big companies tend to be more cautious when entering a new industry, especially one whose reputation has been tarnished by Ponzi schemes. p>

China's strength in MMOs is an advantage for laggards, suggests Wu. Local developers didn't begin to emerge until around 2000; at the time, they had no chance of beating the best games imported from foreign companies, such as MMO Works Stone Age, Cross Gate, Legend of Mir, MU and World of Warcraft. But overseas games needed help with localization and publishing, which gave Chinese companies an opportunity to build expertise and learn from these great titles.

The success of MMOs, according to Wu, largely depends on a well-designed economic system and practical and meticulous community management. "By working on the exploitation and release of products for foreign games, Chinese studios have acquired deep knowledge of economic and social design...