"Fire Coin Blockchain Industry Special Report" Game (2)

The report produced by the Institute of Fire currency block chain, reports Published August 14, 2019, Author: Yuan Yuming, Li Hui, Jiang Lifeng, Ge Zhengyu, Cohen

Summary

Blockchain games are highly anticipated in the industry as the traditional game growth is weak and may face a rare recession in the past two decades. For the internal drive of blockchain games, we believe that it mainly comes from two aspects: First, the traditional game industry is weak, and it needs to introduce new gameplay, new models and new logic to break the ceiling of the existing industry and bring more growth to the game industry. Second, the blockchain's traceability, fairness, transparency, and more malleable economic models help traditional games break the existing landscape and provide new ideas and breakthroughs.

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Blockchain transparency and fairness mechanisms help developers build credibility, bridging the gap between developers and players; their incentives and decentralized operating models will bridge the gap between developers and channel issuers, redefining industry benefits Allocation; blockchain allows players to truly own game assets, bridging the gap between virtual and reality; and the token economy model helps reshape the game's internal economic system, suppressing game endogenous inflation propensity, and is expected to bridge the gap between games Splitting, achieving cross-platform circulation at the asset level.

We believe that the current blockchain game industry is still in its infancy, and it is still very young and fragile, mainly reflected in (1) insufficient competition; (2) fewer game users; (3) less capital investment; (4) lack of security, etc. aspect. In the past year, although the industry has not experienced explosive growth, the overall trend is improving, and all aspects of data maintain a good growth trend. Traditional game manufacturers have also tried to add water to the blockchain. In order to make blockchain games embrace mass users faster and better, the industry needs to make breakthroughs and improvements in lowering user thresholds, improving user experience and improving the underlying infrastructure.

We conducted in-depth research on 51 typical projects in the upstream and downstream of the blockchain game industry chain. We believe that the blockchain game industry chain has taken shape, including five major sections: 1. Infrastructure and developer tools. This is the blockchain game ecology. The foundation of establishment is currently the most competitive business, and no project has an absolute advantage; 2, blockchain game distribution platform, community, is the soul of the game business, currently mainly includes two modes: platform and channel integration; Blockchain games, gameplay began to slowly enrich, mainly including encrypted collections, gambling, RPG, MMO and other games that draw on traditional games; 4, game asset trading market, currently trading NFT assets, will become One of the clearest businesses in the profit model; 5. Peripheral tools and services, including Dapp portals, wallets, browsers, and Dapp information integration channels.

In the past year, although the blockchain game has developed, it still has outstanding problems, and the road to development is confusing. But in the long run, the application of blockchain technology in the game industry will bring unprecedented breakthroughs and changes, breaking the existing flaws and limitations. We believe that: 1. The community operation of blockchain games will become the mainstream; 2. The profit model will be more diversified; 3. Blockchain technology will make the game world of “number one player” a reality; 4. “Explosion” The game will drive the development of the entire industry; 5. The perfect industry ecology will be an important symbol of the eve of the blockchain game boom.

First, the blockchain game drive

With the continuous development of communication technology and electronic technology, the game media continues to evolve, and the game industry has grown into a huge market of billions of dollars. From stand-alone consoles to end-to-end tours to mobile games, every time new media emerges, it has brought in more than 10 billion levels of industry. However, the growth rate of mobile games that has led the rapid growth of the game industry in the past decade is close to saturation, and the innovation of business models has not been verified. The game industry may face a rare recession in the past 20 years and a new growth engine is needed. We believe that blockchain games can have a large potential for development. The first is the lack of growth in the traditional game industry. It is necessary to introduce new gameplay, new models and logic to break the ceiling of the existing industry for the game industry. Bringing considerable incremental growth; second, the blockchain's traceability, fairness, transparency, and more malleable economic models help traditional games break the existing landscape and provide new ideas and gameplay.

1.1 Transformational pressure: the growth of the traditional game industry is now weak

In 2018, the global game market reached US$138.5 billion, up 13.5% year-on-year, an increase of US$16.5 billion from the previous year. The growth rate slowed down noticeably, and there was already a voice in the game industry. Newzoo, the world's leading game market analysis company, cut its growth rate by 3% in 2019. Wall Street analysts believe that the game industry will experience a recession in 2019 and 2020. The main reason is that the growth of mobile games has declined, and the dividends from classic IP to mobile are exhausted. As the largest mobile game market in China, it is difficult to maintain rapid development due to the limitation of the number.

Mobile games (smartphones and tablets) are currently the largest segment of the gaming industry (pictured above), with a scale of $67 billion, accounting for nearly 50%. In 2018, mobile games increased by 17.5% year-on-year, which is still the driving force for the growth of the entire game industry. However, it is expected that the growth rate will further slow down in the future. Sorted by market share, end-games and console games ranked after mobile games, accounting for 25% and 19% respectively, but the growth rate has basically stagnated, in the stage of stock game. Finally, VR, arcade, and handheld game consoles divide the remaining market. VR will be popularized with the reduction of cost and the blessing of new technologies, and it is expected to develop rapidly in the future. The arcade and handheld game consoles are the products of the previous generation, and the market share will be further squeezed.

In 2018, the size of China's game market reached 214.44 billion yuan, accounting for 28% of the global total market size. However, the year-on-year growth has been reduced to 5.3%, and the growth rate has reached a new low of nearly ten years. The main reason is that the mobile phone sales plummeted and the user dividend period has passed, and the regulatory authorities' restrictions on the game version limit the release of new games, and the survival pressure of small and medium-sized manufacturers has increased.

The pessimistic expectations of the traditional game market are also reflected in the capital market. The total market capitalization of the world's top 30 game listed companies has plummeted after reaching a peak of nearly one trillion US dollars. It has fallen more than 30% of the market value in a few months, reflecting the changes expected by investors. The reasons are diverse, not only because of the tightening of Chinese game policies, but also by regulators around the world, including anti-addiction restrictions and restrictions on in-game purchases. This directly led to the overall decline in the performance of the game company, Nintendo Switch sales are not as expected, EA, Blizzard and other large manufacturers are not optimistic about the performance.

1.2 Seeking change: Blockchain helps break traditional games

Traditional games operate in a centralized manner, and the competitive landscape moves closer to the big players, causing a split between developers and players, a split between developers and channels, a gap between virtual and reality, and within the game. And the split between. These problems have been around for a long time, and there have been no signs of improvement in recent years, reflecting the stability of vested interests in the current system, and blockchain technology may bring new solutions to the game industry.

The blockchain's transparency and fairness mechanism can help developers build credibility, bridge the gap between developers and players, and solve problems such as game mechanics and numerical opacity in centralized operations. Blockchain game smart contracts running on the chain mean transparency and non-tamperability. Black box behaviors such as “drop rate”, treasure chest “explosion rate” and numerical algorithms in traditional games will not appear in blockchain games. At the same time, the spirit of blockchain open source will redefine the relationship between game developers and players. If the game developer chooses the game code to open source, the player community can stop the game manufacturer, appear evil behavior or update less than expected. The game is updated, forked, assumes the role of operation, continues the game life and develops more distinctive new versions, greatly enriching the content and gameplay of the game.

The blockchain incentive model and the decentralized operating model are expected to bridge the gap between developers and channel issuers and redefine the distribution of industrial benefits. The traditional game industry chain includes three core players: game developers, publishers and distributors. Among them, the developer is responsible for producing the game; the publisher is responsible for putting the game on the shelf and promoting it; the channel provider is the channel through which the game is finally exposed to the player, and specifically refers to the website or application that the player can directly search and download on the device. In the Internet era, traffic is king, and occupying the user side occupies the commanding heights of the industry. Because large-scale channel vendors hold traffic, and publishers are familiar with channels, they have taken advantage of the game industry chain and have divided a large amount of game revenue. The decentralized operation and distribution model of the economic incentive model based on blockchain is expected to change this situation. Blockchain games can customize the economic model, taking into account all the roles of the participating ecology into its economic model, and motivating each type of role, which is a decentralized and fair and transparent model, who contributes to this ecology. The more you gain, the more you will gain, and anyone can profit from participating in game promotion operations and even profit from playing games. Whether it is a game developer, publisher, channel or player, you can clearly understand the benefits of each other.

If you want to monopolize, then you should rely on your ability to speak. This model mobilizes the enthusiasm of all the characters in the market in an all-round way, no longer limited by the embarrassment of traditional game traffic.

Blockchain allows players to truly own game assets, bridging the gap between virtual and reality. In traditional games, the ownership of virtual assets including game equipment, skin, characters, etc. does not actually belong to the user, but belongs to the game manufacturer, and the user only has the right to use. Blockchain games are not just game tokens. Each virtual asset can generate a unique Non-Fungible Token (NFT). One of the widely used standards is based on Ethernet. ERC-721, the ownership of assets belongs to the player, and becomes a collection of “scarcity”, “practicality” and “viewing”, which greatly enhances the value of virtual assets in the game and opens up real digital collections. This will also lead to a professional, directly tradeable game asset trading platform, the scale of game asset trading is expected to significantly exceed the current virtual goods trading platform such as Steam community market, 5173.com.

The blockchain token economic model helps reshape the game's internal economic system and suppress the game's endogenous inflation propensity. First, the economic model of blockchain games can set a consensus on the total amount, rather than an opaque market that is constantly being issued; secondly, an open and friendly ecology will no longer be tilted only to sheet metal players, and the value of the game can be reflected in the value added of the token. Once again, all players can work together for the prosperity of the game, not just your strong competitive relationship, the player's motivation and experience will be improved.

The blockchain is expected to bridge the gap between different games and achieve cross-platform circulation at the asset level. In the traditional game era, games and games do not communicate with each other. Players' inputs, props, assets, etc. cannot be transferred and converted, and the player's sunk cost is high. In the blockchain world, not only can assets be transferred and circulated between different games in the same blockchain, but between different blockchains, we can also realize the circulation and transfer of game assets through cross-chaining. The assets mentioned here can be game tokens, game props, or any valuable virtual asset such as game IP.

Second, 2018-2019 trials and breakthroughs

2.1 Pattern: Blockchain game industry is still in its infancy

The industry's current involvement in blockchain games mainly includes two major categories, one is the traditional game makers in the blockchain field, and the other is the Xingxin professional blockchain game developers. Due to the uncertainty of policies and regulations and the resistance of payment and channels, the traditional game companies' actions in the blockchain game field are only a small part of their own business, and even in the concept stage. The new blockchain game makers are still in a difficult exploration stage, with fewer game users and limited game categories. There is no phenomenal explosion. In general, blockchain games are still at a very early stage, reflecting the lack of competition, fewer game users, less capital investment, and the need for smart contract security.

Insufficient competition

The blockchain game industry chain is now in its infancy, and can be divided into: 1. Infrastructure and developer tools; 2. Blockchain game distribution platform, community; 3. Blockchain games; 4. Cross-game virtual asset trading market 5, peripheral tools and services. However, the current industrial chain is not perfect, and the profit model of each link is not clear, there is no profit-making effect, and the head company has not yet formed, and there is still insufficient competition in all links. At present, the interaction of various links in the blockchain game industry chain is not very close, forming a situation of individual warfare. At the same time, in the absence of key links such as game distribution, the entire industry has not yet formed a synergy to promote its development. In comparison, the traditional game industry chain has a clear division of labor, and has been occupied by head players. At the end of 2016, there were 3,000 developers, distributors and distributors in addition to China, but 90% of them died because of competition. In China, the figure is 20,000, but the current income of 80% has been occupied by Tencent and NetEase.

Less game users

At present, the blockchain Dapp has an average daily active user of about 160,000. Compared with the traditional game world of 2.3 billion game users, there are still a considerable distance from the online number of millions of online users. Since the third-party Dapp data website uses the daily activity as the default ranking basis, the project party will reach the list by brushing the daily data, so the current daily number has a great moisture, and the actual value after screening may be only about 10%. In addition, in terms of transaction volume, 10% of users contribute 80%-90% of the transaction amount, and some players have a strong willingness to pay, which may bring a very high ARPU value.

Moreover, most of the users of blockchain games are mainly gambling game speculators, and there are very few real game users, which also reflects the lack of good content in blockchain games. At present, B-level or C-level games of traditional games are top-level in the field of blockchain games. No good content can't attract traditional hundreds of millions of players. Not enough users can not attract more and better developers to come in. At present, players and developers are still in the startup stage, and an explosive game is urgently needed to complete the ice-breaking journey. The basis of consensus is the user, the foundation of the asset value is also the user. If it is only recognized in a small area, its value will not grow.

Less capital investment

The early development of a good game requires a lot of money and time. The development of blockchain games has only been two or three years. It is still not enough to kill the real masterpieces. More importantly, the industry lacks financial support. As one of the three business models of the Internet era, games are the object of capital pursuit. According to incomplete statistics, the institutional investment of the entire blockchain game industry is less than 200 million US dollars, while the average annual financing scale of the traditional game industry in the past decade is about 3 billion US dollars, the gap is obvious. At present, there is no demonstration effect on the market, and investors are hard to see the profit return of blockchain game companies from the investment point of view, so they are cautious. If blockchain games can be favored by capital and release development potential, it will quickly promote the development of the entire industry.

Lack of security

Due to the huge amount of money in the game, it is often the target of hackers. EOS security incidents are frequent, including FFGame, DEOSBET, EOS Happy Slot, FairDice, EOSDice, and the most devastating EOSBet. The characteristics of Ethereum's easy congestion have also become a means of chasing interests. The winner of the last Pon3D game that bought the key to win the prize was to create a junk smart contract, which led to a surge in the Ethereum's Gas fee, which led to the victory of the game and a huge bonus.

The security of blockchain games depends not only on the security of the underlying public platform, but more on the rich experience and security awareness of smart contract developers. Blockchain games are deployed on the chain, the code is visible to everyone, and hackers can exploit vulnerabilities in a very targeted way, which is much simpler than the black box model of centralized games. This in turn puts higher demands on contract developers, and it is also urgent to establish contract security development standards in the industry.

2.2 Trend: The development of the blockchain game industry is improving

Although the blockchain game industry is still in its infancy, lacking quality content, it is difficult to attract real game users, especially to attract traditional gamers with huge stocks. However, the development of the blockchain game industry in the past year has also shown a positive side and is expected to gradually move on the right track.

Industry data is good

Overall, the number, flow, and number of blockchain games in 2019 are growing. In the first half of 2019, the number of new Dapps was 1,114, an increase of more than 60% compared to 2018. The number of active Dapps is 1887, and games including the gaming category account for more than 70%. Dapp's total transaction volume reached $11.1 billion, including $8.5 billion in games including gaming, and Dapp's water flow was only $5 billion in 2018. In the first half of 2019, the number of active Dapp users was 1.7 million, an increase of more than 20% from 2018. From Figure 6, we can see that January 2019 is the highest period of Dapp transaction volume, and basically maintains a steady state from February to June.

Increased game diversity

With CryptoKitties opening the door to blockchain games, creating a single-day 14,000-day live address with a total transaction volume of 200 million yuan, pet-developing games are all the rage, attracting traditional game developers and blockchain game developers to follow suit. But this is not a blockchain game in the strict sense, but more to show the freshness of the blockchain trading attributes and the unique characteristics of the assets.

Then there are endless gambling games using smart contracts, such as Fomo3D, Tronbet, etc. Currently, such games still account for about 70% of all blockchain games. Users of blockchain games are currently mostly users of industry memory, and gaming games cater to the speculative nature of current users.

In addition, there are a number of blockchain game developers who are trying to play games in other directions. For example, a card game represented by "Gods Unchained", a strategy game represented by "Cloud Fighting Dragon", an RPG game represented by "My Crypto Heroes", an MMO game represented by "Super Player", etc. Although there is a certain gap between the screen and the operability and the traditional game, the category of the entire blockchain game is gradually enriched, and the game content will become more and more important.

The public chain is more diversified and the ecology is constantly improving

In the early stage of blockchain game development, only a public chain of Ethereum supported Dapp. After that, EOS and wavefields rose strongly. The public chains such as Ontology, IOST, Dfinity, and Zilliqa also exerted their power on Dapp application, especially in games. According to DappReview statistics, the three major public chains of Ethereum, Wavefield and EOS account for more than 90% of the market share, gradually opening the gap with other public chains.

Although Ethereum still has a clear advantage in the number of Dapps, the number of users and transaction flows have been surpassed by the wave field and EOS. At present, the Defi-like financial Dapp in Ethereum has occupied 60% of the water, surpassing the game Dapp and becoming the new power point of Ethereum. Wavefield and EOS quickly acquired a large number of users and transactions with gambling games. The wave field and EOS are positioned at the application-level public chain. The TPS is high, and the transaction can be confirmed in 3-5 seconds, and the game user experience is better.

In terms of ecological construction, on the one hand, each public chain has special funds to encourage and support Dapp developers, and even provide a platform for promotion to help market promotion. On the other hand, the ecological supporting facilities such as wallets and public chain exchanges have been continuously improved, creating an ecological closed loop for the project, which is beneficial to both the project and the public chain itself, and is a positive cycle of mutual promotion.

2.3 Try: Traditional game makers test the water blockchain game

The blockchain game has basically been recognized through the logic of game play to solve the fairness of games, the circulation of virtual assets, and the economic incentives of the pass. The popularity of blockchain technology has attracted more and more domestic and foreign game manufacturers to enter, especially after the launch of Crypto Kitties, which has aroused a lot of attention. Various kinds of blockchain games are on the line and the gameplay is constantly innovating. At present, the head traditional game manufacturers have blockchain games, but each manufacturer has different positionings for the blockchain in the game. It can be divided into a small part of the content chain "chain no sense" game, the whole Based on the blockchain technology and the “chain extreme” game of the economy and the game between them, the difference is mainly due to the differences in the cognition and promotion strategies of the blockchain.

Domestic Internet giants Tencent and NetEase have laid out earlier blockchains and introduced blockchain games earlier. On April 23, 2018, Tencent Game Innovation Studio and Tencent Blockchain jointly released Tencent's first blockchain game, "To Catch the Demon", which was launched in 2018. In 2019, it was officially tested for all players. The game is based on LBS (location-based services), AR (Augmented Reality), blockchain and social networking elements, and a social development game with "catch-up" as the core gameplay. The core gameplay of the game is AR exploration, and the blockchain is just a gameplay in the game, the in-game "exclusive cat" system (the player can unlock the system after reaching level 22). Blockchain elements are mainly embodied in three aspects in the "special cat" system: First, the total number of 0-generation cats is constant (640,000), never added, and the blockchain ensures that its total number is constant and cannot be replicated. In the early days of the game, the internal test players quickly matched the rare cats with the familiarity of the game. The price of a cat was raised to more than 1,000 yuan. However, most of the transactions in the current market are only a few yuan or even a few hairs. . Second, non-zero cats can also be wound. Non-generation cats can reach hundreds of billions depending on the combination of genes. If players want to pair their non-generational cats for sale or sell them in the mall, they need to use the props "day pen" to record the cats on the blockchain. There are currently 4.11 million cats on the chain and about 5 million chain transactions have been generated. Third, each cat can be inquired about the past and present. In the game, the blockchain water information is used to record the life of a cat. Each cat can find out its birth information, transaction information and reproduction information.

The cat trading market between players and players, which is spawned by blockchain elements, is of great significance. In general, the items sold in the traditional game mall are officially sold, and players and players cannot directly trade, and "Catch the demon together" opens a platform for free trading between players and players in the game. Said to be a breakthrough. This is mainly due to the blockchain characteristics, so that all the cats on the chain have completed the process of asset confirmation, and can prove its uniqueness, making the on-floor transaction a natural process.

At present, the price of a cat cat that gets a 0-generation cat is mostly between 200-400 game coupons (about 20-40 yuan). In addition to 0 generation cats, non-generational cats can use the game coupons to buy cats directly in the mall, and the price range is mostly between 5 and 200 yuan. The price of a cat depends on the gene it carries, measured by the gain effect it brings to the player: the first, special gene brings special skills, such as a cat carrying a force imprint gene, then the player is catching the demon At the time of 8%, the +1 is obtained (the effect of the signature is to upgrade the demon), and at the same time, the trait can be passed on to the next generation of cats. Second, there are cool images and spellcasting effects. For example, some players like to carry cats such as "folding ears" and "gentle gaze", and some players like "magic of love" and "super mask". Skills are favored. In short, the more genetic skills a cat carries, the more scarce it is, the more valuable it is. The more popular the genetic image and effect are, the more valuable it is.

Tencent's "Catch the Demon Together" is a typical "chain-insensitive" game. Blockchain technology only supports one gameplay in the game, and the player does not feel the existence of the blockchain during the game. The user does not have a threshold for use, no need to register a wallet or manage a private key, and the game's playability and overall harmony are not compromised. The number of appointments before the line to catch the demon is more than 2 million, and the first month of the line is over 300 million yuan. It is the only new game in the domestic monthly income TOP10 that introduces the blockchain element. However, after the game temporarily occupied the front row position of the AR game list, it has now fallen to more than 100, and its stamina is weak. And the game does not currently provide a blockchain browser for everyone to query the relevant information on the chain, the "blockchain" element in the game does not affect the core gameplay and experience of the game, more is a try and icing on the cake .

NetEase also operates frequently in blockchain applications and games. At the beginning of 2018, after the blockchain pet project "Netease Lucky Cat" died, it quickly launched a blockchain-based value sharing platform "Netease Planet". First, residents obtained black diamonds by participating in the planetary activity task, black diamonds available. Consumption and redemption on the planet. The Black Diamond event includes not only games, but also browsing information, inviting friends, logging in apps, and more. The game is mainly composed of page games and small games, including a variety of role-playing, strategy, etc. Players can earn points by playing games, and the game itself has nothing to do with the blockchain. "Netease Planet" is actually a traffic platform that uses the pass-through economy model.

On September 5, 2018, Netease's end-game "Reverse Water Cold" announced the introduction of blockchain technology. In the game scene, players can obtain the game assets "Fuxi Tongbao" through "mining", becoming the first blockchain technology application. Large client game. On September 7th, "Reverse Water Cold" was officially launched on the "Fuxi Tongbao" function. The total amount of Fuxi Tongbao is 163 million pieces, of which 73 million pieces are excavated by mining, with a fixed output of 50,000 pieces per day. The output is reduced by 50% every two years, and 90 million pieces are owned by the development team. The player is qualified for mining by reaching level 3 and completing the predecessor. Fuxi Tongbao will not support virtual currency exchanges for legal currency transactions, but in the future it will be able to circulate in other games of NetEase, and realize the unification of all server prices through the relatively constant price of “Fuxi Tongbao”. The application of "Fuxi Tongbao" is conducive to prevent game studios and big businessmen from pushing up prices, speculating in the game currency, ensuring the game experience, preventing player loss, and protecting the security of players' game assets. It is also a breakthrough and useful attempt. Although “Fuxi Tongbao” has launched a blockchain browser, its function is simple and its usability is not strong. The assets of ordinary users are not reflected in the chain. This also reflects that ordinary players still lack basic information on asset chaining. The awareness and attention need further enlightenment education.

In addition, 360, Baidu, and Xiaomi are all online pet-based games based on blockchain. Some other game companies in China have also announced plans to develop blockchain games, such as Sanqi Mutual Entertainment, Langang Interactive, Yingying Network, and Tenjin Entertainment. In view of the restrictions of policies and regulations, the blockchain games developed by traditional manufacturers are still running on their own private chains or alliance chains. The game trading mechanism and design architecture are still controlled by the manufacturers. There is no essential difference between them and traditional games. It is not really going. Centralized blockchain game. However, the traditional game giant's own traffic aura is obvious, whether it is aimed at heat, or to promote other products, can play a role in popularizing the blockchain.

Foreign traditional game developers have more diverse actions in the blockchain field, not only in game development, but also in infrastructure construction and cooperation with blockchain companies. In the direction of blockchain games, most of the players are from the United States and Japan, Ubisoft in France and Netmarble in South Korea. US companies are mainly entering the blockchain game field by launching blockchain gaming platforms and working with blockchain project partners. EA launches a self-developed blockchain platform and will seamlessly interface with its various games. The big game company Atalley has chained two mobile games by working with blockchain startup Animoca Brands. "Citadel Night" developer Epic Games and the blockchain game distribution platform The Abyss reached a cooperation agreement to attract more game developers into the blockchain world.

Japan's current blockchain games are also mainly centered on two aspects. One is to use the blockchain as the underlying technical support of the game, and to ensure the transparency and ownership of the game player's assets through blockchain technology. Sony is at

The PS4 has approved a blockchain game, Plague Hunter, which is a turn-based strategy game that uses a game asset-winding model, and most of the rest of the game content is still in the chain. The other is to support the distribution of assets in the in-game chain. Whether the ASOBI released by ASOBIMO MO supports the sale of multiple digital content, or the gold coins issued by EverSystem in Cryptoninja, the issue of tokens is included in an important part of the content, mainly due to the Japanese government's relatively loose blockchain. Policy environment. Different from domestic companies, foreign game companies tend to set up a complete ecosystem for developers by building a low-level blockchain platform. In general, foreign companies pay more attention to the polishing and construction of the underlying infrastructure for blockchain games, unlike Chinese game makers who are more focused on applications.

In addition, the excellent developers of traditional game makers are actively embracing the blockchain. Rudy Koch, who is responsible for the top masterpieces such as "Call of Duty" and "World of Warcraft", established Mythical Game, focusing on the development of blockchain games. With a financing of 16 million US dollars, it plans to launch a massively multiplayer online game (MMO) "Blankos" in the third quarter of this year, supporting PC and Mac versions, targeting mainstream players and currently targeting millions of mainstream gamers. A game trailer was played. I believe that as more and more excellent developers committed to creating quality content enter, we can expect a real explosion of blockchain games.

2.4 Breakthrough: Let blockchain games go to the public

Although the blockchain game data in 2019 is improving and moving towards sustainable development, and we have seen the potential of blockchain games to subvert traditional games, the industry wants to really break out and become a new growth point for the entire game industry. Need to attract more users outside the circle, let blockchain games go to the public. But this is also the most difficult at present, and it is urgent to break through some important bottlenecks.

Lower the entry threshold

Blockchain games are currently dominated by cryptocurrency users, who are already familiar with the proprietary concepts of blockchains such as wallets, private keys, and tokens. But for traditional users, these will inevitably become a small entry barrier, limiting the migration of traditional game world users to blockchain games. For example, games based on Ethereum mostly require players to install Metamask wallets and pay for the consumption of Ethereum token ETH as a smart contract. MetaMask only supports Chrome browser and another niche browser. Ethereum gas consumption cost can not be ignored, this registration and payment operation will filter out a batch of users. Even with EOS without Gas, "free" mode, it is actually necessary to purchase EOS first, and mortgage a certain amount of EOS to successfully register an account, and the bandwidth, CPU and Ram resources in the network need to pledge EOS. This is undoubtedly a huge threshold for the "Little White" users.

In addition, unlike the traditional Internet-centric “account-password” model, the assets in the blockchain consist of a “public-private key” system. Only the user owns and controls the private key. Once the private key is lost, it cannot be Get back. This is in stark contrast to the way traditional Internet users rely on centralized custodians to keep passwords. Users need to learn and recognize. With the increase of the public chain, the user needs to manage more and more private keys, which also increases the threshold and difficulty for users to participate in different public chain platforms Dapp.

With the accumulation of blockchain game developer experience, they realized that the use of thresholds actually hindered the user's entry, so they all proposed optimization solutions. For example, the chain-insensitive game like Tencent's "Catch the Demon Together" provides some inspiration. This game is aimed at the majority of traditional mobile phone game users. Although using the blockchain as a big selling point, it can't be a hindrance to the player's play. First of all, the blockchain element is well integrated into the gameplay. The token is given the image of the pet cat. The user does not need to manage the private key. The gas consumption becomes the refilling item “day pen”. The function is to record the pet cat to the zone. On the blockchain, this turns the chain transfer into a familiar item refill mode, and the player can choose whether to use the blockchain from forced to active selection.

In addition, the native blockchain game can also learn from this mode, use WeChat or mobile phone number or email to register the game account, and then register the wallet address when you need to replenish the assets, giving the player more opportunities to experience the game, instead of When I came up, I was rejected by a series of thresholds. At present, many non-gaming games have begun to adopt this centralized account registration method, such as Gods Unchained support for mailbox registration, Yundoulong support mobile phone number registration, Xingqiu support WeChat and mobile phone number registration, this registration method is more convenient to promote It can effectively convert traditional game users, and the conversion rate from registered users to genuine currency users is between 20% and 30%.

At present, the most popular gambling game Tronbet wallet registered users is only a thousand levels. If a blockchain game can reach more users, according to such conversion rate, the effect of diversion is also very impressive.

Not only does the user have a threshold for use, but for traditional game developers, it takes a certain amount of time and effort to familiarize and master the contents of wallet development, smart contracts, and certificate design. At the same time, the choice of blockchain game development also means great Opportunity costs and silent costs. In addition, due to the imperfect construction of the ecosystem and the underlying platform, blockchain game developers also need to work harder when developing a new game. Unlike traditional game developers, most of them are directly developed on the game engine. Need to be responsible for content design. Developers of blockchain games need rich support for middleware such as SDKs and engines to help them lower development thresholds and improve development efficiency.

Improve the gaming experience

The pass-through economy allows the blockchain to have its own financial attributes, making most of the current game speculations strong, but if it only stays at the speculative level, it is obviously contrary to the essence of the game. In addition to fun, the game experience also includes the enjoyment of the sensory level (such as the immersion of the picture, the impact of the sound effect) and the control of the game rhythm. At present, the blockchain game is not only very primitive in terms of content design and image quality, but also has a more original experience in other senses, and there is much room for improvement and improvement.

The core of the game's playability is the numerical planning of the game, which is its economic system design. An excellent game can increase the user's stickiness through numerical design, extend the online duration, constantly stimulate the player's sense of accomplishment and desire, and control the balance of the game to adjust the player experience in the ecosystem. The design of the pass-through economy in the blockchain is very different from the numerical plan of the traditional game: the traditional game economy system is a closed centralized system, while the blockchain pass-through economy is an open, first-level and second-level Decentralized system of market linkage. Therefore, how to deeply understand and properly apply the characteristics of the CIS economy is a big challenge for traditional game value planners. In addition, not all games are suitable for introducing the characteristics of the blockchain and the pass-through model. How to choose and choose is an important topic that requires in-depth research and exploration in the industry.

Improve the underlying infrastructure

The migration of the same traditional game between different platforms may result in game fluency and gameplay differences due to device performance differences and engine differences, while the network's low latency or even zero latency is a prerequisite for the smooth running of most multiplayer online games. Infrastructure has always been a crucial part of game iteration and experience, and the development of games is the process of constantly challenging hardware performance.

For blockchain games, the public chain is still very weak as an infrastructure. Just like the early days of mobile games in 2004, mobile phone operating systems have limited performance and slow network speeds. The current public chain is also plagued by low performance and limited data storage. Although most public chains are not designed for games, the prosperity of the public chain ecology requires Dapp drainage like games. This puts requirements on the performance, security, portability, etc. of the public chain. Although the competition in the public chain is fierce and the diversity is increasing, it has not broken through the technical bottleneck in terms of performance, safety and portability. The range of demand for online games for TPS, the minimum online game operation TPS is about 10-50 TPS, the average game 10-100 TPS, and the TPS peak of large popular online games is estimated to be above 10000 tps. "Cryptokitties" is a simple pet-playing game. Compared to heavy MMORPGs, the network and performance requirements are much lower, but it has caused serious congestion in the Ethereum network. This also illustrates from the side that blockchain games should not be designed as a type of high frequency transaction on the chain at this stage. In order to solve the problem of public chain performance, Layer 1 fragmentation and Layer 2 chain expansion are optional directions, including side chain, sub-chain, fragmentation and other technologies, which can make a moderate choice in efficiency and security. The game can record the core information of the core assets, accounts and status, and other non-core logic can be implemented based on Layer2, which will greatly reduce the impact of the performance of the public chain on game playability. At present, layer2 technology is diverse, and many blockchain game developers have begun to use layer2 technologies, such as Mixmarvel, Planet, LoomNetwork and so on.

Third, the industry map

3.1 Infrastructure and developer tools

At present, the “blockchain+game” industry chain has been basically formed, including the following aspects: 1. Infrastructure and developer tools; 2. Blockchain game distribution platform and community; 3. Blockchain games; Cross-game virtual asset trading market; 5, peripheral tools and services. As the whole industry is still in the early stage, although the various links seem to be complete, they have not formed a synergy, and the development speed is far from the expectations of the practitioners. The lack of a role in this way can connect the entire ecosystem in tandem to achieve a win-win situation. At present, the main players in each sector are as follows:

At present, the performance of the underlying public chain of the general class is not good enough to meet the requirements of the game operation, thus spawning a series of low-level public chains focusing on the game industry, which is used to make up for the high concurrency problem of the general-purpose underlying public chain; Blockchain games have certain thresholds for traditional game developers. In order to solve the problem of blockchain game development environment and tools, some toolkit SDK projects have emerged, providing distributed accounts and wallets for traditional game developers. Modular services such as the general props system and block browser.

3.2 Blockchain game distribution platform, community

The blockchain solves the lack of incentives, trust and intermediate costs in the Internet era, and pushes the community and consensus to the center. But in line with the Internet era, where there are users and where to gather players, there is value. Based on the blockchain-based game distribution platform and community, there are currently two main types of directions:

Self-platform mode

The game announcement in the traditional Internet era relies mainly on the efforts of game manufacturers and publishers. It is carried out through advertising, offline promotion, and anchor KOL. Such models often face problems such as difficulty in evaluation and data fraud. With the help of the blockchain and the traceability of smart contracts, the promotion effect can be clearly grasped. The introduction of the Token mechanism allows the various players in the game industry chain, especially players and anchors, to participate in the game under the influence of economic incentives. In marketing, a new game distribution platform is created. Currently, such self-built game platform model projects include Refereum, Abyss:

3.3 Blockchain game

At present, through the research of the Firecoin Blockchain Research Institute, the current blockchain games are mainly native blockchain games. The real traditional blockchains have not yet been seen. The mainstream blockchain games have the following types. Gameplay design:

Mainly around the auction and trading of game assets, the subject of the transaction can be anything, up to the country, the land, down to the celebrity, and this part of the assets, in the form of ERC721 non-standard assets, each asset is unique. The more typical games are CryptoCountries. This type of auction-driven game is essentially a drum-and-drum flower that requires players to buy at a higher price, and the ecology is sustainable. The profit model of the game is relatively simple, that is, the platform extracts transaction fees.

Another asset-based card game, GodsUnchained, is similar to the Hearthstone legend in the traditional game world. It is a turn-based card strategy strategy game. The difference is that each card has its own ERC-721 token, and the game sets a rare card with a release limit, which greatly guarantees its scarcity and enables free trading. The game will also host a world championship every year. Adding playability and sustainability to game assets is no longer just a “drums”.

A smart contracted game that combines blockchain with quiz and gambling games such as sports quiz, dice, poker, blackjack, and slot machines. On the one hand, the platform information is transparent, creating a more fair quiz and gambling environment; on the other hand, through the blockchain's own token system, users can obtain more direct benefits and rewards. Take Endless Game as an example. The game has games such as dice, poker, prediction, big lottery, and open treasure chest. Players can get real tokens (ETH / BTC / TRX / IOST) by betting. All ET (Endless Game platform token) holders will receive a dividend for life.

RPG games have always been a popular game category, and the addition of blockchain elements adds new possibilities to this old-fashioned game category, while its playability and game play are superior to other blockchain games. Player recognition, according to DappReview data, My Crypto Heroes ranks in the top ten in Ethereum games, EOSKnights and EOS are ranked in the top three in EOS games, and the number of users in 24 hours is around 2000. However, due to factors such as the development cycle, such games are still in the market.

My Crypto Heroes is a convenient and casual placement RPG game with two versions of mobile and PC page. The game has raised more than 1,200 ETHs in pre-sales, and soon won the first place in the game list after the launch, and still has a high level of activity. In the game, players can edit the hero's attributes and skills to create weapons, heroes and weapons are freely traded on the chain. In the end, the players combine a high-strength team to fight and conquer the game world. EOSKnights invaded the village with Goblin. The knights need to pick up their weapons against the invasion. Players play monsters, upgrade and make equipment. The project will release items and missions from time to time. Players can get EOS after completing the mission. reward. The EOS Three Kingdoms is the first RPG blockchain game in the context of the Three Kingdoms. Players enhance their three heroes through experience accumulation, equipment creation and domestication of pets. At the same time, obtain the exclusive tokens of the three countries Tongbao or buy and sell assets in the in-game trading market to earn EOS cash income.

MMO games have a variety of gameplay, rich social experience, has always been the hottest game category in the online game world, has produced epic games such as Fantasy Westward Journey and World of Warcraft. However, this type of game is still very rare in the field of blockchain games. Decentralized MMO game Superplayer has a variety of modes such as secret exploration copy, MOBA battle arena, war castle plunder, etc. All the falling equipment in the game is freely circulated on the chain, so that free users can also make money. CryptoAssault takes the modern military war as the theme, and uses the mutual restraint relationship and map topography of different combat units to carry out the formation of troops, occupying the territory to seize the daily ETH compensation. Players need to purchase combat units with ETH. The combat units belong to ERC-721Token and have individual attribute differences.

Combine blockchain with traditional gameplay. In these games, users can often obtain digital assets such as ETH and EOS through battles, tasks, and trading equipment, thus obtaining stronger incentives and satisfaction than traditional games. Take Hypersnake developed by MixMarvel as an example. The game is currently the top of the DappReview Ethereum game list. The game is based on the traditional Snake game. In the core game Snake King mode, players need to pay a certain amount of ETH as an entrance fee. 85% of the admission fee will be distributed in the game for players to control the collection of snakes, and the survival of the snake can take away ETH benefits. Another strategy-based game encryption throne is based on EOS development. In the game, each player has his own castle, constantly producing resources, upgrading buildings, recruiting soldiers, freely trading, and playing EOS rewards. 0xRacers is a racing manager game where players can configure parts to get higher performance cars, participate in racing events and profit from the game. The game currently supports Ethereum, EOS and Tron.

3.4 Game Asset Trading Market

The biggest impact of the blockchain on the game is the determination and attribution of the virtual asset, and the trace history of the virtual asset can be traced back. The value of the export is in the virtual asset transaction, and because of the blockchain cross-application account attribute, the game The assets are interoperable, so the virtual asset trading market across games may become a great hub for traffic and wealth distribution in the future with great potential.

Some games Dapp itself has a built-in trading market (we call it the on-market trading market). For example, the crypto cat Dapp has designed a "cat market" dedicated to trading, and is equipped with a dedicated smart contract for matching, users will assets Transfer to a smart contract for trading, the contract will draw a 3.8% fee. In addition, there is a part of the off-market third-party NFT trading market based on blockchain and smart contracts, but on the whole, the third-party NFT trading market can play a certain role in liquidity supplement, but it is still In the early stage of development, faced with the problem of insufficient depth, most users also choose to trade in the on-exchange market. But in the future, with the rise of third-party NFT trading market traffic, it may have a significant impact on the on-market trading market.

Fourth, the future outlook

In the past year, although the blockchain game has developed, it still has outstanding problems, obvious bottlenecks, and the road to development is confusing. However, in the long run, the application of blockchain technology in the game industry will bring unprecedented breakthroughs and changes, which will surely break the limitations and limitations of the existing game industry and create a new world. We believe that: First, the introduction of blockchain technology will break the pattern of project start-ups or developers controlling games, and community-based operations will become mainstream; second, game development teams will also gain more diversified profits through blockchain elements. Mode; again, the blockchain game will make the game world of “number one player” a reality; and creating an “explosion” is of great significance to the industry, which can quickly expand its influence and accelerate the development of the industry; in addition, the perfect industry ecology It will be an important symbol of the eve of the blockchain game boom.

The game is no longer just a development team

In the world of blockchains, communities are often able to replace start-up teams as the master of the project. In the future of blockchain games, players and eco-builders will also contribute their own strength to build a game ecosystem. On the one hand, due to the decentralization of the blockchain, members of the ecology have a more equal status and voice; on the other hand, the open source and liberal spirit advocated by the blockchain will also promote the open source and co-construction of the game code. . Players and eco-participants can make suggestions for the game, and even develop their own version of the game. The gameplay will become more diverse and diverse, and the game's scalability and vitality will be extended as never before. Even if the start-up team leaves the project, the community can still develop and maintain it, giving the game a new life and strength.

Diversification of profit model

We saw the introduction of the C2C (Player and Player) trading market within the game after introducing the blockchain element (see section 2.3), which means that the game itself is more than just a game platform. It is accompanied by the properties of the game asset exchange. Therefore, when the future game assets are massively chained and the trading market is opened, the game R&D team can not only obtain revenue from the game content, but also collect the player's asset transaction fee through the game's exchange property. In addition, the game development team is no longer limited to how much money is sold by selling the game currency, but can increase the value of the project through the appreciation of the game assets, with greater imagination. Game developers and gamers will stand in the same camp for the first time to promote the development of the game platform.

Blockchain leads the "number one player"

Traditional Internet games are single and closed economies, and game assets are controlled by centralized organizations and cannot be circulated outside the system. In fact, the over-the-counter trading of game assets is extremely active and has become an indispensable part of the game ecosystem. In addition, current game assets can only be used in a single game, and can not be freely circulated and used between multiple games, which not only limits the use of game assets, but also reduces the value of game assets. The game and the game are also separated and cannot interact.

The blockchain technology will bring us new solutions and open up a broader imagination in the future. Future blockchain games will not only open the center of the game, but also guarantee the user's assets in the game, and can easily establish an asset trading platform, and through the technology of cross-chain, the game assets can be multi-platform. In circulation. Future games may no longer be the existence of a single gameplay, but rather a massive game world like the "number one player" built through the blockchain. In this game world, props, equipment, assets, IP, etc. are shared and interoperable, players can switch freely in the game world, game assets will be used to the maximum extent, the game ecology will be unprecedentedly built and improved, the player's The user experience will also be improved in all directions.

Waiting for an "explosion"

We believe that whether it is a traditional game or a blockchain game, it is inseparable from the core of the game: "fun", you can not lose the "fun" kernel by adding the blockchain element, so that the game is upside down. However, to create a "fun" blockchain game, only the blockchain technology and the blockchain industry are not enough. It also requires the development and design and operation experience of traditional games, as well as more funds and R&D resources in the early stage. The development of the blockchain game industry has only been two or three years. With reference to the development cycle of traditional games, it is difficult to breed a fun "explosion" game in terms of time. Usually, the emergence of "explosive money" with unpredictable contingency factors, in the traditional game industry, "explosive money" is also a very small number of people walking through the wooden bridge in the fierce competition, is the representative of excellent content, is a good time The lucky ones are the product of two-way intertwining of contingency and inevitability. The meaning of “explosion” is not the technical and gameplay breakthrough of the game, but its huge appeal to traditional players and ordinary users, which will further expand the social influence of the blockchain game and even the blockchain industry. To enhance the awareness of ordinary users and accelerate the development of the industry. With the continuous participation of traditional game developers, it will bring more professional game genes to the industry, and at the same time integrate the blockchain elements into the game world more perfectly. The emergence of “explosive models” will also be closer to us.

Ecological perfection is the eve of the industry boom

Any industry will involve multiple links in the upstream and downstream of the industry chain. Through the cooperation of each other, the industry will bring a complete business closed loop, and the more mature the industry, the more detailed the division of labor between the upstream and downstream of the industry chain, and the closer the links. The same is true for blockchain games. The eve of the industry boom will be the initial construction of the industry ecology. At present, the blockchain game industry is still in its infancy. Although there are already divisions in the direction of developer tool providers, game distribution platforms, game communities, and virtual asset trading markets, the division of labor is still very rough, and many links are still missing. Far from being formed. When the upstream and downstream of the industry can form fierce competition in all aspects, and the division of labor becomes more and more detailed, and the cooperation becomes more and more close, it is the time when the blockchain game is booming.

Firecoin Blockchain Application Research Institute

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The Firecoin Blockchain Application Research Institute (referred to as “Fire Coin Research Institute”) was established in April 2016. Since March 2018, it has expanded its research and exploration in various fields of blockchain. The main research contents include blockchain field. Technical research, industry analysis, application innovation, model exploration, etc. We hope to build a research platform covering the complete industrial chain of blockchain, provide a solid theoretical foundation and trend judgment for the blockchain industry, and promote the development of the entire blockchain industry.

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1. The Firecoin Blockchain Research Institute does not have any relationship that affects the objectivity, independence and impartiality of the report in relation to the projects or other third parties involved in this report.

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