Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: Foreign.
[00:00:05] Speaker B: I see something that's inevitable, that's a future trend. I always jump on the train and look to accelerate it. So really that's, that's why I'm bullish, because it's going to happen.
[00:00:22] Speaker A: We've covered a lot of content today and specifically just like from merging trends and innovations to sustainability and what truly sets web3 games apart.
[00:00:37] Speaker C: I think sustainability in web3 gaming comes down to two real utility and long term engagement. Games can't rely on hype for token pumps anymore. What lasts are strong communities, fun gameplay and token models that reward participation, not speculation. Long term I see ecosystem evolving into player owned economies with deeper integration between between games creators and infrastructure.
[00:01:17] Speaker A: So hi everyone. Welcome today to today's AMA event Ask Me Anything event with Blockus. My name is Andrew and I will be your host for today. We're thrilled to have you all here as we dive into the world of web3 gaming. Blockus is your all in one platform for web3 gaming, empowering game studios to build faster, reduce costs and focus entirely on delivering exceptional gameplay. This is the first in a series of AMAs where we'll connect with key players in the gaming industry. Whether you're a developer, gamer or just curious about web3, we are glad that you're here today. Today we're excited to welcome Blockus CEO Jess and Apac BD lead Bowen to share their insights and the story behind Blockus as well. As a reminder, before we dive in, please make sure to follow us on x, which is lockesgg and LinkedIn which is blockusgg as well. For future events, industry news and updates on what we're building as well. Feel free to share the space link during the event and if you have any questions for either Jess or Bowen, drop them in the chat at any time now. I guess we'll just kick things off. Jess and Bowen, could you maybe share a bit about your background and as well as the projects you're currently working on?
[00:02:34] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. So hey everyone, I'm Jess, the Founder CEO at Blockus. So before starting the company I worked in tech for about seven years. I was at Airbnb, first as the scientist and then after that was a key member of the Roblox developer team. So I was always into macroeconomics and had an appetite for numbers. So after Roblox had a Roblox had a blockbuster IPO in 2021 I decided to start my own company. After I formed the company I was picked up by Accrypto startup school incubator and attended their first ever in person cohort in la. So they picked me, invested and here I am.
[00:03:16] Speaker C: Hello everyone. Thank you for invite to this ama. I'm Bowen Apac, BD of Blockers. Blockers is our all in one web three gaming ecosystem. Our team consists of members from Roblox, Nexon and other leading Web3 projects. We recognize the immense potential of Web3 gaming, but we've also identified a critical pain point. Many high quality games are eager to enter web3, yet most come from a web2 background and lack a blockchain expertise. These teams know how to build great games but often struggle with Web3 integration, particularly blockchain technology. That's where we come in. We collaborate with game projects to seamlessly transition their games into Web three. Thank you.
[00:04:01] Speaker A: Great. Thank you so much for those fabulous introductions.
We'll get started with a few questions. Now let's start with a big one. Why are you excited about the future of Web3 gaming and what makes this space so promising? Perhaps Jess, you could take this question first.
[00:04:20] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, I just know that one day all games will be web3 games. It's like Internet games when the Internet first came about. That's just the inevitable. And when I see something that's inevitable, that's a future trend, I always jump on the train and look to accelerate it. So really that's why I'm bullish because it's going to happen and we're here to take the lead, drive this whole industry forward and make it a true reality. So yeah, super bullish. I think it's just going to happen.
[00:04:53] Speaker A: Amazing. Bowen, any thoughts?
[00:04:55] Speaker C: Yes, I'm super excited about Web3 gaming because we're finally seeing the gap close between real player ownership and fun, engaging gameplay is not just about tech, it's about enabling open economies and deeper social connections through gaming. Our vision is to interconnect the open economy in an increasingly conflicted world. Gaming is a refuge and gaming is our way to connect. We want to enable and enhance this valuable experience with our ecosystem. At Blockus, our mission is to make web to gaming as seamless as aspect too, and eventually even better. Today, every game is its own island with its own economy. Or money could only flow in one direction. Gamers are trapped in a world where your time and money investment cannot be owned by you and cannot be easily converted back into a cash value for you. That's why we are building koi, an interconnected social gaming experience running on the blockchain with a crypto economy powered by the Koi token, our flagship infrastructure initiative for the next 12 months will be already KVM. Web3 lets players own assets, shape economies and have real stake at Blockus. We are focused on making that future more accessible, helping studio integrate blockchain seamlessly and connect with ecosystem that support real growth.
[00:06:17] Speaker A: Amazing. Wow, that's really cool. I think yeah, there's a lot of potential for Web3 gaming. I think looking ahead, what major trends do you see shaping the development of Web3 games perhaps over the next few years? Maybe. Jaz, you can take this question first again.
[00:06:34] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. So you know, I think this is a particularly interesting question for the next two years, especially with the macroeconomic conditions right now. So based on what we're seeing in the trenches, like talking to actual partners game studios, I think I see many, many more classic IP' joining in. You know, old school gaming IPs. Think, think about, you know, Street Fighter type of vibes and things you used to play on Nintendo or on a Game Boy type of thing. Right. And I predict, or I think based on what I'm seeing less nuanced, the original web three native IPs emerging in the, in the next two years. Right. I don't want to say, you know, for the next decade, but for the next two years I see this being the trend and the main driver here is really liquidity in terms of macroeconomic liquidity. So from the studio side, from the business side, from our to be side, for game developers, it's been very hard and only gotten even harder for new IPs to raise funding and just gather interest. In general, people aren't really that interested in, in new IPs there's much less NFT traders, there's just, just no attention for that. And then so naturally those, those who want to start with an emerging brand new IP will most likely die out. Right? Struggle and die out. And then for our consumer side, for the player base. Gaming has always been a very recession proof industry. So that, that we already know. But recession means less liquidity overall, but maybe a little bit more into the gaming space. There's more gaming for this space that's coming in. We see them more interested in turning to the classics from your attic, from your basement, but in the new form, perhaps the same characters in the same story and narrative, but with new art and 3D art and much better gaming mechanics that keeps you interested versus this player base.
Engaging in brand new IP doesn't seem to be that much interest.
And we do have partners under NDA that are interested in pushing very large scale beloved IPs onto Web3 because they want to reach this player base and just reconnect with your most loyal fans and play with them in a sort of a difficult economic time. Right?
To recap the trends for the next 24 months that I foresee in Web3 gaming development, I think we're going to see many, many more classic IPs coming online in the web three form and I'm very, very excited about that.
[00:09:36] Speaker A: Wow, that must be really fascinating. As a gamer myself, I think that there's a lot of potential to introduce Web3 into all of the games that I've played already and many more games to come as well, I think. Bowen, do you have any thoughts on this as well?
[00:09:58] Speaker C: Yes, I think there are a few major trends I see shaping Webster Gaming in coming years. The first one is better games, not just tokens. We are moving past the earn first fund later phase. The next wave of web3 games will be prioritize gameplay quality with blockchain adding value rather than being the core product. The second is chain agnostic infrastructure. Developers will build from multi chain environments focusing on user experience instead of chain loyalty. Players won't even need to know what chain they're on. The third thing is simplified onboarding. Walliness lock ins, gasless transactions and integrated on ramps will make onboarding invisible. Players won't need to know understand won't need to understand web3 to play. And the fourth thing is player owned economies. More refined tokenomics and assets utility will lead to sustainable in game economies. It's just not just about trading, it's about long term engagement and value. And the last thing is about social and creator tools. Community and content creators will have more tools to build around games from Quest to ugc. This will drive retention and viral growth. At Blockus we are already seeing these shifts happen. Our mission is to help studio to get ahead of these trends whether it's through our SDKs go to market support or ZK VM solutions like Koi.
[00:11:37] Speaker A: Wow, that's like amazing. I think I am such a huge video game player but I've never really explored the web3 space before. So I guess this leads on to my next question. For those newer to the space, how would you explain the key differences between maybe web3 games versus your more traditional video games? Maybe Bowen, could you maybe take this one?
[00:12:03] Speaker C: Yes, of course. I think the key difference is ownership. In web two you don't truly own your in game items, they are locked in the game in web 3 assets like skins or tokens are player owned, tradable and sometimes usable across games. Let's also open up player driven economies and more transparent a community influenced development. At Blockus, we help studio bring these Web three benefits to players without compromising on gameplay.
[00:12:34] Speaker A: Amazing. Jess, do you have any, I guess ways or thoughts on how to maybe explain the difference?
[00:12:42] Speaker B: Yeah, that was already a really comprehensive answer. So I'll just tag on with the standout insights that I, that I see for the key differences between Web3 games and traditional games. Right. So I think the first biggest one that's not often Talked about is Web3Games really formalizes the game investor role. You know, in any sort of economy and any sort of, in any market, there's always an investor, right? If you think in real estate you can pre purchase a condo before it comes online, you know this, that's the same dynamic. And you can reserve a restaurant now you can preemptively express the demand in dollar amounts to signal, signal interest. Right? That's in every single open market. And gaming, before traditional gaming, money only goes in, it's treated, traded, treated like a consumer product. Right. And there's always been this humming undertone of a market, of a secondary market. You know, you can buy and sell the goods between players. You can sometimes buy and sell the gaming tokens. A lot of that happens on the black market. There's a lot of fraud, there's a lot of people losing very valuable items. A lot of tiers happened. To me, you quit games after you get scammed ones. But yeah, I think with Web3, yeah, everyone's like, yeah, that happened. But there was never this formalized game investor role where you can pre demonstrate intent and demand of a game, whether it's the IP or the idea or the art. Right. By investing it up front. That's always been institutional and that's always been in the hands of a few publishers or sometimes VCs. But consumers could never really express their heart's desire for what they want to see built. And I think the biggest thing Web3 Gaming enables is for everybody to play that investor role, to buy an NFT or some games, pre sell tokens with promise of future rights or access in the game. It really formalizes that. And what it does is there's always good and bad, right. The bad is of course sometimes the projects can't deliver for reasons abc. But I think the benefit is when you open that up, the market is just much bigger, right? And you're gonna get much more interesting and unique games that are funded and you're gonna have more unique games that are developed and you know, it's kind of like Hollywood, right? After a while the movie industry is like the same 1, 2, 3 plot that gets rehashed and reskinned. And I think this is gonna prevent that by and large. And I'm very, very excited and I stay very optimistic about what that would look like. So I think formalizing the game investor role is one of the biggest difference for Web3 games and what it brings. The second one is a little more subtle or I think the second one is for Web3 games it's multiplayer by definition. Right. Whenever you have an open economy, that economic play is just always interconnected. You are always going to be able to trade. There's always going to be a gaming community that buy and sell. So there's really no more single player mode in web3 gaming. Whether you like it or not, your experiences, your, your gaming experience will be influenced by others, right? How they play, how much the items are worth, whether you can trade with others to get an entire set and accomplish your goals and, and things like that. So even for a, even if the gaming experience is like chapter based, quest based and it's not multiplayer, there's always going to be that multiplayer element where you're, you're trading with, with others. So I think it's multiplayer by definition. Yeah, those are the biggest ones I see.
[00:16:50] Speaker A: That's like really cool. Yeah, I think that like uh, you know, 12 year old me will not ever imagine a, a space for people to make their own like skins or like loot crates or anything like that. So I think that's just like, it's very cool. And yeah, my only fond memory of really being able to invest in anything was buying like little skins on like csgo or something and then like I don't know like getting scammed for them. So I think what you're creating is like very, very cool.
I think we can move on to the next question, I guess. What are your thoughts on sustainability in the web 3 gaming space and how do you see gaming ecosystems? Perhaps ones that are already existing in the space now and potentially future ones evolving in the long term. Maybe Bowen, you could take this one first.
[00:17:41] Speaker C: I think sustainability in web3 gaming comes down to two things. Real utility and long term engagement. Games can't rely on hyper token pumps anymore. What lasts are strong communities, fun gameplay and token models that reward participation, not speculation. Long term I see ecosystem evolving into player owned economies with deeper integration between games creators and infrastructure. Think of games as platforms where Players, not just devs, help build value. At blockers, we are focused on helping studios create sustainable ecosystem through better onboarding scalable infra like our ZKBM Koi that actually connects games with real players.
[00:18:28] Speaker A: Amazing.
[00:18:29] Speaker B: Yeah.
[00:18:29] Speaker A: Jess have any further thoughts on that?
[00:18:33] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure. So to add on to Bowen's point, right. I think we're really looking to move gaming tokens overall more into that kind of, you know, air miles or Hilton points type of, type of category. Right. More, much more like a loyalty point that you collect. It has value but it's more or less stable over time and tied to the underlying gaming economy. And it'll grow to reward your loyalty and for your play time if you actually enjoy the game, but hopefully just going in the direction that's not as volatile as it is today. So today's problem is you have maybe 99.9% of game investors and 0.1% of actual players and that's just very imbalanced and that erects the player experience as well. It's just very short term, it's not sustainable. So we want to move it towards that loyalty points model model and we're in, you know, late stage discussions with some fairly, you know, the most prominent exchanges in the, in the industry as well that kind of see eye to eye with, with this vision because while volatility is, is good for, is sometimes arguably good for exchanges. Maybe there's more float, there's more trading activity but you know, the biggest players have realized that it's just a net negative in the long run if people have these highly volatile tokens and the majority of them go to zero and the exchange's reputation, even though they are technically not liable, they feel like their reputation is damaged.
They're working with us as well and we're thinking through the plan for how to frame this in a way.
You can have early game investors that you invest early in a project. But how do you do that in a, in a controlled way? I won't go into details.
I think effectively it's how do you manage dynamic to make sure investor and player reach a more healthy balance. Maybe a 20 investor, 80% player versus right now it's like 99% investor, 1% player.
[00:20:52] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. I think that's, that's amazing how I think you're trying to shift that like that balance. Although I know, I know there are a few games where I personally think I'm the 1%, the top 1% of players.
Moving on, I guess for our final question, what do you think Blockus can bring to the Web3 gaming space.
Perhaps Bowen, you could take this first and then we could move on to Jess.
[00:21:26] Speaker C: Yes, yes, of course I'll share some key features that Block Us can offer, so Block Us brings a complete onboarding and infrastructure solution to Web3 gaming designed to support both developers and players. We offer Progress onboarding with Web2 logins and operations, optional wallet linking, SDKs for Unity and Unreal, making integration smooth for devs, seamless wallet and account management with support for both fiat and crypto payments, built in Quest platform to boost player engagement and retention and NFT Marketplace for in game assets. Our goal is to help studios focus on building great games while we handle the Web3 content complexity behind the scenes. Blus is a partner for teams serious about delivering high quality games to the web3 market.
[00:22:20] Speaker A: Amazing. Jess, any any thoughts to add on?
[00:22:24] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure.
From my perspective we're simply the most comprehensive tool set provider here to take the space forward. But one really gave a really amazing recap and we bring major players into the space and expand the overall ecosystem. Really that's our goal from day one and I think just to add the touch on top of the tech we also provide top tier service and pay close attention to our game studio client needs. So our head of gaming Kanhee is from Seoul and worked in the gaming industry himself for many many years working on very large scale MMORPGs at Nexon. So really our team understands firsthand the stress that comes with a title going live and the scramble underneath the seeming calm. So really we have major user empathy and I think that makes us stand out.
[00:23:23] Speaker A: Amazing. Yeah, shout out Quinhee as well. But I totally have to agree. I think there's been a lot of, a lot of interesting game releases within the past decade which I won't get into but moving on. Thank you so much again for your insights. Thank you again Jess and Bowen for joining us today and sharing your Perspectives on Web 3 game. I think we've covered a lot of content today and specifically just like from merging trends and innovations to sustainability and what truly sets Web three games apart. To everyone who tuned in today, thank you for being part of this amazing conversation and to stay updated, please remember to follow us on X which is blockasgg and LinkedIn which is also/blockas GG I think we have one question in the chat. Let me check again. This is from Demetro. What is Jess's forecast for the macroeconomic environment? That is a heavy hitting question.
[00:24:29] Speaker B: Yeah, for sure, for sure. Heavy hitting Question.
So, you know, the tariffs are kind of currently swinging in full force. There's a 90 day pause, but it seems like my, my gut sense is it's gonna last until September. This back and forth, back and forth and the economy sinking further into, into recession during, during this time and you know, volatility in the equities market as well as the, the treasuries and rebalancing of all the import export trades and forex race. Right. So I, I don't think it's, it's like, oh great, like we're done in April, it's going to be till September.
Yeah. In the, in the meanwhile. And I don't think Feds will drop rates. That's just too much movement. But probably after September, September if things are stable. I also don't think it's going to be an immediate drop in September. Probably I will wait six, six months to be conservative. So you know, next March maybe drop, slowly drop the rates and the equity markets kind of come back in and we see liquidity come back into the overall, overall market. So that's, you know, hitting, hitting a peak maybe March the year after. So 2027 is the next big bull market. That's, that's my prediction right now.
[00:25:51] Speaker A: Yeah, I, I think I can, I can agree on that. I think there's a lot of volatility right now in the markets, but that we're seeing right now. But thank you for that well worded response.
I think if there are no other questions, we'll wrap up today's event. Thank you again for everyone who tuned in as well, as a reminder, we will be releasing the full audio of this AMA as a podcast on our Twitter. Please make sure to follow us to hear this recording and as well make sure to follow our guest Justin Bowen for more great content.
[00:26:25] Speaker C: Thank you, thank you for invite. Thank you, thank you for everybody's time.
[00:26:29] Speaker B: Thanks everyone.
Bye.
