Remember the global Pokémon Go craze when smartphone users, young and old, wandered around catching Pokémon? That was one of the best examples of innovation driving companies to overcome challenges.
What made Pokémon Go a hit? Certainly, it was not just the popular manga or anime brand. The innovative use of technology spelt the big difference. The game took advantage of GPS, geospatial mapping, augmented reality, and multiple sensors to provide a new and unique experience for gamers.
Profitable innovation
Pokémon Go’s success was an excellent demonstration of how businesses can mindfully factor in market changes, new tech, and trends to come up with an innovative product. It taught business owners how powerful the combination of familiarity, interactivity, and an omnichannel strategy can be.
The team behind Pokémon Go saw the potential of going beyond the usual interaction with touchscreen displays. The game forced players to move around in real life instead of doing the usual sedentary gaming habits. It opened up opportunities to explore new places and meet people in real life.
As players enjoyed the considerably more engaging gaming experience, Pokémon Go presented different monetisation streams, including in-app purchases for Poke Balls and lure modules, sponsored locations and partnerships, and Pokémon Go events, among many others. With these, the game has become one of the world’s most profitable, earning US$5 billion over the course of five years.
Replicating Pokémon Go’s success
The technologies that made Pokémon Go wildly popular are no longer novel and innovative. For businesses to stand out and maximise viability now, there are new factors to work with, especially the advent of Web3.
Also Read: All hands on deck: How Iron Sail strengthens blockchain gaming ecosystem through collaboration
Web3 is the evolution of digital and internet technology characterised by the wider adoption of AI, blockchain, crypto, and decentralised systems. It also features better digital asset ownership and community-driven development. Businesses can harness the new technologies under Web3 to bolster success in the following ways.
Attracting more customers through better monetisation and digital asset ownership
Web3 gaming typically integrates digital assets and NFTs into gaming. They enable new ways for monetisation through NFT game item purchases. Reaching a peak market size of US$755 million in 2021, the play-to-earn industry demonstrated how game developers and players alike can monetise with digital assets.
Digital assets, empowered by the unchangeable foundation of blockchain technology, grant gamers the autonomy to better manage their in-game possessions. These assets can be freely exchanged on NFT marketplaces, both within and beyond the game’s own environment.
This marks a significant progression beyond the conventional game studio model, where game developers retain exclusive control over all digital in-game items. This can limit revenue streams that could otherwise be created by opening up the game’s monetisation channels to NFT marketplaces. With tokenisation, any game assets, characters and player achievements can be converted into digital assets.
Citizen Conflict, a shooter game developed by QORPO Game Studio, is an example of how tokenisation enhances gaming. Its tokenised and distinctive approach to monetisation offers an alternative to conventional play-to-earn models. This tokenisation advantage comes on top of the game’s enticing gameplay, impressive graphics, and an overall intuitive gaming experience comparable to the quality of popular Web2 games such as Valorant, CS:GO, and Fortnite.
Reshaping game development with community governance
The democratisation movement has reached the gaming industry. Web3 empowers players to have a direct impact on game development by enabling them to vote on game development features, such as the addition of new maps or characters. It creates an inclusive environment for players and developers to collaboratively shape and align with gamer preferences.
Also Read: Indonesian gaming powerhouse Agate unveils strategy to conquer the global arena
In a significant departure from the conventional esports landscape, Citizen Conflict is introducing a novel approach to tournament organisation that puts the community in charge, minimising the role of intermediaries. This empowers players and fans alike to collaboratively design tournaments through participatory decision-making. By utilising a voting system, participants collectively influence aspects such as prize allocations, rule frameworks, and how rewards are distributed, fostering a heightened sense of involvement.
A pivotal factor underpinning this shift towards inclusivity is the integration of smart contracts. These automated protocols facilitate the equitable distribution of rewards among competing teams and passionate fans. This process ensures transparency and helps to eliminate the need for middlemen. Consequently, the esports realm becomes a realm of open interaction, erasing the lines between players and their audience.
Building forward-looking businesses with technology
At this point, the gaming industry is already getting saturated. The mobile gaming market is starting to reach saturation in the world’s biggest markets, namely the United States, China, Japan, and South Korea. For game developers and publishers to succeed, they need to find ways to stand out while making sure that they are profitable.
As such, businesses need to be more tech-savvy to connect to customers who are becoming increasingly reliant on more technologies. To this end, the gaming industry shows how the ingenious use of technology pays off.
—
Editor’s note: e27 aims to foster thought leadership by publishing views from the community. Share your opinion by submitting an article, video, podcast, or infographic
Join our e27 Telegram group, FB community, or like the e27 Facebook page
Image credit: Canva
The post How gaming innovations in Web3 are rewriting entrepreneurial playbooks appeared first on e27.