New Direction - GameFi! Analysis on the Potential for Value Growth Under Skyrocketing Prices

[TL；DR]:

Recently, a series of GameFi games have started a frenzy driven by GMT, becoming the focus of recent popularity after sectors such as L1 public chain, L2 public chain, Bots, and AI.

Essentially, the GameFi games that went viral in the previous round all had obvious Ponzi tags, and the common approach of project owners was to attract players through high returns, but as risks gradually accumulated, they eventually collapsed.

With the emergence of new paradigm innovations in gameplay experience, token models, and traffic promotion in Web3 GameFi, the era of GameFi 2.0 may be on its way.

Introduction

Since the recent outbreak of the Mavericks market, the long dull GameFi sector has finally received a relay baton, gaining market attention with an average increase of 11%. This is driven by both short-term capital rotation speculation and logical support for the improvement of the fundamentals of the track.

We will review the development process of Web3 GameFi in this article, exploring the direction and value observation of GameFi development under the new paradigm.

GameFi Tokens Have Surged, Accelerating Market Recovery

GameFi refers to a blockchain play-to-earn game that provides players with economic incentives, also known as Web3 GameFi.

Recently, a series of GameFi games have started a frenzy driven by GMT, becoming the focus of recent popularity after sectors such as L1 public chain, L2 public chain, Bots, and AI.

According to CoinMarketCap data, the Play To Earn and Gaming sectors have seen the highest increase in token prices in the market, while the Sports sector, which also has Game attributes, currently ranks first in terms of growth.

Source: CoinMarketCap

Taking the Gaming sector as an example, the total market value of tokens in this sector is currently nearly $14B, with an average increase of over 10% in 24 hours. The transaction volume is as high as $1.8B, with a total of 502 game tokens and 141 tokens waiting to be launched.

As of the writing date, according to the market data of Gate.io, GameFi tokens have been among the top performers, with game tokens such as GGG (Good Games Guild), RAINI (Raini), and ATLAS (Star Atlas) all experiencing a 24-hour increase of over 30%.

Source: Gate.io

Introduction to Numerous Trending GameFi Projects

GasHero（GMT）
I believe many veteran players are familiar with the StepN of the previous bull market. This project allows players to earn tokens GST or GMT through outdoor walks, jogging, or running, thereby increasing income. A very standard Ponzi project has driven the new GameFi model of Move To Earn.

Recently, the new game GasHero launched by the original StepN team began community testing from November 27th to December 11th. The specific rule is that players will receive 30 GMT test coins every day to explore the game, and the top 100 players will receive rewards, including Creation Hero coupons, which require internal testing qualifications to enter the game. In addition, there are also some activities on official Twitter and DC channels that can continue to be participated in.

Source: X@GasHeroOfficial

The new game still uses the original GMT token, and the official 20 day APY is basically around 30%, which undoubtedly gives the market sufficient reasons for speculation. According to the Gate.io market, GMT has increased by as much as 170% since the end of last month, and it has been lowered since GasHero entered the public beta period.

Echelon Prime（Prime）
Echelon Prime is a GameFi platform that is currently launching two games with high popularity.

Its first game, Parallel TCG, is a sci-fi NFT collectible card (TCG) GameFi based on the Ethereum chain. Players can purchase and collect cards, and flexibly use different cards to combine sets that meet the rules to earn rewards in the game.

The other one is Parallel Colony (a simulation game), and TCG has just completed the B-round internal testing. Colony is also in the conceptual stage.

It is worth mentioning that many reports jokingly refer to this game, along with BigTime and Illuvium, as the three giants of the new web3 GameFi, corresponding to the previous bull market troika of Sand, Axie, and Decentraland.

SuperVerse（Super）
SuperVerse (formerly known as Superfarm) is a cross chain NFT marketplace and video gaming platform with two core products: GigaMart, a next-generation NFT marketplace with advanced analysis tools and unique social features, and Imposters, a social gaming virtual world.

Let’s focus on Imposters. This game is a multiplayer online tactical competition game that was exited by Epic Games. Players need to collaborate with other players in the game, use various strategic skills to complete tasks, collect intelligence, and assassinate targets. The form of implementation is to pretend to be another player and play an imposter, similar to the well-known space werewolf killing.

The game has recently completed closed alpha testing and launched token pledge, but in terms of playability and visual quality, it differs from the mainstream 3A game direction. The sustainability of Super, which has surged sixfold in the past week, remains to be further observed.

In addition, there are mahjong GameFi Mahjong Meta, game dynamics platform and eco Immutable on Ethereum, web3 game eco support platform NakamotoGames, game platform Gala Games that launches game public chains, ARPG type Web3 game Seraph with dark themes, and a sci-fi riding and chopping development sandbox game Earth From Another Sun on the Solana eco. Due to limited space, it will not be repeated here.

Web3 GameFi “Vacating Cage to Change Bird” Embraces A New Paradigm

Looking back at the development history of GameFi, it is not difficult to find that the recent surge in the GameFi sector is not as simple as the rotation of funds. In the context of short-term speculative sentiment, many projects in this sector are exploring and developing new models in a “cage swapping” style.

In the bull market from 2020 to 2021, Axie Infinity (AXS) sparked an overall boom in the GameFi market with the concept of Play to Earn (P2E). Within less than a year after the launch of AXS, it skyrocketed from $0.14 to $140, becoming a true thousand fold coin.

Under the astonishing wealth effect, many projects began to follow the trend and create various X to Earn concepts, gaining sufficient market hype. However, with the arrival of a bear market, many games that rely solely on concepts rather than playability have collapsed.

Essentially, the GameFi projects that went viral in the previous round all had obvious Ponzi tags. The common approach used by project owners was to attract players through high returns, and then as players continued to enter, the platform deployed potential returns to delay the lifecycle. But over time, the risk gradually accumulates until it collapses.

However, since last year, we have observed new changes in many GameFi projects. Many GameFi platforms and game guilds have begun to reshape their brands, attempting to develop independent game chains, expand business cooperation, and improve the gaming experience in specific gameplay. They have also actively improved the utility of tokens, such as expanding token application scenarios towards account abstraction, supporting token staking to obtain in-game dividends, and so on.

It can be foreseen that compared to the previous conceptual gaming era, the era of GameFi 2.0 will be more prosperous, for the following specific reasons:

(1) Many Web3 projects have gone through a bear market baptism, and many GameFi projects have been fully developed and improved. Next year, a wave of high-quality GameFi projects will be launched, and the improvement in quality and quantity is highly likely to regain participation.

(2) Traditional Web2 gaming companies have shown a passion for blockchain and GameFi, and seem to be actively embracing this change.

(3) Compared to crypto native projects such as DeFi, DAO, and NFT, GameFi have a wider potential player base, lower user barriers, higher stickiness, and are more likely to achieve viral transmission.

Source: Footprint Analytics

It can be foreseen that with the emergence of new paradigm innovations in gameplay experience, token models, traffic promotion, and other aspects of Web3 GameFi, a long-standing challenge in the GameFi field in the previous bull market may have new breakthroughs - what else can blockchain players rely on to gain acceptance and loyalty from Web3 players?

The new era of GameFi may be on the way, and we naturally need to observe carefully whether the current booming market can continue. However, if we look further, there may be another or more paradigm games comparable to Axie about to be born, let us wait and see.