- For blockchain gaming to succeed, publishers have to give players a bit more opportunity to get involved and they should feel that they are the owners of the game and participating in full.
- Developers are flocking to Web 3 gaming amid industry layoffs as Web 3 offers an ocean of opportunities and innovation and it aligns with the growing demand for digital ownership and economic participation.
- Players are no longer consumers and they want to be active participants and want to get a stake in games and a shift to player empowerment.
- Introducing a cryptocurrency reward system and a skill-based system into a game application will allow users who are unfamiliar with cryptocurrency to acclimatise more easily.
- Senet in talks to raise between $10-$15m and wants to be in the top five skill-based gaming companies in the world in the next two years.
Blockchain games are a bright prospect for both players and developers alike and have the potential to reshape the way we think about the gaming experience and the innovation it can bring into the Web3 community.
According to IMARC Group, the global blockchain gaming market size is expected to reach $854.4 billion by 2032 when compared to $8.9 billion in 2023.
However, Mohsin Waqar, CEO of Dubai-based Senet, told TechChannel News, said that blockchain gaming hasn’t taken off as expected as most of the developers are doing the same thing and the basic stuff.
“I don’t think blockchain gaming will take off any more if it is the same stuff and everyone follows the same roadmap. Everyone needs to add different aspects to what is going on.”
For blockchain gaming to succeed, he said that publishers have to give players a bit more opportunity to get involved and they should feel that they are the owners of the game and participating in full.
Pioneering ‘skill-to-earn’ platform
Senet started with conventional gaming twelve years ago and then turned into an acquisition company three years ago.
With 600 games under its belt and in partnership with over 20 companies, Senet is pioneering ‘skill-to-earn’ through mobile games catered towards Web2 gamers, allowing a smoother transition to Web3 gaming.
Through Senet’s platform, they have brought over three million users to Web3 gaming, all of which are intuitive to Web2 audiences, whilst maintaining the prospect of earning rewards through Web3 integration.
“The same aspect happened when we were in Web 2 gaming as well. Everyone was doing the same thing again and again. Then suddenly a paradigm shift happened when hyper-casual gaming came in and they changed the whole scenario of gaming. After that, other companies came in and started skills-based games.”
Giving players an upper hand
Skill-based gaming platforms give dedicated players, who prefer to rely on their skills rather than luck, a chance to prove their skills and earn money.
Senet started with conventional gaming twelve years ago and then turned into an acquisition company three years ago.
“We acquired about 600 games in the last two years. Out of the 600 games, 80 per cent of them are acquired from global developers,” Waqar said.
As the Web2 and conventional gaming, marketing and advertising just timed down, “we thought that we should shift to Web3 gaming. The whole idea was to tokenise the 600 games with three million active users and 2,000 daily active users and the plan is to move to 1,000 games by the end of 2024.”
“The problem which I witnessed was a lot of these ‘skill-to-earn’ gaming platforms had one or two games. If the games fail or if the users don’t come daily, the whole business model fails. Our idea was to operate 600 games and if a couple of the games fail, we have a network of other games to promote.
“Our skill-to-earn model is that players can earn Satoshis [the smallest denomination of the cryptocurrency bitcoin] and turn them into Senet tokens. A player can post a score only with one Senet and at the end of the day or the week, the player gets to earn a grand prize, mostly Satoshis. Now, we are giving more rights to the consumers and decentralise the project as a whole and make them more involved,” Waqar said.
Users can exchange Senet’s native token with major cryptocurrency tokens, such as Bitcoin, and vice versa within the game directly.
Gaming industry hit with layoffs
Despite the gaming industry hit with layoffs, at least 6,000 have been announced in the first six weeks of 2024 apart from more than 10,000 cuts in 2023, Waqar said that Web 2 gaming is becoming saturated and the traditional revenue models are under pressure.
“Developers are flocking to Web3 gaming amid industry layoffs as Web 3 offers an ocean of opportunities and innovation and it aligns with the growing demand for digital ownership and economic participation.
“Players are no longer consumers and they want to be active participants and want to get a stake in games and a shift to player empowerment. Currently, a major issue within Web3 gaming is the lack of users, and we believe that introducing a cryptocurrency reward system and a skill-based system into a game application will allow users who are unfamiliar with cryptocurrency to acclimatise easier.”
UAE as a Web3 hub
Waqar said that even though their token is based on Ethereum standard, they are in talks with a lot of chains and nothing is finalised yet.
“Our token is going to be listed in Korea and we are talking to other exchanges as well.”
He said that initially, they planned to get into the US market but it was difficult due to the crackdown by the regulators.
So, Senet decided to enter the UAE and Saudi Arabian markets, to focus on the Middle East and African markets, as they are very welcoming to these kinds of projects.
“The governments have been very helpful and open to the crypto, blockchain and Web3 gaming. The growing popularity of the UAE as a Web3 hub is evident because there has been a 23 per cent increase in the companies enrolling at DIFC this year.”
The UAE is considered one of the most progressive crypto countries in the world. Dubai now accepts crypto payments, including Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Tether, on behalf of the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), to pay for various trade licenses and visas.
Even the UAE announced the world’s first independent crypto regulator – the Virtual Asset Regulatory Authority – in February 2023.
Senet has raised $4 million so far and is in talks to raise between $10-$15 million.
“Our main objective is to give tough competition to Skillz, a trademark company for skill-based gaming for the past few years as well listed on the New York Stock Exchange.
“Their share price has been going down and we thought this is the good time to flex our muscles. We want to be in the top five skill-based gaming companies in the world in the next two years,” Waqar said.