Distributing Games In Web3

Some platforms for game distribution in web3 include: Epic Games, Hyperplay, along with app stores like Google Play and the Apple Store. There are also chain-specific app distribution platforms, including the Gala Launcher (GalaChain), Mavis Hub (Ronin), Telegram (TON chain), and the Hytopia launcher (Hychain).

Key Takeaways

• Game distributions platforms give their users a place to install, download, and update their games, while giving developers a chance to put their game in front of a platform’s audience.
• Game distribution platforms can improve the ease of access to bring new players into the blockchain gaming space by making it easier for players to discover games they are interested in.
• This article looks at the different game distribution platforms for web3 games.

Making a great game is one thing. But getting that game in front of players is an entirely different venture! In the olden days, when digital downloads were still young and consoles relied on CDs and DVDs, players would have to visit different websites in order to purchase and download their games – managing numerous logins and trusting their credit card info to a variety of different sources.

But from this chaos rose Steam, the centralized game platform who changed the face of digital distribution. Launched in 2003, Steam now sees about 69 million players visiting their platform on a daily basis! And though there are other game distribution platforms, Steam is by far the most dominant. 

However, something interesting happened related to the world of blockchain gaming and game distribution. In 2021, Steam pushed the entire blockchain gaming industry away, stating that they wouldn’t allow any games on their platform that used crypto or NFTs!

Game distribution platforms not only give their users a single place to install, download, and update their games, but they are also an excellent marketing avenue, giving developers a chance to put their game in front of all sorts of players.

To fill the distribution void left by Steam ignoring the industry, several other developers have jumped on the chance to offer their services instead.

And though still just a very small portion of the global gaming industry, web3 gaming is growing quickly. In this article we’ll take a look at the current state of web3 gaming distribution, and what to expect in the future.

Accessing Web3 Gaming

For quite a while now, web3 gaming has been mostly a niche industry. There have been times where it came more to the forefront of the general public, particularly during the play to earn frenzy of 2021 when every mint was a sellout, token and NFT prices were only rising, and some people were actually making a living wage just by playing web3 games!

But ease of access has long been a hindrance to bringing new players into the blockchain gaming scene. Crypto has a reputation for being shady in general, and those who aren’t familiar with it are often instantly turned off at the mention of NFTs or blockchain in their games. On top of that, having to deal with a wallet and managing your seed phrase and getting money into your wallet and creating a login for the game – well, all of this can quickly become overwhelming.

And so, there has been an ongoing push for some time to try and make things easier for players. Universal logins such as Immutable Passport and MOCA ID are one part of the equation, but another is simply getting the games into players’ hands.

If your game is completely web-based, then you’re already good to go as far as game distribution. Every computer, phone, TV, maybe even your dishwasher, has a web browser these days.

But if you have an app the players need to download, then you’ll want a way to distribute your game. And sure, a download link on your webpage is great. But third party platforms remove the burden of hosting your own download servers while also serving as a global marketing system.

Gaming Consoles

Probably not where you expected this to start. But the recent playtest of Off the Grid on the PS5, featuring over 30k players, was in many ways a watershed moment for blockchain gaming.

Off the Grid is a battle-royale style shooter, built on the Avalanche blockchain. They’re been in development for a while and have had other playtests, but this is their first on a console, and the first ever web3 game played on a major gaming console.

The playtesters are under an NDA (non-disclosure agreement), so we haven’t heard many details from this console playtest, but the overall sentiment seems to be positive. Some enthusiastic players even went so far as to purchase a PS5 just for this playtest!

Sony has not released any official stance in regards to blockchain games on their consoles, but this event is a good sign. Perhaps this is just the beginning of what will soon be a flood of web3 game development for consoles. The Playstation Network alone sees 116 million active users, so there is certainly a large market of players available in the gaming console world!

Steam and Web3 Gaming

Steam, long a behemoth in the game distribution industry, opted a while back to simply ban blockchain games from their platform entirely.

However, though this policy announcement scared off many web3 developers, it seems that Steam isn’t particularly attentive to their self-imposed restriction. Some blockchain based games have gotten around the ban by creating two versions of the game – one for Steam with no direct blockchain integrations, and a second version for everyone else. Meanwhile others, such as Boss Fighters, are just building away on Steam, with seemingly no cares in the world!

But whatever the end result is, Steam has placed themselves at the back of the pack for web3 game distribution with their announcement. And they have shown no signs of actively changing their policy, opening the way for other players in the space to step in.

The Rise of Epic Games

With monthly active users in the range of 60-70 million, Epic Games is already a significant player in game distribution, though not quite as large as Steam. However, from the early days, Epic Games has embraced web3 gaming, letting blockchain-enabled games list and distribute through the Epic Games Store.

The Epic Games platform is still dominated by web2 games, but their web3 portfolio is expanding. Already numbering in the dozens, expect to see even more blockchain games launch through Epic Games, as it has quickly become one of the major go-to platforms for web3 game distribution.

Epic Games continues to expand their reach, having just opened up the first mobile version of their store. The game options on mobile are limited at the moment, but this number will likely grow rapidly.

Epic Games offers a generous 88% / 12% revenue split with game developers publishing on their platform. And, if you have a new game that hasn’t been published on any other 3rd party platform beforehand, you can even apply for a special program called First Run, which gives you 100% of the game sales proceeds for the first six months!

With their continued support for blockchain games, as well as traditional digital games, Epic Games is in a prime position to become the leading distribution platform for web3 gaming!

Hyperplay

Whereas Epic Games hosts both web3 and web2 games, Hyperplay is focused solely on web3 game distribution. They have even built their own gaming reward system, Hyperplay Quests, linked to playing games through the Hyperplay launcher. Players can earn tokens, points, and even NFTs through this system.

They also let you connect to other platforms such as Epic Games and Good Old Games, providing a one-stop access point for your gaming needs. You can access Hyperplay Quests, as well as all the games across all three accounts (Hyperplay, Epic, and GoG) all through the Hyperplay app.

And though not in the news as much as Epic Games, Hyperplay has been growing as well, with titles such as Might Action Heroes, Uldor, Xociety, and Medieval Empires. With over 100 titles distributed through their platform, and a growing social media presence, Hyperplay is focused on claiming their share of the digital distribution pie. They still have a long way to go to challenge Steam or even Epic, but they seem to be off to a good start!

Google Play and the Apple Store

Mobile-based web3 games are already all over the official mobile app marketplaces. You can play and earn with games such as Wild Forest, Heroes of Mavia, and Guild of Guardians – just to name a few. Many desktop-oriented games such as Gods Unchained offer mobile apps as well.

Though both Google and Apple have various restrictions and requirements on blockchain games, developers will jump through the hoops to get their games in front of a mobile gaming audience.

And with mobile comprising an estimated 49% of the gaming market revenue, and entertaining over 3 billion players (source: Udonis) you can understand why! Mobile gaming is a prime target for the continued growth of the web3 game industry, and expect to see many more blockchain games making their way onto the mobile app stores over the coming months.

Chain-Specific Distribution Platforms

Then there are a number of chain-specific game / app distribution platforms, geared towards their native blockchain. Some of the most prominent are the Gala Launcher (GalaChain), Mavis Hub (Ronin), Telegram (TON chain), and the Hytopia launcher (Hychain).

Gala Launcher

Gala Games created their own launcher to help run games on the GalaChain ecosystem. Known as the Gala Launcher, this is your central download source for games such as Spider Tanks, Champions Arena, and all the other titles on GalaChain.

The Gala launcher is just for their games at the moment. But, with their Gala Music and Gala Films divisions, Gala could potentially expand and create a really cool app that lets users access their games, film, and music all in one place.

GalaChain uses a distributed node system, giving node owners a chance to support the network and earn rewards which include GALA tokens as well as various token and NFT airdrops. You can learn more about the Gala Founder’s Node and even purchase your own on the official webpage.

Mavis Hub (Sky Mavis)

Sky Mavis, developers of Axie and all of the Axie spin-offs, also built their own chain (Ronin Network), and their own game launcher, the Mavis Hub. Players can download, install, and run all of the Axie games as well as many other games on the Ronin Network with this one launcher.

And while this game distribution platform is limited in scope, Ronin Network has been making noise lately, with recent game additions such as Pixels, Wild Forest, and The Machines Arena bolstering the number of players on the network. The Mavis Hub app functions much like Steam and Epic Games. Users can browse, install, and launch the available games, read up on patch notes, learn about upcoming events, and even vote on the next games to be added to the platform with the Mavis Hub Greenlight program!

The Ronin Network claims to be the number one gaming chain with 1.5 million Daily Active Addresses (DAA). With over 15 million wallet addresses created, and $1.36 billion in value locked on the chain, this gaming-centric network isn’t going anywhere and will remain a player in the gaming scene for the foreseeable future.

The Open Network (TON)

Who would have ever expected Telegram to be the hot commodity in web3 gaming?! With Telegram’s already existing user base of millions, game developers have been quick to jump onto the new TON chain, taking advantage of the integrated services to bring their games directly into the Telegram app. For the most part, these games have been relatively simple ones, with the tap to earn frenzy dominating the headlines. But Telegram is rapidly adding new features, and the game developers are building even more complex apps.

The TON token has rapidly grown as well, becoming the 9th largest cryptocurrency (by market cap) in existence! The Open Network boasts over 50 million accounts created, with nearly 13 million active wallets, and over 3.5 million transactions per day. The Open Network is run by 370 validators across 29 different countries.

With their rapid expansion and adoption of blockchain technology, and their millions of users, Telegram is in a prime spot to bring web3 gaming to the masses. Expect to hear a lot more from them over the coming months. And it will be very interesting to see if the games on their platform can expand beyond the tap-to-earn craze and find ways to keep players engaged for the long-term.

Hytopia Launcher

Formerly NFT Worlds, Hytopia has not only completely rebooted their original Minecraft-style game, but they have also built their own network to support it (Hychain), and any other developers who are interested in taking advantage of their player and developer friendly ecosystem.

The Hytopia launcher does have an advantage over many of these others as it features an in-app NFT marketplace. Players can buy and sell NFTs, manage their game accounts, and install and launch games all without leaving the app!

This feature has the potential to help break the barrier between NFT owners and regular players, making the trading of NFTs a completely seamless process so that players may not even realize that they are dealing with NFTs!

Loot Legends is the first non-Hytopia game to build on Hychain and is currently in and early playtest. Hytopia Worlds is in beta testing, with an official launch expected this year (2024).

Got Any Games on Your Samsung TV?

‘Smart’ TVs are ubiquitous in many homes these days. And as one of the larger players in the television scene, Samsung has some weight to throw around. Not only have they made partnerships with various web3 games to offer NFT rewards , but they even have their own NFT – one that even offers actual utility to the holders!

In fact, if you pick up their special web3 TV bundle, it comes with a Ledger Nano and a GEN3RATOR NFT, which grants access to sweepstakes, discounts, events, and feature activations. Users holding both GEN3RATOR and Samsung Gen3 Chip NFTs can also exclusively access 2,000 digital artworks from partner projects.

And in a recent announcement, Samsung has partnered with Illuvium to bring all three of the Illuvium games onto Samsung TVs. This is big news for Samsung as they venture even further into web3 adoption, but even bigger news for Illuvium who will have their games put in front of a larger audience!

Will smart TVs become a main source of game distribution in the future? Probably not by themselves. But perhaps we will see some integrations and partnerships with game platforms moving forward that make smart TVs more gaming-centric.

Looking to the Future

Web3 gaming is not just about overpriced NFTs and play to earn click-grinds anymore. It has evolved to a point where the game is more often the primary focus – with blockchain features serving as  enhancements rather than the reason for the game’s existence.

But, the audience for web3 games has still been somewhat limited. That will change quickly over the coming years, and even months. Big name players in the gaming industry like Ubisoft and CCP and Konami are venturing further into blockchain gaming, with some diving in wholeheartedly.

And a large part of the future of web3 gaming will be pushing the games into these distribution channels. Not only to make the games more accessible, but also to get them in front of the millions of gamers around the world who have little to no interest in blockchain.

As web3 games develop, we will see the blockchain tech pushed more into the background. Seamless integration to make things easier for the users is an important part of attracting more players, and the game developers know it. Integrating with existing apps and giving users familiar interfaces will be an important part of the process.

Many web3 games also don’t follow the traditional gaming revenue models. Most offer their games up as free to play – relying on direct NFT sales, in-game purchases, and revenue from secondary NFT trades instead of the traditional up-front, game purchase.That lack of normalized revenue may be part of what turned Steam away from blockchain gaming. But it’s also an important part of the web3 gaming scene, giving developers of all skill and funding levels a chance to pursue their dreams of creating the next hot game!

Web3 gaming is really just getting started. With the more widely accepted distribution options such as the Apple and Play stores, and Epic Games letting web3 developers put their games in front of the platforms’ users we will see more and more players joining in on blockchain gaming – perhaps some without even knowing! 

And that seems like a worthy goal for blockchain technology – to be so integrated that you don’t even know it’s there!

This article is only for educational and informational purposes, and should not be taken as investment advice. Always do your own research before choosing to purchase any devices or consoles, or connecting your crypto wallet to any protocol. 

About PlayToEarn

PlayToEarn is a blockchain games data aggregator and news outlet. Our team delivers accurate, unbiased and up-to-date news and data from the blockchain gaming space.

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