GameFi and crypto ‘natural fit’ for game publishers: KBW 2022

Korean experts believe that crypto would play a major role in the gaming ecosystem, and within the next 3 years, the majority of games might have an in-game crypto economy.

South Korea is considered the fourth biggest gaming market and one of the biggest blockchain adopters. However, the country has banned play-to-earn (P2E) blockchain games due to the crypto integration. The new pro-crypto president Yoon Suk-yeol had hinted at lifting the ban, but the government has yet to show any significant effort.

Anthony Yoon, managing partner of blockchain investment and accelerator firm ROK Capital, in an exclusive interview with Cointelegraph, said that GameFi is a natural fit for Korean game publishers. Yoon shed light on the current state of GameFi in the country and how game studios are approaching blockchain integration during the Korean Blockchain Week 2022 (KBW)

Yoon explained that there are two thought processes among Web2 gaming companies looking to shift to web3 and blockchain gaming. Where one camp is looking for ways to derive value for their projects and create their ecosystem on blockchain from scratch, and token integration is the last step, while the other camp they are ready to launch a token first and outsource the technology.

Talking about the popularity of global blockchain projects such as Solana (SOL) and Polygon (Matic) against the native Korean projects, Yoon explained that their popularity is not just dependent on the amount of capital they bring in but more so on the infrastructure and ecosystem they have to offer. He explained:

“From a feasibility perspective, I think something that these gaming studios also look at – are their users on this chain. Is there an ecosystem on this chain? Is there infrastructure on the chain?”

Yoon also said that while native chains do play a key role in developing the ecosystem, but the major focus of game studios is to build for a global ecosystem.

In another chat, WeMade CEO Henry Chang talked with Cointelegraph about current trends in the GameFi sector, its potential future and WeMade’s new gaming blockchain platform Wemix.

Chang said that even though crypto-integrated blockchain games are banned in Korea, crypto definitely has a utility in the gaming industry. He added that crypto would find a place in most of the games in the coming years. He concluded by saying – for crypto games to be successful, they must have a formidable in-game economy.