As we’re about to close the chapter of 2024 and look towards the dawn of a new year, we’ve been asking some of the key members of the blockchain gaming sector about their thoughts on the past year and what they expect in 2025.
Max Fu is the co-founder and CEO of 9 Lives Interactive, the developer of Nyan Heroes.
What was the most significant trend for the sector of 2024?
The most significant trend was overdelivering. There was a time when web3 games would launch early and be graded on a curve. Understanding what the game was aiming to achieve was good enough; having a ton of bugs or a roadmap that was longer than your current feature list wasn’t a deal breaker. That changed this year.
This is the year where web3 games started overdelivering on expectations. Web2 and web3 gamers would play titles for the thrill of it, regardless of earning, because the games have started to be full-featured and fun.
How did the focus of your business change this year?
For Nyan Heroes, this was the year about strengthening our foundation. We focused on fostering a community that understood our IP’s vision and fine-tuning our core gameplay with them. We’ve done three playtests, and players are often surprised by the quality of the title. The gameplay mechanics are very solid, the graphics exceed expectations for a pre-alpha title, and the game feels great to play. Nyan Heroes focused on creating a top-tier gameplay experience and a vibrant, irresistible, and inviting world.
Next year, we plan to focus on revealing more of it.
What do you predict will be the most important trends in 2025?
First, 2025 will be about future tech games that provide increasingly frictionless experiences. I think we’ll see more games allowing you to start playing without a wallet at first, or at all.
Next, I predict we’ll have more people open to the idea of playing-to-earn. The gaming and entertainment worlds are rapidly changing, even when you consider the rise of recreational sports betting. More players will be interested in betting on themselves in games.
Finally, it will be the year of showing players innovative, frictionless experiences that happen to be powered, in part, by web3. The industry has told players that web3 offers a lot of new benefits, but next year, more projects will show and not tell.
What was your favourite blockchain game of the year?
When I wasn’t playing all the great new characters and maps in Nyan Heroes, I was enjoying myself in Off The Grid. I’m a fan of battle royales, so I had a lot of fun, especially with their aerial movement mechanics. It’s amazing to see more and more web3 games hit the mainstream gaming audience this year and we think 2025 will be even better.
What’s your New Year’s resolution and what resolution would you enforce on the industry?
My New Year’s resolution is to reach a broader gaming audience for Nyan Heroes. We’ve had some incredible success in our pre-alpha playtests already, and my goal is to scale that further to the mainstream.
I would tell the industry to make your games easier to sign up for! Some of the games today have too many requirements. I believe our goal should be to get people playing and then get them to consider the web3 elements if those interest them. Many games have players jumping through too many web3 signup hoops upfront.
Check out all the 2024 End-of-Year interviews here >>