Given the nascent state of blockchain gaming, we’re keen to highlight as many interesting industry viewpoints as possible.
Patrick Barile is VP, Partnership at Flexion Mobile and a keen observer of the blockchain space.
Of course, his views are his own, and shouldn’t be taken as representative of his employer or BlockchainGamer.biz.
On Friday 11 May, the first Crypto Games Conference took place in Kiev. Approximately 300 attendees joined the one-day event.
The organizers brought together a great mix of regional and international gaming and blockchain players.
Global heavyweights like PUBG, CryptoKitties developer Axiom Zen and Unity joined forces with homegrown talent from Dmarket/Skincash, DappRadar, RAWG and several others.
A pleasant surprise was the event’s success at staying away from the current hype around Bitcoin trading and ICOs. Instead, the conference exclusively showcased several of the major movers & shakers currently shaping the blockchain games industry.
Everything in flux
Overall, the event focused on three main sectors:
- Game developers
- Platforms and enablers servicing blockchain games
- Gambling providers
A major topic among the game developers attending the show, centred around the choice of the right blockchain.
Even though one of the industry’s first movers Spells of Genesis has been running on Counterparty/Bitcoin, Ethereum is now default choice for most developers (CryptoKitties, etc.)
Significantly, one of the most anticipated new games Parsec Frontiers has chosen the Neo blockchain. More variety seems to be coming from chains/platforms like EOS, Waves, EtherZero and others. EtherZero has attracted considerable interest due to its claim of reducing transaction costs to zero.
See you next time
Overall the conference displayed the emergence of new industry structures.
Established parts of the online/mobile gaming industry are starting to be affected by blockchain. Areas such as UA, monetization, discovery, analytics, etc. are seeing new players entering the market and potentially disrupting established industry structures.
Additionally, new sectors like blockchain providers or item trading platforms are starting to emerge.
The participation of several industry heavyweights at the conference shows the big boys taking note. Let’s see how many more will join for the planned follow up event planned in Minsk this October.
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