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.
Amitt Mahajan is the CEO of Proof of Play, the developer of Pirate Nation.
What was the most significant trend for the sector of 2024?
The most significant trend this year was the number of new app chains that launched. Technologies like Arbitrum Orbit and Optimism OPStack combined with RaaS providers like Conduit made it trivial for teams to launch their own chains. This was critical for us with Pirate Nation so that we could continue to scale and serve our players. We now run two of the top Ethereum chains by throughput (Proof of Play Apex and Proof of Play Boss).
Alongside us, Azuki, ApeCoin, Uniswap, and others all launched their own chains because it enables cheaper and faster transactions for their users.
How did the focus of your business change this year?
This year, we doubled down on developing our Proof of Play tech infrastructure. We’ve built a multi-chain system that enables our game to operate across multiple blockchains with a shared state. This means players on different chains can interact seamlessly.
We’ve developed a decentralized, distributed database across chains – a breakthrough with applications that extend far beyond gaming. While this is cutting-edge for the gaming industry, it also represents a significant advancement in decentralized app development at scale. Our focus this year was on pushing technical boundaries, achieving breakthroughs, and now leading the way in terms of throughput.
What do you predict will be the most important trends in 2025?
Here are a few we’re closely monitoring:
- “Web3 Games” as “Games“
By 2025, we predict that web3 games will no longer be labeled as such – they’ll simply be recognized as games. These games will stand out due to more engaged communities, a vibrant set of modders and builders, and the inherent security of decentralized ownership. Players will enjoy the confidence that comes from knowing their favorite game worlds can’t be shut down, even by their creators.
We also believe that new types of web3-native game mechanics will emerge. Emergent gameplay is the gameplay that exists when players create and are the content for each other. It’s up to the studios currently building games to create new types of interactions and opportunities for players to collaborate and compete with each other. Features like open economies and fully onchain guilds can create new forms of social gameplay that build on their web2 counterparts but up the stakes.
- Decentralized Databases
The decentralized, distributed database technology that powers fully onchain games is rapidly evolving, with applications extending far beyond gaming. For instance, Proof of Play is focused on cross-chain technology, much like Chainlink, enabling a new wave of scalable decentralized applications outside of gaming.
- Onchain UGC & Permissionless Composability
Fully onchain games like Pirate Nation exemplify the potential of blockchain in gaming. Every action in the game is recorded as a blockchain transaction, opening the door for third-party developers to build features and enhancements without needing permission. For example, GG Quest recently launched a feature directly on Pirate Nation using the game’s open-source data. This level of composability allows developers to save time and resources by building on existing user bases instead of starting from scratch. While our current focus remains on core improvements, we’re increasingly enabling collaborative development by making our technology more accessible to external creators.
What was your favourite blockchain game of the year?
We are really impressed with how much mainstream penetration Off the Grid received with their launch. Other notable mentions are King of Destiny and Pixels in terms of how they have scaled their user bases and handled events.
What’s your New Year’s resolution and what resolution would you enforce on the industry?
More innovation on blockchain-native game mechanics. We believe that these games are hypersocial and that the opportunity for web3 games is that they can more easily lead to meaningful player interactions.
With open economy games, players naturally have higher stakes and are always interacting with each other. Intentional game design can lead to vibrant and interesting encounters between players, which, hopefully, leads to the creation of core memories and the development of real relationships.
Check out all the 2024 End-of-Year interviews here >>
Comments are closed.