Despite crypto woes, blockchain remains the next wave of gaming, says DMarket’s new VP Sevan Kessissian
2019 is the year to come
Market sentiment remains depressed, at least in terms of cryptocurrency valuations, but that isn’t damping the passion of blockchain game enthusiasts with a vision for the future.
One such is Sevan Kessissian, who during his 17 year career in the games industry has been involved with plenty of disruption.
Starting out working for game publisher Microids, Kessissian moved to ‘French Zynga’ isCool during the social gaming boom, and then onto Finnish/Japanese cloud gaming outfit G-cluster. He’s also co-founded indie studio Pixel Wizards but now the LA-based executive has jumped into blockchain games as VP of business development at item marketplace DMarket.
“Just as with social games and cloud gaming, I see blockchain as the next wave for the games industry,” he says.
I see blockchain as the next wave for the games industry
“Blockchain is a powerful technology that most of us got know through crypto, but it is much bigger than just cryptocurrency,” he adds
“I believe it will skyrocket the gaming industry.”
Focus on core concerns
And it’s this conviction which sees Kessissian labelling the current valuation of cryptocurrencies as “fluctuations” that don’t impact the core vision of what blockchain can be.
“Of course crypto is related to blockchain but I’m concentrating on the fundamental of the technology; what it can offer game developers in terms of their game experience and business,” he says.
Indeed Kessissian reckons his key task over the coming months and years is to educate developers about the advantages of decentralization.
“I don’t think blockchain has been used in a significant way so far in games,” he states. “We have a huge evangelism job to do. That’s my next battle but I think it will happen in 2019.”
By saying this, Kessissian doesn’t mean blockchain games will go mainstream in 2019, rather that 2019 will be the year in which sentiment changes as more mass market projects are launched. Equally those companies which attempted to ride the cryptocurrency boom without building strong products will fail.
“It’s good companies that don’t create value for the ecosystem are removed,” he points out.
Indeed, as with many in the blockchain space, Kessissian reckons cooperation between companies is an important element in growing the whole sector and making it viable.
As for DMarket itself, he says it enters the new year in a strong position.
“We have a partnership with Unity for our SDK, and we have generated several hundred requests though that. We also have our platform up and running,” he states.
In other words, despite current tribulations, there’s still everything to play for.
You can find out more about DMarket via its website.
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