Welcome to the October version of BlockchainGamer.biz’s common Experts group. This month we requested:
What’s been essentially the most outstanding shift in web3 gaming in 2025?
Hilmar Veigur Pétursson, CEO, CCP Video games
This yr, we’re seeing the primary actual glimpse of how blockchains can evolve from monetary infrastructure right into a artistic substrate for sport improvement itself. With EVE Frontier, we’ve shortly seen the immense energy we’re unlocking with the modding platform we constructed on high of the sensible contract capabilities of blockchains.
It’s fairly magical to see gamers lengthen and add new capabilities into the sport expertise for everybody to get pleasure from, with none permission from us. That is what blockchain really presents. It’s a completely distinctive worth proposition – by no means earlier than has there been an MMO that existed the place you’ll be able to mod the server!
For the reason that starting, our guiding gentle has been to deal with making an amazing gaming expertise. We’ve chosen the house survival style, which is a good alternative to take many years of our learnings from EVE On-line and produce them right into a contemporary new tackle an area sport from CCP.
Christina Macedo, CEO, PLAY Community
Sport first. Income second. Token third. That’s the mantra reshaping web3 gaming in 2025, and it’s been essentially the most influential shift of the yr.
Groups are actually obsessed (lastly) with the sport itself: the core loop, retention funnel, person acquisition, distribution channels, and fee conversions. Even advert monetization is being reimagined as a part of the design toolkit. Solely after reaching game-market match do groups now flip to their token technique, utilizing it to boost participant and group expertise moderately than outline it. This evolution restores the soul of gaming.
Video games have to be enjoyable. Video games have to be partaking. Video games should entertain. Solely then will gamers care, and solely then will they spend. This reorientation units the stage for 2026 to be the yr of the GAME. Constructing for tomorrow’s internet isn’t about ranging from scratch; it’s about leveling up what already works. With AI and blockchain as exponential power-ups, the subsequent era of video games will blur the road between expertise and pure play : and that’s what excites me most.
Gabby Dizon, co-founder, Yield Guild Video games
These previous a number of years, the large aim of the business was to have a triple-A web3 sport that might hit the mainstream. We’ve had just a few fashionable ones amongst web3 players, however they haven’t gained traction with web2 gamers.
The actual alternative for web3 video games is within the informal style — low-commitment, rewarding gameplay that brings everybody collectively, from the players to the degens to the mothers enjoying Sweet Crush. So we got here up with Informal Degen.
Informal – that means anybody can play it
Degen – for the crypto crowd who need crypto-native experiences
For them, it’s the crypto components that make the sport enjoyable. Our flagship sport LOL Land was constructed particularly for crypto degens. In two months after launch, it had already made more cash than it price to construct, and in 5 months we’d crossed $5 million in lifetime income, which is a large sign that the mannequin is working.
That is actually promising as a result of most web3 video games haven’t received wherever near proving out retention and recurring income, not to mention profitability. It’s straightforward to construct hype however a lot more durable to construct one thing individuals will really spend cash on.
Rebecca Liao, CEO, Saga
In 2025, we’ve seen two main shifts in gaming which can be actually redefining the house.
The primary is that AI has quietly turn out to be one of many greatest forces reshaping web3 video games this yr. Builders are utilizing AI to generate richer worlds, smarter NPCs, and extra adaptive economies. We’re seeing AI each improve gameplay and streamline sport improvement and participant onboarding. The convergence of AI and web3 is creating experiences which can be extra dynamic, personalised, and economically sustainable than something we’ve seen earlier than.
That stated, one other attention-grabbing shift we’ve seen is the ‘web3 gaming’ moniker chucking up the sponge. Builders are not main with the expertise from a promotional standpoint. As an alternative, they’re targeted on constructing nice video games with blockchain woven quietly into the background to allow issues like possession, interoperability, and player-driven economies. It’s changing into much less about being a ‘web3 sport’ and extra about being an amazing sport that occurs to make use of web3 below the hood, and that’s not a foul factor.
David Bolger, head of gaming and shopper partnerships, Offchain Labs
In 2025, essentially the most outstanding shift in web3 gaming has been the widespread dedication to a web2-like person expertise (UX). Each main construct now locations social logins and pockets abstraction on the forefront, successfully eliminating the necessity for customers to ‘carry their very own pockets’ or handle advanced seed phrases for primary gameplay.
This simplified onboarding is primarily enabled by gaming focussed developer toolkits, additionally permitting builders to sponsor fuel charges for gamers, utterly eradicating the preliminary crypto-friction barrier. This deal with seamless UX indicators the business’s pivot towards attracting a mainstream, non-crypto-native viewers.
Philosophically, that is paired with the ‘Gameplay First’ motion, the place studios prioritize enjoyable, high-quality sport design over hypothesis, treating the web3 components (like verifiable asset possession) as an enhancement moderately than the core incentive.
Jason Lim, director of video games, Sei Growth Basis
With curiosity and capital transferring to sectors corresponding to synthetic intelligence (AI), web3 sport builders are beginning to pivot sport improvement and narrative of their sport loops with AI, enhancing gameplay for practical NPCs, adaptive problem, and personalised experiences to maintain up with the evolution of AI.
Anthony Palma, head of gaming partnerships, Mysten Labs
2025 has turn out to be the yr of consolidation, which brings with it each good and unhealthy. Total, the business is transferring previous the speculative section, with the market inserting considerably extra deal with gameplay depth and sustainability versus hype and projections.
Whereas the chance for web3-powered titles continued to development positively, this yr noticed giant swaths of shuttered initiatives – over 300 because the begin of 2025, with even extremely funded initiatives finally selecting to drag the plug.
That is principally as a result of a continued emphasis on triple-A high quality – what many see as the one approach to result in mass adoption for gaming onchain. It’s now projected that almost all triple-A PC/console titles will price over $200 million to create and publish, pricing smaller groups out of the market solely, notably from an funding perspective. And for cellular, builders are nonetheless coping with difficult platform constraints for blockchain integration alongside post-IDFA person acquisition challenges to succeed in mass scale
With that stated, it’s not all unhealthy information – as beforehand talked about, investments into web3-enabled gaming proceed to stream in and the general sector has trended upwards when it comes to development and potential over the course of the yr.
Mysten Labs will proceed to be a significant contributor to the sector throughout this time, and can proceed this push for triple-A high quality with extremely anticipated titles like EVE Frontier that plan to take full benefit of web3 infrastructure for gaming.
Sam Barberie, head of technique and partnerships, Sequence
Out with the chaff. 2025 continued the consolidation of the web3 video games market throughout plenty of fronts: chains, video games, tokens, traders. For essentially the most half, I view this as a constructive development. The previous few years had been dominated by dumb cash, distracting and misguided ICOs, chain confusion and fragmentation, and — frankly — too many individuals making video games who didn’t have the flexibility to drag it off.
Gaming is a troublesome enterprise no matter what database you’re utilizing, and the experiments of earlier years led to unlucky false begins and inaccurate playbooks; thankfully, 2025 has continued to whittle down the market to 1 that’s extra simply navigable. With that comes better likelihood of success for video games, extra alternatives to show the PMF, extra probabilities to entice traders. Troughs of disillusionment might be useful.
We’ve seen actual successes come to market in 2025. TapNation built-in web3 parts into current, informal, web2 video games and noticed the sorts of retention, conversion, and monetization boosts we’d all need to see as showcasing the advantages of the blockchain.
Off the Grid continued its stabilized rollout, reminding us that even core console and PC video games have potential in web3. Studios continued measured, opt-in, secondary purposes of web3 like Distinct Risk’s Reaper Precise.
There’s additionally a marked shift within the acceptance and adoption of crypto. Embrace of stablecoins by the bigger web3 market this yr — in addition to conventional monetary establishments — imply that shopper spending energy is more and more transferring onchain. Builders of all types need to entry any obtainable fee possibility to extend spend, and stablecoins cut back the noise and instability of gaming economies. Conventional sport publishers are taking notice, and interested by what different fee strategies their current portfolios can leverage.
Despite the fact that 2025 spelled the top for a lot of groups and firms making an attempt in earnest to show web3 gaming’s potential, the seriousness of present initiatives, and the optimism surrounding the adoption within the macro market current a notable reorganization of the web3 gaming panorama.
Chris Heatherly, ex-CEO Nice Massive Stunning Tomorrow
2025 is the yr the sport token hypothesis meta nicely and really died. 96% of sport tokens have failed. Clearly the play-to-earn mannequin as conceived doesn’t work. What the market wished was to “commerce consideration” however the actuality is that memecoins had been – and now prediction markets are – a greater car of that.
The crypto sport of the yr is Polymarket, and that’s an actual bitter tablet for lots of sport makers to swallow.
There’s some hope. LOL Land and Gigaverse have finished $4-5m this yr so there’s some hope of restoration, nevertheless it’s not clear how rather more these video games can develop. The truth stays that we’ve a small crowd of web3 players which limits the dimensions of any success. I’m rather more bullish on what Legendary is doing as a result of they’re launching video games to a bigger viewers on cellular. NFL Rivals has finished over $10m, and I’ll be curious to see if Pudgy Occasion can get any scale.
My tackle this house actually doesn’t adjustments – we have to deal with scale with common customers or it’s only a area of interest. And that could be okay for smaller devs, nevertheless it gained’t entice a lot funding or high devs.
Jack O’Holleran, CEO, SKALE Labs
Probably the most outstanding shift in 2025 has been builders lastly placing gameplay earlier than tokenomics.
For years, web3 gaming was dominated by initiatives that launched tokens first and requested questions on enjoyable later. That period is useless. The video games gaining actual traction now are those that made blockchain invisible and targeted on constructing experiences gamers really need.
This shift is forcing all the ecosystem to mature. Infrastructure suppliers, traders, and studios are all realizing that sustainable gaming income comes from engaged gamers, not speculative token launches. Fuel-free transactions, seamless onboarding, and actual utility are not nice-to-haves. They’re desk stakes.
The winners on this new panorama gained’t be the initiatives with the flashiest token launches or essentially the most L3s. They’ll be those delivering high quality experiences the place blockchain enhances gameplay as an alternative of defining it. High quality over hype. Fundamentals over vibes. That’s the shift that can outline web3 gaming’s future.”
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