As with everything blockchain, change is happening unexpectedly, faster than even the most enthusiastic commentator could have imagined.
And so it is that the first US publicly traded game company has hired a blockchain expert: mobile outfit Zynga has just announced Matt Wolf as its first VP of Blockchain Gaming.
It’s a big step, not least in terms of Zynga publicly taking a stance that despite all the legal and regulatory uncertainty, blockchain gaming is something it has to explore.
Of course, having such a position doesn’t necessarily mean the company is ready to start announcing product but it seems Zynga is remarkably open both to retrospectively fitting NFTs and blockchain to existing games as well as building from the ground up.
Zynga’s positioning also seems significant given that 95% of its revenue comes through the Apple App Store and Google Play Store, neither of which yet has a formal policy about how developers can operate NFTs and cryptocurrencies.
For that reason, Zynga wasn’t the first such company I expected to launch into blockchain gaming, although founder and chairman Mark Pincus has been actively investing in the space in as an angel.
We’ll have to see exactly how the new strategy plays out in terms of mobile.
Certainly it’s worth pointing out that the only mobile-first blockchain game to find any success to-date is Upland has been forced to massively limit the openness of its economy to comply with app store T&Cs.
For example, the game has been live since early 2020 but still only has around 40,000 DAUWs, with only $1.5 million generated by its player base through its convoluted fiat-out payment option.
Compare that to the 2.5 million DAUs and hundreds of millions of dollars Axie Infinity is facilitating outside of app stores on its own open infrastructure.
Still, aside from Zynga, it looks like all traditional game companies are going to have to follow suit, whether they’re enthusiastic or forced by shareholder pressure.
Certainly it was interesting to hear EA CEO Andrew Wilson’s comments and especially Take-Two’s Strauss Zelnick - generally an arch-sceptic when it comes to new tech - generally embracing the new paradigm.
Other big companies are already deploying; EVE Online is minting reward NFTs during its ongoing Alliance Tournament XVII event this week using the Tezos blockchain for example.
For the funding drip-drip-drip has become a geyser with multiple US gaming startups raising decent amounts from well-known VCs ranging from Andreesen Horowitz to Lightspeed Venture Capital and Sequoia.
Even GamesIndustry.biz is slowly rolling back its ridiculous stance.
In other words, the blockchaing gaming box is now truly open; let the chaos begin.
And repeat after me — whatever happens — "It’s a feature not a bug!”