The gaming industry is benefitting from its shift from Web 2 to Web 3. Transitioning from Web2 to blockchain technology in the gaming industry offers several benefits. Firstly, blockchain enhances player ownership by allowing gamers to have true ownership of in-game assets that can be bought, sold, and traded across different games and platforms.
Blockchain technology ensures transparency and security through decentralised ledger technology, reducing the risk of cheating, fraud, or centralised control.
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According to a recent report, the market size of gaming is expected to reach $8.6 billion by 2027, up from $2.6 billion in 2022, at a CAGR of 27%. The global Web3 gaming industry is expected to rise at a CAGR of 18.7% from 2023 to 2033. This not only empowers players but also creates a new economy around gaming.
This week, Web3 multi-gaming platform, Circle of Games (COG), raised US$1 million in equity funding from strategic investors Nazara Technologies FZ LLC, (a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Nazara Technologies Limited) and The Hashgraph Association, a Swiss organization focused on digital enablement for Hedera, a distributed ledger technology.
Nazara has been pledging a US$ 100 million to invest in successful and innovative brands and IPs with cutting-edge technology in the web3, Virtual Reality, and AI space.
COG has strategic partnerships and collaborations with prominent Web3 projects and ecosystems worldwide, namely Chingari, Solana, Foundership, KGeN/IndiGGMetarun, TheFishVerse, NinjaGames and various Gaming Guilds/DAOs, among others. The company has implemented multi-chain technology, with Hedera being the primary mainnet where the majority of on-chain transactions occur, and is empowering players with full ownership and control over their in-game assets and tokens. COG is set to launch its native token ($COG Token) by the end of Q2, 2024, promising an enhanced and innovative user experience.
COG develops casual and skilled-based games on the blockchain, with play-to-earn reward mechanics.
Rabilal Thapa, CEO and Co-Founder of Circle of Games, said, “This strategic partnership not only represents a significant endorsement of COG’s mission and potential but also places the company in a prime position to exploit the expansive capabilities of Web3 gaming innovations, globally.”
Kamal Youssefi, President of The Hashgraph Association said: “We are pleased to further empower the global Web3 gaming industry through our co-investment with Nazara Technologies in Circle of Games.”
This partnership will also unlock many possibilities for COG to internationally leverage these resources through its Distribution Infrastructure Network (DIN). The DIN is a critical facet of COG’s multi-gaming platform, designed to globalize the distribution and monetization of gaming content effectively.
In November, Kratos Studios, owner of the IndiGG IP, announced a program called ‘Kratos Games Network’ which will allocate a grant of INR 50 crores towards gaming studios. The company will aim to target the first set of 10-15 studios by March 2024.
Kratos has already enabled monetization for 1.5 lakh gamers, amounting to INR 5 crore, and is expected to see a 100X increase in the number of gamers with this move. The program will extend the grant to web2 gaming development studios and will transition their games to blockchain gaming. The program aims to build a strong game developer community across the world and create a pipeline of the top games that cut across genres, languages and cultural sensitivities and make the same available on the Kratos platform.
The shortlisted gaming studios will get the benefit of the Kratos proprietary blockchain tech stack giving them access to the 10 lakh user base of the on-chain global gamer community. The integration of blockchain will enable these studios to monetize and build revenue for developers and gamers alike.
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The Kratos gamer community is already present in multiple geographies and will target gaming studios beyond India, including LATAM, East Asia, and SE Asia. The rigorous selection process will focus on factors based on profitability spanning 2-3 years, game studios with a minimum daily active user count of 500,000.
The Network will offer a multitude of benefits, including access to many gamer communities. Being a part of Kratos Games Network, the partner developers will also have an economic value-sharing model with their gamers, leading to enhanced user retention and increased monetization for individual gamers.
