In Asia, video games are often a source of headaches and bickering for parents of Gen X and Gen Y children. As teens immerse themselves in virtual worlds of fire-breathing dragons, club-wielding warlords and magical sorcery, parents worry that their children are wasting their time and money on activities that will yield little value in the long run.
Fast forward to 2022. In Manila, Philippines, not only has social stigma against video gamers disappeared, but skilled players are being hailed as smart, resourceful entrepreneurs who are helping the country enter the digital age. This increasingly positive view of video game players is spreading throughout Southeast Asia. Much of this shift in perception depends on one phenomenon. gameFi.
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GameFi, also known as Play to Earn (P2E), is the financialization of gaming through the use of blockchain technology. Initially, video games started with a pay-to-play model and then transitioned to a standard free-to-play model.
Today, players in the GameFi world can earn and trade digital assets that can be converted into fiat currency to help supplement everyday financial transactions. Simply put, many of the so-called “game addicts” their parents feared were now monetizing their talents and creating a sustainable source of income for themselves and their families.
Digital native and early adopters
GameFi is undoubtedly a monumental game changer in Southeast Asia, where the current state of the region’s economy and the rapid spread of digital adoption could make it the capital of the global P2E model.
According to official data, only about 30% of adults in the Philippines have a traditional bank account, compared to nearly 100% in neighboring Asian countries like South Korea, Taiwan and Japan. The populations of Southeast Asian countries such as Cambodia, Indonesia and Vietnam are also relatively unbanked.
However, among the top 15 countries using MetaMask, the Philippines ranks first with the most active users, followed by Vietnam (third), India (sixth), Indonesia (ninth), and Thailand (tenth). These rankings provide evidence that many people in Southeast Asian countries are bypassing the traditional banking route and rapidly adopting Web 3 applications.
In addition, many players in the region earn enough from P2E games to make a living or significantly supplement their current income. This situation is different from the US and other high cost of living countries where P2E income is not as important for people to support themselves. Southeast Asia will remain fertile ground for GameFi to thrive.
For this reason, my company, Infinity Venture Crypto (IVC), has allocated a significant portion of its inaugural fund, capped at $70 million, to support blockchain project development globally, with a focus on Southeast Asia.
For example, Axie Infinity, one of the world’s most popular blockchain games with over 8.3 million players, is the creation of Vietnamese studio Sky Mavis and has the most active user base in the Philippines. yield Guild Games (YGG), one of IVC’s portfolio companies, is a decentralized autonomous organization of gaming guilds based in the Philippines. invests in blockchain-based games and NFTs (non-fungible tokens) used in virtual worlds.
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In order to participate in P2E games, players need access to in-game NFTs, which are often beyond their financial means. By lending NFTs to members of its community, often referred to as scholars, YGG financially attracted players who wanted to use their gaming skills to bring home extra bacon.COVID-19 put many players out of work and gave the development of P2E games in Southeast Asia a major boost.
GameFi’s pain points
While the P2E industry in Southeast Asia is growing at a breakneck pace, many pioneers are struggling to keep up with the momentum. They must still address the bottlenecks that prevent players from joining P2E games more easily and hinder the accelerated growth of the GameFi ecosystem in Southeast Asia. One example is the lack of guild customer relationship management (CRM) software to help track scholars’ performance and exits. Guild and scholar managers now use Google Sheets and Excel to do this work. Another pain point is the difficulty scholars have converting and using the tokens they earn in the game to spend in real life.
More than anyone else, entrepreneurs in Southeast Asia understand these weaknesses and have been working to address them, not only because they are at the center of the GameFi ecosystem, but also because they see the need for better software to support the massive growth of GameFi and ensure that the industry can continue to scale.