Polkadot Emerges As A Force To Be Reckoned With In Web3 Gaming

Mythical Games’ recent switch from Ethereum to Polkadot underlines how the latter chain is rapidly emerging as one of the most popular decentralized networks for Web3 game developers. 

Polkadot is one of several smart contract blockchains that has previously been labeled an “Ethereum Killer”, offering superior speed and scalability, but even with its significant edge in terms of performance, it has been unable to build an ecosystem to match the world’s first smart contract blockchain. 

But there are signs that is changing in the blockchain gaming sector, where a number of innovations have helped Polkadot stand out as a more enticing venue for games developers. 

For instance, Polkadot recently announced a major infrastructure upgrade with JAM, which swapped out the original Relay chain for one that’s more flexible and modular, paving the way for permissionless development within its ecosystem. JAM enables rollup scalability on Polkadot, helping to reduce fragmentation and unite activity upon a single chain. 

With the rollout of JAM, Polkadot revealed it’s setting aside 10 million DOT tokens (around $65 million) to entice developers to take advantage of the way it improves the network’s overall resilience. 

One month before JAM went live, Polkadot announced the Verified Polkadot SDK for Unity, the popular game development engine that sits at the heart of some of the biggest traditional AAA video games. With Unity Engine, Polkadot game developers have a simpler, streamlined way to craft immersive Web3 gaming experiences. Moreover, developers can access additional tools and resources as well as dedicated technical support via Polkadot Play, a decentralized entity within Polkadot that was created to promote game development. The combination of Unity and Polkadot Play empowers developers to create world-class games and smooth their integration with the Polkadot blockchain. 

A Ready-Made Audience 

Polkadot’s focus on the gaming sector makes a lot of sense, as it’s widely considered to be one of the most appealing of Web3 use cases, thanks to the existence of a traditional video games industry that counted over 3 billion gamers globally in 2023. Web3 games have shown that there’s a lot of potential to tap into this established audience. 

A case in point is NFL Rivals, which is built on the world’s number one gaming blockchain, Mythical Games, which recently ditched Ethereum in favor of migrating into the Polkadot ecosystem. NFL Rivals has been gaining some impressive momentum – so much so that VentureBeat recently proclaimed it to be one of the most successful hybrid Web2/Web3 games ever launched, having hit a number of significant milestones in recent weeks. 

NFL Rivals’ secret lies in its appeal to NFL fans and traditional video gamers. It has been downloaded an impressive five million times across Google and Apple’s app stores, aided by the fact that it has the official stamp of approval from the NFL itself. The game is novel in that players don’t have to concern themselves with the Web3 elements at all. They can purchase add-ons using fiat and play the game just as they would play any non-blockchain game. The Web3 elements are simply there to enhance the experience for players that do want to explore the benefits of owning their in-game assets, and they have proven to be appealing to a significant subset of NFL Rivals’ players. 

The trick to NFL Rivals’ success has been the creation of a “secondary market” that enables players to trade their in-game assets with each other, with these transactions recorded on the underlying blockchain, but otherwise invisible to the player’s themselves. It’s a novel implementation that has resulted in that secondary trading market providing a 50% boost to the game’s total revenue, underscoring the argument that blockchain can achieve mainstream adoption by abstracting away the underlying complexity. 

The success of that title is believed to be the impetus behind Mythical Games’ recent partnership with the developers of the hit game Pudgy Penguins. They announced plans to team up and create a new Web3-enabled, AAA-style mobile game that will employ a similar strategy to that of NFL Rivals. In addition, Mythical also wants to bring its hit blockchain game Blankos Block Party to Apple and Google’s mobile app stores using the same kind of model. 

Polkadot’s Strong Gaming Foundation

Mythical Games isn’t alone in promoting Polkadot’s Web3 gaming growth, however. Another parachain in the Polkadot ecosystem, Moonbeam Network, recently announced it has created a $13 million fund, with $10 million of that going towards projects like N3MUS, which aims to bring Web3 gaming into the mainstream. 

Ajuna Network, another parachain, has also been making a splash with blockchain games through its earlier integrations with Unity and also Unreal Engine and its partnership with IntegriTEE, which enables developers to use Trusted Execution Environments to create secure and scalable blockchain gaming experiences. 

A recent upgrade saw Ajuna introduce a transformative capability called asynchronous backing, which reduces block times on its network from 12 seconds to just 6 seconds, meaning faster transactions. This provides tangible benefits for gamers, with faster transaction finality and lower latency equating to a more responsive gaming experience without interruptions. 

The update should help to boost what is already a thriving gaming ecosystem on Ajuna, which consists of titles such as Battle Mogs and Stardust Colonies, DOT 4 Gravity, and Evrloot. 

There’s also Astar Network, the leading smart contract platform in Japan, which has already emerged as one of the leading hubs of Web3 gaming. Astar supports EVM and WebAssembly environments, meaning seamless interoperability with both Polkadot’s and Ethereum’s gaming ecosystems while incentivizing game development via its Build2Earn program for developers. Astar has emerged as a pioneer in decentralized gaming and is home to some of the biggest Web3 titles, including the popular cross-chain game DEO Arena Season 3, the tactical RPG game Mones, and the battle royale-style Witch One.

A Pioneering Platform For Web3 Games

These developments underscore the immense progress Polkadot has made in leveraging the mass appeal of video games to build out its wider Web3 ecosystem. 

It has long become clear that if blockchain is to succeed, it needs to be seamlessly integrated into existing technology systems in such a way that it doesn’t overwhelm users with the technical details. Web3 applications must deliver a user-friendly experience that’s immediately familiar to every Web2 user, and with its popular games like NFL Rivals, Polkadot is demonstrating exactly how that works. 

By focusing on the needs of gamers and creating the enthralling experiences they desire, without any of the underlying complexity that characterizes blockchains, Polkadot is paving the way for a more equitable and exciting video games industry that will provide useful benefits to players and developers alike.