CoinVoice: Tell us a little bit about yourself. (Professional background/personal experience in the Web3 space)
Andy: I’m Andy, the co-founder and CEO of Mugen Interactive. Prior to founding Mugen Interactive, I worked at Tencent Games for many years, where I was involved in the design and operation of six mobile games, including easy and medium-segmented original IP and famous IP games. All of these games have more than 1 million daily active users and annual revenues in the million-dollar range.
In addition, I also led the business development of Tencent Games in the Indian market, and successfully launched a number of games for the Indian market. After that, I joined WeLab, a well-known fintech company in Asia, where I led new businesses such as privacy-preserving computing and Digital Banking, and participated in WeLab’s expansion in the Indonesian market.
With years of accumulation in the gaming and Blockchain industry, I believe that Web3 will change the gaming experience and business model. In 2021, my partners and I founded Mugen Interactive, which aims to revolutionize the gaming industry through Web3 technology and create a completely different gaming experience.
CoinVoice: Many readers may not be familiar with Mugen Interactive, can you briefly introduce it?
Andy: Mugen Interactive was founded in 2021. We are a game studio focusing on developing Web3 games, with a team of 20 people, mainly from mobile games and Blockchain backgrounds. We are made up of a group of comrades who are fascinated by both gaming and Blockchain. Our mission is to design games that all players will love to play.
Our first self-developed game is Legend of Arcadia, a free-to-play, play-to-earn card game Blockchain strategy. The product has been online for more than a year, and has more than 20,000 active users on the Sui public chain.
Our second game, Last Odyssey, is currently in closed beta and is a Web3 version of a City-State simulation similar to StarCraft. We plan to launch the Open Beta in Q1 2024.
CoinVoice: How do you see the future of Web3 in the gaming industry? What advantages do you think Web3 brings to the technical level compared to traditional games that can change the gaming experience? What new opportunities does Web3 bring in terms of business models?
Andy: I’m optimistic about the application prospects of Web3 in the gaming industry, which will usher in a period of rapid development in the next 3-5 years.
From a technical level, Blockchain can solve the problem of authenticity and trusted exchange of game assets. Non-fungible Token game items have independent attributes and can be transferred and traded between games. Blockchain can enable real item ownership and player economy.
From the business model, Web3 can break the traditional game intermediary service fee system and open a new “play to earn” business model. Publishers can sell directly to users, and users can also earn financial rewards through the game. It is believed that in the next three years, developers will design more innovative models to enhance the application prospects of Web3 games and the playfulness of games.
From the perspective of global trends, players are paying more and more attention to the construction of in-game economic ecology. Web3 will revolutionize the gaming experience and industry landscape, becoming a part of the mainstream game in the future, greatly influencing and reshaping the entire industry.
CoinVoice: With the many ups and downs that the Web3 industry has experienced over the past year, and the overall gaming industry has been in a bad environment recently, what do you think are the main challenges facing Web3 games that need to be addressed at the moment? What are some of the most profound changes in the gaming industry, and how do these changes affect practitioners and investors?
Andy: The recent financial situation has led to a large number of game project closures. However, in the long run, it will fully expose the importance of the industry’s need to improve, which will accelerate the improvement of technical and managerial maturity.
At present, the main challenges faced by Web3 games include unfriendly user experience and difficulty in getting started, insufficient regulatory policies and legal risks, uneven project quality, lagging products, too many scam projects, difficulty in reducing costs and entering the game, and high financial pressure.
However, as the weak remain strong, Blockchain technology will further mature and popularize, and the game industry will undergo more profound changes. For the project team, it is necessary to pay attention to user experience, learn new technologies and sustainable development of the project. For investors, it is necessary to pay attention to the frontier of the field, and pay attention to the project team and product track.
**CoinVoice: What is the difference between the new model architecture of GameFi 2.0 and the concept of GameFi Play2-to-earn in 2021? 2024 is considered to be the first year of GameFi 2.0, and in the past 2 months, many projects have begun to emerge and start to do a lot of activities.
Andy: GameFi 2.0 integrates gameplay into social and mid-to-late content, no longer solely driven by making money. We expect the GameFi 2.0 project to grow rapidly next year, attracting more traditional players. Our studio will continue to strengthen its independent R&D capabilities and cooperate with more communities, Up owners and investment institutions to create high-quality Web3 games. Our goal is to be a leader in the region.
At Mugen Interactive, the most important thing we value is the user experience. Although GameFi 2.0 will inject more social elements, the core is to ensure that the game itself is just fun and easy to play. Both of our branded games are designed with this in mind.
Legend of Arcadia has been online for more than 1 year, and we continue to improve user retention and engagement through continuous optimization. At the same time, we are developing a mobile game version in order to attract more mobile players. We believe this will be of interest to more potential users.
The new SLG project, Last Odyssey, is currently in closed beta and aims to increase realism in Web3 SLG. We hope to use it to attract more traditional SLG players. We also develop Non-fungible Token zones and PvP battle modules to make players more fun.
In general, the studio has always adhered to a business model that focuses on quality over quantity, and designs fun, classic games for players. Therefore, we set a plan to rapidly expand the team size in 2024 and add 1-2 mobile products. We hope to become a well-known Web3 game developer through quality products and good operations. This is our current strategic plan.
Source: CoinVoice Original
