7/14/2023 0 Comments Will bitcraft be on console“If you’re one of those people who enjoys Hearthstone, or Legends of Runeterra, or any of those strategic card games, you’ll love this,” he said. While hardcore, purist gamers may dismiss Axie as a mindless work with little creative value, Huang pointed out that it’s “basically a card game” with a niche audience. The play-to-earn hit Axi Infinity, for example, was created in Vietnam and has earned a loyal user base in Asian countries like the Philippines. Given Bitcraft’s focus on Web3, it makes complete sense for the firm to set up in Asia where consumer appetite for blockchain games is huge. Is… The bottom line is this: is this new platform going to drive the next wave of innovation? So at one point, I was thinking to myself… maybe we don’t need hardware to drive new models of consumption. “If you use the current mental model of hardware driving innovation, it doesn’t work. He said that the next innovation may not come from hardware, but from blockchain, which is a database. Huang is nonetheless optimistic about blockchain-powered games, arguing that over the past few decades, breakthroughs in hardware have started new innovation cycles – from arcade, console, PC to mobile games. Research firm Newzoo predicts that the overall gaming industry is set to reach three billion users by 2023. Despite billions of dollars pouring into Web3 gaming, the genre is attracting mostly crypto-native users for now.Īccording to analytics firm DappRadar, investment for blockchain games is set to reach $7.6 billion in 2022, double the amount from a year ago On average, however, just over one million unique active wallets per day were connected to game dApps (decentralized apps) last year (crypto wallets are channels for gamers to access and trade their in-game assets). Investors are going after a sector that is still a niche. The firm’s typical check sizes for seed investments in traditional equity range from $2-10 million Checks for Web3 projects are a bit smaller, ranging from $1 million to $5 million. Oh and Huang will hunt down traditional gaming projects in Asia, but will also allocate a substantial portion of their time to high-potential blockchain games. “I came through two years of banking and investing for the last six years … having that operator-plus-investor combo is something that is very, very powerful that we don’t see in many funds.” “My background is very investor-centric,” said the investor, who has been a lifelong gamer himself. Oh “really knows the space very well as an operator… He’s very well connected and knows the ins and outs of building a game and a platform and all the adjacencies with gaming,” Huang said. The team also benefits from the investors’ complementary experiences in the gaming industry. Over time, the firm aims to develop a dedicated strategy for the continent with the goal of increasing investments in Asia by 20-25%.ĭespite having a small team of two in the field, the fact that BitCraft has boots on the ground in Asia gives it a big advantage over many other Western gaming funds, Huang, who is based in Singapore, told TechCrunch in an interview. After investing mostly in the West for eight years, the firm is expanding its presence in Asia to capture the continent’s savvy mobile gamers and the new Web3 gaming space.īitCraft, which has a portfolio of more than 100 startups, today announced it is expanding into Asia by bringing on two new members: Jin Oh, former president of Riot Games and CEO of Garena, will take the helm as partner Former Temasek director Jonathan Huang will serve as principal.Ĭurrently, Bitcraft invests 15% outside the Western market, with the majority in Asia. With $830 million in assets under management, Bitcraft Ventures has made a name for itself supporting early- to mid-scale Web3 games and other immersive technologies.
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