Firms tie up with influencers to drive engagement in web3 games

Gaming firms in India are looking to engage with influencers to push the adoption of web3 gaming in India. Web3 gaming refers to blockchain-based and play-to-earn (P2E) games, where gamers are rewarded with tokens for participating or winning. In-game items in such games are purchased and traded as non-fungible tokens (NFTs) too.

For instance, Gurugram-based gaming firm Trinity Gaming, announced a partnership with UAE-based EmChain on Wednesday to “facilitate business worth $10 million” in the web3 and blockchain-based gaming sector in India. The two companies will train, mentor and provide revenue streams to creators in this space.

Shivam Rao, co-founder and COO of Trinity Gaming, said his firm is in talks with Web3 game developers and publishers in the genre of battle royale and casual games to help launch new games in India. Everdome - The Metaverse Real Estate, is one of the Web3 platforms that will be partnering with them.

The $10 million fund will be provided by a bunch of international web3 game developers and publishers, who are looking to enter the Indian market.

“We will help them launch and run their games in India. This pool of $10 million will be distributed among community enablers such as eSports athletes, tournament operators, and content creators. We know what type of content needs to be made to create traction,” said Rao.

Trinity isn’t the only one either. Web3 gaming platform IndiGG has also been quite active in building this ecosystem in India. The company is working with Tezos India, the Indian arm of the Tezos blockchain platform, to develop tools and services for the creators and developers.

As part of that partnership, when a new game is launched on the blockchain, IndiGG will buy its NFTs and lease them out to its community of gamers, encouraging them to play the game and earn rewards. 

The company is also working with eSports firm House of Gaming to hold both online and offline gaming tournaments around web3 games in India.

“We need influencers for web3 gaming since the awareness is low. Unless and until somebody is playing the game, people won't know how the game works and how much they can earn. In web2 games people play for fun, but in web3 games, people play to get something back,” said Priya Ratnam, founder and CMO of Avisa Ventures.

To be sure, the ongoing crypto winter has impacted the web3 gaming industry worldwide. The value of AXS, an Ethereum-based token used in popular web3 game Axie Infinity, has fallen from $12.89 in the first week of October to $6.9 as of December 21. Others like Decentraland’s Mana token have shown similar trends too.

Through such tie-ups with content creators, stakeholders in Web3 gaming are looking to revive interest in this emerging segment of gaming.