The real Web3 metaverse is already on mobile
MANY moons ago on a dull Edinburgh afternoon in 2003 I unexpectedly went drinking in a goth bar with Rhianna Pratchett, the games-loving daughter of Terry Pratchett.
While not a fan of the latter’s books, I had a lot of respect for Rhianna’s gaming nous and who was, in many respects, a female games pioneer.
The reason for this random cute-meet was that I had been a speaker, then attendee, at the Edinburgh Games Festival when I was working in mobile games and experiencing opposition from the console and PC games industries who had derision for mobile games.
This was compounded when the audience of the event was asked to use a clicker and answer which UK games companies were listed on the stock market. I knew the answer and it included two incipient mobile games companies.
However, the emcee of the event gave another answer until somebody shouted out that he’d forgotten (as I have this moment, I think it was) Supercell and the emcee replied, to the hilarity of the audience, that it was ‘only a mobile games company’. Hence boozing with Rhianna.
Two decades on and it astounds me that mobile content doesn’t quite get the credit it deserves even though there are now more mobile phones on the planet than there are people - nine billion.
And so history seems to be repeating itself when it comes to Web3. Even though the mobile is the biggest entertainment device in the history of the world, the emphasis has been on the so-called metaverse and the future riches it represents.
The precedents of the first metaverse environments and entertainment platforms were always going to be a hard act to follow. The unexpected organic growth of Fornite and Roblox with their concomitant now-riches, not future ones, started a gold rush of sorts that hasn’t quite provided the seam of success imitators had expected.
This has especially been the case with console games and their huge development projects on AAA titles being spent on taking them into the metaverse; nothing has quite hit critical mass as of yet.
Of course, the metaverse IS a thing and will be a thing, but perhaps the real Web3 revolution is happening right now on mobile. One such company that seems to be getting it right is Grapes, a Web3 entertainment company that has focused on mobile-first.
Backed by super Web3 investor Animoca Brands, the company has raised $8 million and Its NFT project at the end of 2023 saw more than $110 million flow through the project, which was a combination of NFT volume and its token launch.
Founded by games veteran Ben Cusack and agency founder Dan Beasley, Grapes has emerged as one of the more progressive entertainment companies in Web3 because of its focus on mobile and making the metaverse uncomplicated and available to everybody.
Beasley believes that hard work has been the approach that is starting to pay off and one that has centred on making it easy for the consumer.
“I think that we made some smart moves by realising that mobile was the simplest approach to Web3," he says.
"We launched in the depths of a bear market and we always knew we were an excellent bet for a bull run and, naturally, we’re delighted it is panning out the way we expected.
“And it’s not just about Web3, it’s also about Web2. Our mobile content can go into both universes and that brings multi revenue streams such as game revenue, NFT secondaries, licensing, products and so on. By taking this approach we have attracted a huge following and a dedicated community that has taken us to this place.”
Tim Harrison is EVP Community & Ecosystem at IOG and he iterates Beasley’s comments when it comes to Web2 and Web3 gaming.
“Many Web2 games rely on centralised or federated servers and databases and effectively any experience, in-game credits or rewards are by permission of the publisher," he explained.
"Web3 opens that right up with things such as true ownership and transferability across different permissionless blockchain ecosystems.
“Paima Engine is another interesting project blending Web2 and a Web3 approach leveraging the best of all worlds and working with different blockchains (including Ethereum's Arbitrum and Cardano) to optimise the cross-chain gaming experience.”
Grapes’ Beasley further cites the OG mobile game Angry Birds as an inspiration and sees Netflix and Spotify as competitors, not just the games industry. And these are not grandiose words. After bringing in $110 million through the project, these are numbers that Grapes expects to improve on in 2024.
“We have just set up our March Madness programme where we will be introducing real money games and scratchcards as well as Grapes Bingo and other content for mobile gamers.”
While it may take some time for Grapes to open theme parks, like the Rovio founders of Angry Birds, there is certainly a market that can handle such growth.
Maybe Rhianna Pratchett agrees, but the last time I saw her was when we staggered out of that bar more than two decades ago.
What is certain, though, is that the mobile phone used to influence our lives 20 years ago now dominates our lives.
So it’s clearly the entry point to Web3 entertainment, as some companies have already understood and some seemed to have overlooked.
