Blockchain gaming firm Azra Games is taking a special method to NFTs in Web3 video games, specializing in the gameplay itself quite than the crypto parts.
In a current interview, Azra Games founder and CEO Mark Otero stated Web3 video games have to be so good that individuals undertake it for the gameplay not for NFTs or its in-game tokens.
“Web3 is not at the foreground or forefront of the players’ experience,” he stated throughout a current interview with Decrypt. “In fact, we must build a game so good people don’t care. And they shouldn’t know they are playing a Web3 game.”
Otero added that the Web3 parts of a recreation ought to reveal themselves solely after gamers “fall in love” with it, enhancing the person expertise and bringing further worth to the sport.
He stated this distinctive imaginative and prescient was a part of the rationale Azra obtained funding from enterprise capital companies like Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), NFX, Coinbase Ventures, and Play Ventures.
Otero, a former common supervisor at international gaming big Digital Arts, based Azra Games in 2022 with the purpose to create video games that incorporate Web3 parts like NFTs and in-game tokens.
The corporate has raised a complete of $25 million up to now. Its newest fundraising spherical was in February this 12 months when the corporate raised $10 million at an undisclosed valuation.
On the time, the corporate stated it was engaged on a recreation referred to as Legions & Legends. “Legions & Legends is an opportunity for us to create something with a potential new business model for a new platform,” Otero stated.
Otero is working with fellow entrepreneurs Sonny Mayugba and Travis Boudreaux. The corporate has additionally employed veterans from Capital Games.
Otero Reveals Skepticism About Play-to-Earn Games
Through the current interview, Otero additionally expressed skepticism concerning the idea of paly-to-earn, a blockchain gaming mechanic the place gamers earn crypto tokens as rewards for finishing duties, successful battles, and competing in opposition to different gamers.
He stated there are completely different participant varieties. In the primary place, there are conventional gamers who’re in search of leisure worth and are “intrinsically motivated” to play a recreation.
Nevertheless, crypto native gamers have completely different motivations. In accordance with Otero, these gamers are sometimes “extrinsically motivated,” that means they search to earn cash in return for taking part in a recreation.
“Our philosophy has always been gameplay, entertainment value, and fun first. Period. Why? Because that is sustainable.”
Otero’s assertion comes as blockchain video games have seen a pointy drop within the variety of customers and buying and selling quantity over the previous couple of months.
