How AI can help level the playing field between web3 and traditional gaming

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Web3 gaming has always been a polarizing feature in the blockchain space; It’s a polarizing industry in itself. Its rise and fall, in many ways, mirrored the broader crypto industry’s boom-to-bust transition between 2021 and 2022. But as crypto grew steadily and certainly gained more traction, few expected web3 gaming to become more than an insignificant niche industry.

After all, traditional players quickly discovered that most of these games were neither fun nor a time-consuming and complicated way to stake seemingly “worthless” tokens and NFTs.

However, in mid-March, web3 gaming tokens eclipsed market cap above $30 billion for the first time since the previous bull run, when the industry peaked amid the COVID-induced “play to win” frenzy. The market cap of the GameFi sector increased by six percent in 24 hours, outperforming the growth of the overall crypto market and marking a turning point in consumer behavior favoring higher risk investments.

While mainstream gamers won’t care about the volatile price swings of Decentraland’s MANA or the price increase of Gala Game’s GALA utility token, the emergence of AI in web3 games points to legitimacy and the potential to grow the user base. With the traditional gaming market predicted to exceed $270 billion by 2024, web3 games need to appeal to gamers who are largely skeptical of any game that leverages blockchain or mentions NFTs in marketing materials.

Investments in web3 game projects between Q3 2022 and Q3 2023. Source: DappRadar

Fortunately, web3 game studios and projects now understand that appealing to traditional gamers requires a new approach. That’s why the focus is now on creating fun games that are more similar to their mainstream counterparts. To fulfill this mission, Web3 Gaming continues to recruit experienced developers and executives from the mainstream gaming industry, while using artificial intelligence to enhance in-game elements such as interactions with bots and realistic simulation of immersive environments.

For example, Aptos Labs, the development team behind layer 1 chain, recently partnered with Google Cloud to support Aptos GameStack, a unified platform for building, integrating, and connecting blockchain elements within games. By leveraging Google’s cloud infrastructure, combining analytics, and integrating AI and machine learning products, Aptos powers the broader web3 gaming industry, empowering developers to deliver a higher quality gaming experience.

Integrating AI-powered features and drawing on the experience of traditional gaming veterans certainly shows that the field has matured since the peak of gaming, but work is still ongoing to bring mainstream players into the game. For example, a report from the Blockchain Gaming Association found that 55 percent of survey respondents said the process of participating in crypto is one of the main challenges in the industry, especially when players must open a wallet to play.

While Exverse isn’t focused on solving the problems of web3 games, it is a first-person shooter that embodies what the industry needs to do to embrace non-crypto players. This AAA-aimed, free-to-play game prioritizes gameplay and engaging stories while using artificial intelligence to enhance interaction with non-player characters. Recently, Exverse achieved nearly 100,000 sign-ups ahead of the upcoming alpha launch, allowing all types of gamers to sign up via email, Discord, Telegram, or MetaMask, making it easy to get an upgrade.

By highlighting the benefits of web3 gaming, such as asset ownership, while leveraging artificial intelligence to improve game quality and solve the unfriendly onboarding process, Web3 gaming has more potential than ever to reach the world’s 3 billion players.