Rethinking Game Publishing in the Decentralized Era

In this debut episode of YGG Play’s LOL Lounge, host Leah Callon-Butler and YGG co-founder Gabby Dizon are joined by Dith, co-founder of Gigaverse, and Mason, Head of Ecosystem at Abstract, for a discussion about rethinking game publishing in Web3.

From a business model perspective, the guests highlight new challenges facing Web3 games: ultra-low switching costs that make retention and stickiness harder than ever, why most monetization still feels lame, and how many projects’ focus on hype, token prices, and inflated metrics has come at the expense of sustainable revenue.

Watch the full episode on YouTube or listen on Spotify to get the lowdown on what a Web3-native publishing partner brings: the tools, networks, and expertise to help games launch, grow, and sustain their communities.

LOL Lounge Episode 01 — Rethinking Game Publishing in the Decentralized Era

02:03 — What working with publishers in Web2 gaming taught Gabby about the shortcomings of the traditional developer-publisher relationship

03:58 — How Dith went from working at Stripe to minting a viral NFT collection and eventually launching a game with Gigaverse

09:40 — Why Gabby and Dith are excited about the new partnership between YGG Play and Gigaverse, starting with LOL Land and Gigaverse’s cross-IP collaboration

14:00 — Why Dith believes a traditional publisher would not have made sense for Gigaverse

19:54 — How Gabby and Mason see Web3 gaming becoming more accepting of working with publishers

22:05 — Why Abstract believes building an ecosystem centered on consumer crypto can be a huge step toward Web3 sustainability

30:18 — What tradeoffs newcomers need to consider when deciding to build in Web3

38:56 — How Gigaverse is designed to account for all types of players, whether they’re traders, whales, or people who are there purely to play

41:55 — Why pricing in-game items in USD-pegged stablecoins is one of the best ways a Web3 game can keep its in-game economy sustainable

44:52 — Whether stablecoins can help onboard the rest of the world into crypto

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Play Gigaverse at gigaverse.io. For more information, follow Gigaverse on X.

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