Sascha Jocum, Director of Web3 and AMP Labs at Ampverse
According to Sascha Jocum, Director of Web3 and AMP Labs at Ampverse, there are three notable characteristics in the Southeast Asian (SEA) gaming industry today.
Unlike other markets such as Europe, 80 per cent of gamers in the region are accessing content through mobile devices due to the affordability and accessibility aspects of it. But like in many regions, the industry is moving towards favouring cross-platform and cloud-based gaming.
“Some people want to play with each other on different platforms around the globe. So, it has to be easily accessible. They don’t want to download a game; they don’t want to buy a game first,” explains Jocum in a call with e27.
“Another trend I observed recently is localisation [aspect of content creation]. The big game publishers realised that if they adjust the game slightly for different markets, or even create games for different markets where they consider cultural backgrounds, they tend to get picked up way easier and faster.”
With regards to how the rise of Web3 is going to affect the gaming industry in the region, Jocum highlights some of the challenges gaming companies face, which include the problem of integrating Web3 elements into existing titles.
“When integrating Web3 elements, your developers need to be able to code in Solidity, for example. If you don’t have that in your team yet, it’s not easy to just hire them and start developing things. So, that will take time,” he says.
“Hiring the right people is just one step. It’s also about deciding what’s the best blockchain for them. There’s a lot of work to do to make it more user-friendly and seamless. Education and user-friendliness go hand-in-hand.”
When asked about the future of Web3 in gaming, Jocum believes in the possibility of all games having Web3 integration, but it will be a while until this vision is realised.
“The audiences are very keen on being part of the game; they want to participate. They want to vote on the next thing to happen, but they also want to earn. You saw the hype about play-to-earn (P2E) in the Philippines and other countries around the globe. That didn’t work out because the tokenomics have not been planned out in a good, sustainable way. But I guess in the next market cycle … I mean, everyone is learning.”
Building in a community
Starting out as a talent management agency, Ampverse has gone through many milestones to become the tech-enabled IP and gaming ecosystem it is today.
Recently, the company announced the acquisition of the technology and IP assets of Championfy, a Singapore-based gaming tech startup. Championfy will bring its cutting-edge technology and invaluable intellectual property assets to Ampverse’s offerings, including its gamification platform, reward system and tournament platform.
Apart from the acquisition, Ampverse is currently working on its new product called Amp Credits, a game credit distribution platform. The company started building the product a couple of months ago and is currently in the final stage of internal testing.
Once the testing stage is done, Ampverse plans to start campaigning for the product in the Philippines.
“It’s quite exciting times for us because it’s such a great product for our whole ecosystem. Because most people know us first as an awareness campaign company, we’re doing awareness campaigns for all game publishers in the region. But now with Amp Credits, we can… also sell game credits directly in one campaign. It’s a very powerful tool; all the game publishers working with us are quite excited about that,” Jocum says.
“It’s just a matter of a couple of days or weeks before we can start in the Philippines. We’re working daily with the marketing team down there.”
Jocum also explains why this product will be launched first in the Philippines: The market is very receptive towards new trends in gaming and new products.
“We want to test the market, see how the people respond, how high the sales are, then improve on a daily or weekly basis,” Jocum says when asked about the company’s target with the launch.
“There are a couple of players already in the market. We are not the first one to do a game distribution platform. But we are the first one to come in with our talent network, our experience, and our connection to game publishers, and we believe in combining awareness campaigns with selling game credits … This is super powerful.”
Ampverse might also explore something with Web3 elements next year, but according to Jocum, everything depends on the market situation.
“The game credit distribution platform is just the start; there is more in the pipeline,” Jocum closes.
“We know gamification is a huge trend. So we are working on different gamification tools for our endemic and non-endemic clients.”
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Image Credit: Ampverse
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