Immutable's $50M in Web3 Gaming Incentives: What You Need to Know
Immutable's Main Quest Initiative, zkEVM Passport, & More
The gaming sector of crypto is one that has not recovered nearly as much, both in price and mindshare, as the broader crypto and DeFi landscape. This could be for a variety of reasons, including a ‘wealth effect’ perhaps not yet occurring to enable holders of major crypto assets to invest in smaller and more tail-end projects. Games also simply take longer to ship compared to many DeFi protocols, so many VC-funded projects have not been launched for long, if at all. Some might even point to things like Meta withdrawing a bit from the Metaverse narrative to focus on AI initiatives to explain less interest in this area.
Immutable X (now just ‘Immutable’), is looking to help accelerate the return of interest and capital alike in the gaming space, with the introduction of the “largest web3 gaming rewards program ever” ($50M). Immutable is one of the largest chains that is solely focused on crypto gaming, built as an Ethereum L2 which now leverages the Polygon zkEVM for scaling as well as proof-of-personhood usecases. This enables things like the Immutable Passport, which is used as an onchain identity and wallet presence that accompanies users across different games, accessible via gmail or Apple ID.
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Background on Immutable
Immutable is a blockchain layer for Web3 gamingweb gaming allows players to earn or purchase digital assets with real value. $150 billion is spent annually on in-game items without ownership or trading capabilities, so the potential market for Web3 gaming is a large one. Approximately $1.155 billion has been invested in web3 gaming over the last three to four years. A significant portion of this investment went into Immutable and Polygon.
“Partnering with Immutable is a monumental step forward in our mission to empower developers and enable users to truly own their in-game assets. By leveraging Immutable's top world-class gaming platform, game development becomes seamless, allowing for the creation of rich and unique gaming experiences.”
- Ryan Wyatt, President of Polygon Labs
Immutable has focused solely on gaming since its inception, which has allowed it to compete effectively. They raised $200M from various investors but have reportedly barely touched that funding, believing that having a radical focus on gaming is more important than having abundant resources. Immutable has over $230M in cash reserves and over $1B worth of IMX tokens on its balance sheet. The company’s self-stated goal is not to compete with other gaming ecosystem providers or chains but rather to create a category together that benefits players, which would in turn grow the pie and allow all participants to take a bigger slice, so to speak.
Why Immutable was Created
Immutable’s inception can be traced back to Co-founder Robbie Ferguson seeing that gaming was an attractive category due to clear product-market fit and utility. Gamers often get ripped off when spending money on assets they can’t trade or sell. NFTs and smart contracts enable unique asset ownership and trading. Unlike speculation, web gaming provides tangible benefits to gamers, mainly in regards to being able to own their assets, hopefully permissionlessly. This is not always the case though, BigTime, a popular Web3 game faced flack this week for removing items that players had accumulated, though the situation is more nuanced than this. Some games will opt for more centralized or custodial control of some or all assets, and users should take this into account.
This also happens in Web2/ traditional gaming markets, notably CSGO, a game that cracked down on players trading and gambling using in-game assets. These efforts from Web3 gaming studios are not always met kindly. The Parallel trading card game also recently saw a lot of criticism from the non-crypto crowd, with some in the gaming space classifying the game as a ponzi or MLM type scheme because traders can buy, sell and potentially earn from ingame items. Yat Siu of Animoca Brands, one of the largest investors in the space, has pointed out that the Asian market is much more receptive of ingame asset trading than its western counterpart.
Immutable $50M Incentive Program
Immutable recently introduced the beginning of their Main Quest initiative. As a gaming chain, this naturally means that incentives are likely to be skewed towards users who actively play games on the chain, as opposed to rewarding wallets who provide liquidity, stake assets, etc. as is the norm for most chains and protocols. The $50M incentive sum will be distributed as ‘gems’, sort of like points, Blast Gold, etc. Users will have to sign up for a Immutable Passport to begin earning gems daily.
In addition, users can undergo ecosystem quests, hold NFTs, and play games to earn rewards. Immutable notably houses some of the most popular games in the space including Pixelmon, Illuvium, Guild of Guardians, and more, all of which have raised substantial amounts from investors. This program is in its first phase, with more information to be made available.
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