Wemade CEO Henry Chang Is Betting On A Play-And-Earn-And-Pay Period Of Blockchain Gaming

Let me begin this piece with an admission that I knew little to nothing about South Korea-based recreation developer and writer Wemade earlier than I used to be supplied an interview with its CEO, Henry Chang, when he visited the UAE in August this 12 months. However my ignorance in regards to the firm says extra about me not being a lot of a gamer, than something else- in any case, Wemade is a publicly listed billion-dollar-business whose choices have been (and proceed to be) made use of by a whole lot of hundreds of thousands of individuals world wide. And when Chang tells me he was acknowledged by individuals on the streets of Dubai on account of the Wemade-branded jacket he was sporting on the time, it is greater than sufficient impetus for me to need to study extra about him and his firm.

Wemade is maybe finest identified for being the makers of the extremely profitable massively multiplayer on-line role-playing recreation (MMORPG) collection, Legend of Mir, which has followers from world wide numbered within the a whole lot of millions- actually, Chang proudly tells me that greater than 20 years after its launch, the title’s mental property continues to be as beloved by (and related to) players right now because it ever was. I discover this to be a sign of how Wemade has seemingly cracked the code of making one thing timeless, whereas additionally staying in tune with the times- and this will also be seen within the transformation it’s at present ongoing from being a conventional online game firm to now changing into an open platform for blockchain video games.

For the uninitiated, blockchain video games are video video games that make use of blockchain-centered applied sciences like cryptocurrencies and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) of their gameplay. Presently a nascent business, Wemade has got down to place itself as a frontrunner on this house with the launch of Wemix, its open blockchain gaming platform, and its eponymous token. Whereas there are solely 17 video games hosted on Wemix as of October this 12 months, it is already dwelling to a smash hit: MIR4 World.

Launched by Wemade in August final 12 months, MIR4 World went on to safe 20 million cumulative customers inside only a 12 months. MIR4 World‘s success bodes properly for the blockchain gaming ecosystem, particularly contemplating that the sport reached 6.5 million month-to-month energetic customers in only a few months, regardless of having no formal advertising campaigns to assist its launch. “I feel it is secure to say that MIR4 World is probably the most profitable blockchain recreation ever,” Chang says. “The sport proved that it’s potential to make an pleasurable, well-made blockchain recreation for gamers, a recreation that individuals would like to play not simply to earn cryptocurrencies, however for the sheer enjoyable of the gameplay.”

Be aware right here Chang’s level about individuals desirous to play MIR4 World purely as a recreation, and never only for the rewards it gives. This can be a big win for Wemade within the area of blockchain video games, and with the intention to perceive why, Chang suggests beginning by analyzing what differentiates them from their “conventional” counterparts. “Blockchain video games are characterised by in-game belongings that current each financial worth and real-world use instances,” he explains. “Initially, conventional in-game belongings have been contained and trapped inside the sport. When these belongings are owned by the gamers as an alternative of the gaming firm, it provides them a way of possession. Customers can now freely and in a seamless method purchase, commerce, and stake their in-game belongings. These components set aside blockchain video games from conventional mainstream video games.”

Henry Chang, CEO, Wemade

Now, it is this chance to earn belongings in blockchain video games -usually cryptocurrency tokens of 1 type or the other- that has these days led to the eruption of the play-to-earn (P2E) mannequin on this panorama. “P2E was one of the fashionable key phrases within the gaming business final 12 months,” Chang notes. “Within the crypto market, it is handled as the following massive factor. Though the inventory costs of the gaming industries in Korea are stagnant proper now on account of microeconomic instabilities comparable to inflation, final 12 months, the inventory costs of the sport firms skyrocketed once they talked about the phrase P2E, NFT, or blockchain. The P2E mannequin has been popularized within the press and by some crypto communities principally as a result of these tokenomics-focused video games are designed to supply financial gain- earlier than anything.”

And therein lies the issue that has materialized alongside the rise of the P2E mannequin within the gaming ecosystem. “Creating video games from the place of monetary engineering, versus from a recreation developer’s perspective, has led to greater barrier to entry. Gamers constantly cashing out and never contributing to the ecosystem, and video games that misplaced their main leisure worth and felt extra like handbook labor,” Chang explains. “P2E video games are additionally related to social points associated to gaming habit, and enjoying them as a full-time job deprives whole societies of their human capital and negatively impacts their productiveness too.”

It’s to subvert such penalties that Chang is pushing for larger adoption of what Wemade is asking a play-and-earn-and-pay mannequin within the gaming sphere. “Due to the aforementioned points and extra, I don’t imagine a purely tokenomics-dependent P2E ecosystem is sustainable and scalable,” Chang says. “It’s then vital to return to the essence of gaming, which was at all times about bringing leisure worth with well-made video games. The play-and-earn-and-pay mannequin places well-made video games on the middle of ecosystem, and it supplies the idea of a sustainable ecosystem by incentivizing customers who benefit from the recreation to not simply play and earn cryptocurrencies or NFTs, however to speculate their earned tokens again into the ecosystem by upgrading their characters, and so on.”

This could clarify why Chang sees the success that MIR4 World has seen as such a terrific win for Wemade and the gaming panorama at large- the truth that it had greater than 1.4 million concurrent customers shortly after it launched is a testomony to the sheer prowess of the sport. “As many within the gaming business know, that is an distinctive consequence for an MMORPG, which usually takes extra time to undergo and end the sport,” Chang provides. And Wemade is not sitting on its laurels- it is already pushed out its newest providing. “We just lately launched MIR M, the most recent spinoff of the Legend of Mir collection regionally in June, with a world launch anticipated later this 12 months,” Chang says. “There was some nice preliminary response to MIR M, which makes me assured the worldwide model will do even higher than MIR4.”

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Established in 2000, Wemade is a global recreation developer writer that has grown from a handful of passionate recreation pioneers to a bunch of over 1,300 recreation lovers. / Supply: Wemade

All of this are good tidings for the blockchain video games business as properly, Chang says. “Not solely does it show to the world that it’s potential to make well-made video games embedded with blockchain expertise, but it surely additionally reveals that players who’ve been accustomed to conventional Internet 2.0 video games for many years have embraced this new expertise with open arms as properly,” he says. This, in flip, is a shot within the arm for the wager Wemade has made on its Wemix platform. “As we additional develop our Wemix platform ecosystem, we count on its a part of income will develop exponentially,” Chang says. “Though the platform’s income is weak now, I count on Wemix to be on the middle of our gross sales sooner or later. I firmly imagine we’re heading in the right direction to succeed as an open blockchain recreation platform, equally to what Apple’s App Retailer and Google’s Play Retailer have achieved.”

At this level, Chang acknowledges that there stays a certain quantity of hesitancy towards blockchain video games from the normal gaming group at large- nonetheless, he additionally believes that it’ll subside as blockchain adoption turns into extra prevalent in our world. And that, he predicts, is when Wemade’s early funding on this house -i.e. Wemix- will enable it to develop into the dominant world platform by default. “Our final aim is to create a mega ecosystem, and develop into the Steam of blockchain video games,” Chang says- for the non-gamers studying this, Steam is the biggest distributor of private laptop video games on the earth right now.

“Yearly, there are round 50,000 information video games launched, and I imagine that within the close to future all these video games will probably be blockchain video games,” Chang continues. “In-game objects have at all times existed even in Internet 2.0 video games; nonetheless, with blockchain expertise, customers are in a position to take these in-game objects out into the true world enhancing the person gaming expertise. By placing all our efforts into blockchain expertise, we intention at changing into the worldwide open blockchain recreation platform by default, enabling a whole lot of latest video games to onboard our platform every year, and profit from blockchain expertise and our ecosystem even with out earlier information within the blockchain house.”

At this level, in case of any of you suppose that it is a lofty ambition for Wemade to make in a fledgling business that has additionally been rocked just lately by a crypto winter, Chang is right here to assist disprove you of that notion. “Based mostly on my 26 years of expertise within the gaming business, I firmly imagine that blockchain gaming is the long run,” Chang declares. “As a publicly traded firm with over 20 years of company historical past, Wemade is properly forward in comparison with its rivals, and we’ll put all the things we now have into retaining it that means regardless of the present market circumstances.”

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Supply: MIR4 World

Chang admits right here that as a comparatively new expertise, blockchain nonetheless has an extended solution to go by way of rules, implications, and even applications- however from Wemade’s perspective, it represents a possibility, reasonably than a problem. “When Bitcoin was first launched in 2009, like many individuals within the gaming business, I did not imagine it was particular again then, and handled it like some type of recreation cash that gamers use in video games,” Chang remembers. “I, alongside lots of my colleagues, thought we knew all the things about recreation cash, and that it was absurd to make use of it exterior video games and in actual life. However now, due to the few modern individuals who acknowledged early the potential of the expertise, after which utilized it to develop enterprise options and industrial development, we now have arrived to the place we’re right now.”

Chang at present professes a steadfast perception within the potential (and energy) of blockchain, and that’s what he has channeled to guide Wemade by the instability that has been seen within the crypto panorama by the course of 2022. “Our response to the turbulence within the present market has been to deal with offering utility to the customers, and making extra investments and strategic partnerships to strengthen our place as a number one world open blockchain recreation platform,” Chang says. “Even again in 2018, throughout the earlier crypto winter, we did not quit, and we spent human sources into growing our blockchain expertise and providers; we proceed to do the identical even now.”

Chang speaks with the arrogance attained by working for 26 years in gaming- actually, he began out within the business when he was nonetheless a senior at school. His first job was at Nexon, which was then a Seoul-based small enterprise with fewer than 10 employees- right now, nonetheless, it is without doubt one of the greatest recreation firms in South Korea, in addition to one of many greatest listed firms in Japan. Following an extended stint at Nexon, he joined one other recreation writer, Neowiz, as its Chief Monetary Officer, after which turned Head of the Strategic Planning Division of Neowiz Video games, earlier than lastly happening to guide Neowiz Cell as its Chief Government Officer. Chang then joined Wemade in 2013, and he was appointed its CEO a 12 months later.

Chang’s profession trajectory ought to make it clear that he’s somebody who’s extraordinarily well-versed with the business he operates in, and that ought to function motive sufficient for why his viewpoint on the potential blockchain presents on this panorama should not be taken evenly. “What’s attention-grabbing is that as somebody who spent his whole profession within the gaming business, there is no such thing as a doubt that role-playing video games, just like the MMORPG Legend of Mir collection, already present an analogous idea to a metaverse, and it’s attention-grabbing to see how the remainder of the world is now embracing this new expertise and idea,” Chang says. “I imagine on the coronary heart of the metaverse are video games, and that there are a number of thrilling new developments to occur within the house throughout the close to future.”

Supply: Wemix

Chang reveals right here that the MENA figures strongly in Wemade’s aspirations for the long run, and he factors out that MIR4 World has been in a position to create a robust fanbase within the area. “MIR4 World ranked first throughout the UAE, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar amongst role-playing video games on the Google Play Retailer again in March 2022, and it has succeeded in sustaining its high three rank in a number of MENA markets even now,” Chang says.

“As well as, the MENA is essential from a blockchain improvement viewpoint. The MENA gives licenses for crypto coin platforms, and we’re within the means of making use of for one. As soon as completed, we’ll transfer a few of our improvement group to the area, and develop a state-ofthe- artwork blockchain platform and crypto hub.”

And it is not simply a rise within the Wemade person base that Chang hopes to see ensuing from the MENA- he is additionally hoping to see an increase within the variety of stakeholders from the area as properly. “Wemade is a listed firm in South Korea, and I want to invite MENA institutional and retail traders to purchase our shares and our WEMIX coin, which is listed in additional than 25 exchanges world wide,” Chang says. “I imagine each Wemade’s inventory and the WEMIX coin current very engaging funding alternatives, as they’re each liquid and under-valued contemplating their big progress potential. I actually have been shopping for WEMIX coin with my wage and bonus earnings from the marketplace for the final seven consecutive months, and I don’t intend to cease till I retire; I additionally haven’t and won’t promote a single WEMIX coin.”

It is attention-grabbing to notice right here that the conviction with which Chang speaks about Wemade’s endeavors within the blockchain gaming house today- it’s actually in stark distinction to the attitude with which they have been seen when the corporate was simply beginning out on them. “For the primary three-and-a-half years, our blockchain gaming enterprise did not seem like a lot from the skin,” he says. “However when MIR4 turned the primary business hit globally in August 2021, I used to be very thrilled to appreciate that I have been proper all alongside. And throughout the previous 12 months, the thrill has been rising inside me each day, at each second.”

Chang is thus watching with glee because the constructing blocks of a brand new digital blockchain-centric financial system involving NFTs, decentralized asset organizations (DAOs), decentralized finance (DeFi), and extra get put into place, and when all of it truly comes collectively, he’s aiming for Wemade “to develop into the dominant open blockchain recreation platform, because the primary world mainnet.” Chang just lately revealed particulars about WEMIX$, the stablecoin of its mainnet Wemix 3.0, throughout his keynote speech on the TOKEN2049 occasion held in Singapore in September. “Stablecoins have to be secure,” he stated. “That is the primary requirement. WEMIX$ meets that by 100% USDC [a digital stablecoin pegged to the United States dollar] reserve.”

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Wemade has continued to develop and repair dozens of PC and Cell primarily based video games for fun-loving players since its inception.

Following that, Chang continued by itemizing “secure/native coin reflexivity” as a second requirement for a profitable stablecoin. “When a stablecoin is doing properly, it ought to have an effect on the native coin,” he defined. “The native coin should be capable of seize the demand and commerce of stablecoin. Thus, the reflexive relationship between stablecoin and native coin have to be structured.” As a 3rd and ultimate requirement, Chang listed scalability, which WEMIX$ secures by Wemade’s DIOS protocol, which, in flip, will let it develop in accordance with the ecosystem’s progress.

The aspirations Chang has for Wemade, together with the outcomes it has already achieved with him at its helm, additionally function a testomony to his management of the corporate, which, by the best way, is a realization of a childhood dream he needed to run “an enormous, nice firm.” “There’s an previous saying that ‘good issues take time,'” Chang says. “Once I make plans for enterprise and new expertise that may decide the long run, I attempt to suppose for the long run, like, say, in ten-year intervals. In 2018, all gaming firms have been all for blockchain video games, and a few entered the market. However all of them gave up throughout the crypto winter that occurred afterward. Wemade was nearly the one firm that saved up, as a result of we thought it’d take ten years to succeed from the beginning. I imagine that establishing your imaginative and prescient, crafting your methods, and taking steps to attain your aim in the long term is the important thing to the success and progress of your organization.”

That is clearly the identical imaginative and prescient that’s governing Chang as he oversees Wemade’s ongoing investments within the crypto realm. “We’re making investments in blockchain firms and initiatives with nice potentials everywhere in the world, and we now have been fairly profitable in our endeavors, to place it mildly,” Chang explains. “We now have been making important investments in blockchain and recreation firms to develop our Wemix ecosystem from its present gamecentric strategy to later embody all different kinds of x-to-earn fashions, comparable to move-to-earn, watch-to-earn and so on. To take action, we make investments and are closely concerned within the improvement of our portfolio of startups, primarily based on our business information and blockchain experience. The latest examples of such investments have been within the luxurious vogue metaverse ALTAVA’s TAVA coin, and the watch-to-earn short-form platform CELEBe’s FANC coin, and SNKRZ, a subsequent era move-to-earn undertaking.”

Wemade is thus all set to proceed its daring foray into the world of blockchain, however I can not assist however level out to Chang that questions and doubts proceed to rise in regards to the expertise’s functions in the true world. Chang replies that he can determine with this sentiment- he too has wrestled with this question at one cut-off date, however he additionally believes he has discovered a response to it within the business he operates in. “For me, personally, a very powerful query that each cryptocurrency has to reply is: ‘The place is that this going for use?'” The query continues to be legitimate now, and there are a lot of cash on the market that also cannot reply this query. I discovered that the reply lies inside games- and that is once I turned sure that cryptocurrencies will flourish in video games… When skeptics ask, ‘The place can we use cryptocurrency?’, video games can present solutions,” Chang concludes.

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