Interview with Xiao Yi, founder of Animoca Brands: IP is the entrance for people to enter the virtual world

It was thought that Beeple's NFT work auctioned at Christie's for $69 million was already the climax of the NFT field, but on March 30, the news that "Basketball God" Michael Jordan invested in Dapper Labs made NFT The track brought another highlight moment. The success of NBA Top Shot not only made Dapper Labs a unicorn with a valuation of 2.6 billion US dollars, but also made players and investors look forward to the next game on Flow, MotoGP Ignition.

This is a chain game officially authorized by MotoGP, the world’s top motorcycle race, and its popularity far exceeds that of the earliest NBA Top Shot, 9,500 early bird card packs were sold out within 30 minutes, and the Animoca Brands team behind it has also attracted much attention.

Animoca Brands is a well-known mobile game developer, holding more than 300 IPs, including Doraemon, Olympic Terman, Garfield and other top IPs. MotoGP Ignition is not Animoca Brands' first test in the field of blockchain games. The well-known F1 Delta Time and Sandbox in the industry are all works of Animoca Brands.

NFT has already blossomed everywhere, the explosion of ecology, the rise of asset prices, and even the exchange of A shares and related concept stocks in the US stock market Start, let the word NFT drop into the world almost overnight. As a well-known game development team, how does Animoca Brands view the NFT industry today? Rhythm BlockBeats interviewed Animoca Brands founder Yat Siu (hereinafter referred to as Yat). He talked about the difficulties of traditional game developers in transition, and believed that IP is the entrance for new traffic to enter the virtual world of blockchain. At the same time, he also believes that, There is indeed a bubble in the asset price of NFT, but in the future NFT will be a trillion-dollar field.

Animoca Brands founder Xiao Yi / Tuyuan Network 

< br>

The following is an exclusive interview with Rhythm BlockBeats on Yat:

Traditional game transformation to chain game< /h3>

 

Rhythm BlockBeats: Animoca has been around since 2018 The blockchain game market is booming, why bet on the blockchain game track?

 

Yat: Very It's interesting, it's fascinating, you really own the digital asset, and in the game, you really own it. But in fact, emotional excitement is only one aspect. In the chain game world, there are new economic possibilities and new opportunities.

 

In my opinion, the current relationship between game development companies and players and users is for profit relation. This relationship is caused by the current business scale and model of the game industry. Today's game development companies use various designs to squeeze players' pockets as much as possible. The game is certainly interesting, but the point is that the relationship between game companies and players is not fair. In other words, the game industry is a bit crooked, but the blockchain has repaired this relationship. In chain games, players are in the game The time and money spent will pay off.

 

The player actually owns the asset and can resell it for profit, just like a tax system. In the long run, the relationship between game companies and players has changed at the economic level and turned into a mutually beneficial relationship. Players make money, and game companies can also make money, while ensuring sustainability, which is not seen in the game industry now. And the basis of this logic is that players have ownership of assets in the blockchain, so that they can own this business model.

 

Rhythm BlockBeats: From traditional games to blockchain games, What is the biggest discomfort?

 

Yat: Difficult There are two points in place.

 

The first one is registration, players need a wallet. This is a threshold. Players need to really understand how their digital assets are stored. This is really important, just like you go to a bank to open an account but don’t know how the bank stores assets.

 

The second problem is that it is difficult for people to understand the value of virtual assets. This is difficult for most people to understand. Players play games to buy digital assets. This is actually easy to understand and everyone understands, but the problem is that everyone does not regard them as a real capital. You can see that those who discuss NFT on the Internet and say that it has no value are those who do not understand the world on the chain.

 

It seems to me a lot like when the internet started and people said "I can't shop online, I have to Shopping in a physical store is the same. Now 25 years later, look at how e-commerce has developed. People's understanding of NFT now is like the understanding of e-commerce 25 years ago.

 

Rhythm BlockBeats: So it takes time for people to understand, right?

 

Yat:Yes Yes, gamers will understand it a little faster because they are already buying virtual assets.

 

Rhythm BlockBeats: A game developer said before , In traditional games, developers make money from players, but chain games are players who want to make money from developers. This is why gaming chain games will be popular for a long time in 2018. What about now?

 

Yat:If If you look at F1 Delta Time, or Sandbox, these are not very games where players want to make money from developers. Making money from game companies is part of the ecosystem. Players make money in the game’s ecology. Like we survive in society, we make money in the ecosystem of society. In blockchain games, players do not make money from developers, but make money in the ecology. The key is "ownership".

 

In the F1 Delta Time game, you can buy cars or parts from other players, whether you earn or lose, It is the transfer of ownership. The more influential the game, the more valuable the ownership of the players. This cannot be done in traditional games. Players do not have a good economic system to motivate him in traditional games. Players do not want more people to enter the game world to intensify competition, but in a world with an economic structure, players want more people to participate, which will make the ownership of assets more valuable.

 

As a game developer, what we earn is not money from selling assets, but money from transactions, just like taxes .

 

Rhythm BlockBeats: sandbox games will be blockchain games Is it the final form?

 

Yat:You Looking at the current traditional game field, there are so many game types, such as RPG, real-time strategy, etc., each of which has a different player base. The same will be true for blockchain games.

 

IP is the next arena?

Rhythm BlockBeats: Animoca recently made a new game called MotoGP Ignition. Why choose the IP of MotoGP? People will naturally compare it with the IP of the NBA. Especially in China, the number of fans of MotoGP is much lower than that of the NBA. Obviously, the IP of MotoGP is not as universal as the IP of the NBA. The IP of MotoGP is chosen. what is the reason?

Yat:You You know we've worked with F1 officials before, right? One of the reasons why we chose the MotoGP IP was to create an entertainment game for the motorsports community, and in the field of motorcycles, MotoGP is the most well-known. It's the biggest motorcycle race in the world, and for that, we think it's great.

NBA has a lot of fans, but there are more people in the world who don’t like NBA, thousands of people Thousands of noodles, everyone has different preferences, and there are many opportunities. Motorcycles may not get as much attention as NBA in China, but globally, motorcycles are very popular in Europe and Japan.

Rhythm BlockBeats: In addition to collecting gameplay, MotoGP Ignition follow-up Is there anything new to play?

Yat: This year The game of management and operation will be added. Players can manage the operation fleet and manage their own car parts. Playing this game requires more thinking, not only the competition of driving skills, we think this kind of game is very suitable in the field of blockchain games.

Rhythm BlockBeats: So it’s like Football Manager?

Yat:Yes of.

Rhythm BlockBeats: Do you think IP is the next generation of chain games Is it a market? In other words, is the competition for IP the next battleground for chain games to attract users?

Yat: In the NFT field, collectibility is currently the largest proportion. In order for people to collect, you need Give them a reason. For most of us, we already have a bond with certain IPs, and some of our emotions are already attached to certain IPs.

So, IP is a great way to bring people into the blockchain world. They will not enter the blockchain world because of DeFi (decentralized finance). DeFi is only effective for financial people, but most people in the world will not. Most people like LeBron James, or Ferrari. So the combination of IP and blockchain is very suitable.

Rhythm BlockBeats: This point of view is very interesting, IP is people Entry into the blockchain. Can it be understood that entertainment is more effective than making money in terms of attracting new traffic?

Yat:I Agreed, making money is important, but people make money for a reason, most people make money to accomplish something. Behind IP is not only entertainment, but also culture, and people can be attracted by culture to enter the blockchain world.

Rhythm BlockBeats: I know that Animoca has many IPs, duo Doraemon, Garfield, etc., will these IPs enter NFT or blockchain games?

< span style="font-weight: bold;">Yat: We have more than 300 IPs, some of which have appeared in chain games, and some have not. We will go in this direction, but not I can guarantee that it will be a chain game. This is why Animoca is called Animoca Brands. Our IP-focused brand is not only about entertainment, but also about culture. You go to buy Hello Kitty peripherals because you like what Hello Kitty represents,

Is there a bubble in NFT?

Rhythm BlockBeats: CCTV in China, CNN in the United States, And Christie's auctions are promoting NFT to the world. Do you think there is a bubble in NFT now? Or just getting started?

Yat: For As an industry, we are just getting started. The reason is, how many people own NFTs now? Very little, lots of space. But if it is for asset prices, it is indeed a bubble. For the vast majority of groups who have not yet understood NFT, the price of NFT is too high now. So the price bubble will burst, but the number of industry participants will grow.

I think the market size of the NFT field will grow to trillions of dollars, not to say that the NFT market size has been rising, There will definitely be adjustments, but it will end up in the trillions of dollars.

Rhythm BlockBeats: Are trillions of dollars aimed at NFT collections? ? Or a game?

Yat:Yes Overall, the game asset market is now worth hundreds of billions of dollars. When you change the traditional leasing model into an ownership model, the market size will explode, not 30%, but dozens of times.

Rhythm BlockBeats: Roham, the CEO of Dapper Labs, once told We said that he believes that NFT will make the collectibles market reach a trillion-dollar scale. Do you agree with this view?

Yat: Favorite The commodity market is now worth 300 billion U.S. dollars. I think Roham is conservative with the figure of one trillion U.S. dollars, because it is different from the simple collection in the past. Now the collection, gameplay, and usability are all combined, which is completely different from the collection in the past.

Rhythm BlockBeats: What do you think about the development of NFT, combined with What kind of magnitude can the concept of Metaverse make the game market reach?

Yat: at In my opinion, NFT and chain games will disrupt the current game market. Because players have thoroughly understood the concept of ownership, under homogeneous games, they will choose chain games instead of traditional games.

Let me give you an example, the two largest games in the world are not the ones that eat chicken, but " Minecraft and Roblox. Why? In addition to the social factor, another reason is that what the player creates in the game belongs to the player. Of course, these two games also have different problems. Roblox charges too much, and Minecraft is not a real ownership. The point is, they have the concept of ownership, and players are free.

Traditional game companies will not change, because they have been relying on the previous model to make money, it is difficult for them to change, but Players change and choose. In the end, traditional game companies also had to find a way, but chain games are not something that can be done just by saying it, and a lot of things need to be considered.

Rhythm BlockBeats: Do you think people accept the term "ownership" How long does the concept take?

Yat: People Now it has begun to be accepted, like those players in F1 Delta Time and Sandbox, they earn income, get funding, or hire people in the game. It's still very early days, but the trend is already there. I think in the next 18 months to 24 months, we will see the mainstream start to accept the concept of "ownership", and traditional game companies will also start their own acquisitions at that time.

Rhythm BlockBeats: Does Animoca have any new plans in the near future? ?

Yat: Yes a lot of. We have some big IP coming, very big IP. We will also have a lot of cooperation. What the cooperation brings is that we will not fight alone. With more and more money and resources, we can build more ecosystems, because we don’t want NFT or blockchain games to have monopoly. We will do our best to make the ecology decentralized.

So you see, we work with Dapper Labs, we work with Harmony, we work with Wax, we can work with any people cooperate.

Welcome to join the official BlockBeats community:

Telegram Subscription Group: https://t.me/theblockbeats

Telegram Discussion Group: https://t.me/BlockBeats_App

Official Twitter Account: https://twitter.com/BlockBeatsAsia