Startup Spotlight: Gamee

Welcome to The Modern Day Renaissance Man newsletter. I, Trey Layton, write about the things that interest me, often covering topics such as startups, sports, and entertainment. If you'd like to receive these newsletters directly in your email a few times a week, go ahead and subscribe to never miss an email!

Happy Wednesday, folks.

September is off to a sad, sad start for stonks. Markets are beating the leaves to falling. Nonetheless, builders build. So grab that PSL and get to coding.

While hopping onto Robinhood this morning, I noticed a cool new feature allowing customers to earn interest (1.5% APR... now you lose only 7% of your money to inflation😎) on any uninvested cash sitting in the app. My first thought was "damn. you mean some people rly aren't all in on BBBY?" My second thought was that this is actually a pretty shrewd move in what has been a quiet renaissance of sorts for retail traders' favorite stock halter investing app.

Allowing users to earn interest on cash that would have otherwise been earning nothing in a checking account pivots the platform even further towards becoming a full-blown neobank. Pair this with the company offering fractional shares, crypto wallets, its own credit cards, and stock lending, and $HOOD is actually introducing quite a bit of innovation to the retail investing space... perhaps in response to FTX offering users stock trading? It seems that the competition for r/degens is really heating up.

There are dozens of important upcoming dates on my G-Cal. The Texas A&M @ Alabama game. Halloween (best holiday). My wisdom teeth removal surgery. None, however, gets my heart racing like the month-long block marked in July 2023 for the return of the NCAA video game franchise.

This series played an instrumental role in my childhood. After a long day of learning about the first Thanksgiving or watching Polar Express in school, nothing released some steam like beating up on FCS Southwest with my 99 OVR Aggie squad. While I have always loved games, it was only recently that I learned just how big (and growing) the industry really is.

Though COVID lockdowns and new console releases played significant roles, some gaming companies saw revenues skyrocketing close to 80% in 2020. Further, it is expected that by the end of this year, over half of the US population is expected to identify as #gamers. This is not even the biggest market, though, as China already has nearly 750M gamers, roughly 2.5x the size of the US' total population.

This demand and growth creates opportunities for a variety of gaming-related subindustries, but perhaps none is as important as the game studios themselves. One such company introducing the world of game creation with the emerging field of blockchain technology is Gamee.

Gamee, recently acquired by one of the gaming world's biggest names in Animoca Brands, is a European gaming platform founded in 2015 by a team of experts in the tech field looking to combine gaming with blockchain and social media. The company specializes in mobile games which alone is worth $116B and represents 60% of the total gaming industry. The team has released three apps thus far:

• Arc8 App: virtual arcade for mobile games and rewards

• G-Bots Metaverse: blockchain ecosystem of breedable characters and collectibles which can be used in various games and virtual worlds

• Prizes App: free ad-supported app with games and monetary prizes for users

The team focuses less on AAA (big name) games and instead on apps offering users a sort of digital arcade. The concept is not entirely new, both in self-contained apps and in concepts like Apple Arcade, but Gamee is pioneering this sort of product in the web3 space.

The gaming community is a mixed bag of opinions when it comes to attitude towards blockchain and gaming, both from the players and the studios themselves. While Epic (Fortnite) has come out in favor of blockchain games, Minecraft (Mojang) has called them out as against the spirit of gaming. Similar arguments exist within the player community itself, and full transparency, I sympathize with both sides.

Those against the web3-ification of gaming are worried that introducing the technology to the space will ruin what games are built around: fun. Many use these virtual outlets to unwind from the hustle and bustle of work and life. Making it possible to make money from them breaks the boundaries currently separating them, incentivizing players to view them through a money-making lens. There will be a clear fragmentation between "professional" gamers looking to make a buck and those looking to blast some zombies with friends.

However, making money from video games is no new phenomenon, and introducing blockchain to the ecosystem might actually democratize the process of doing so. In fifth grade, I made the wise financial decision to purchase a Call of Duty account from a stranger online for $30 because they had unlocked practically every skin in the game, a feat which would have taken literally hundreds of hours. This shadow ecosystem has blossomed alongside the more visible professional side of the industry in esports and streaming.

Introducing the ability to sell collectibles and skins via blockchain allows for users to more easily conduct these transactions without even having to give up their entire accounts to do so. It allows the everyday user to truly take ownership over their gaming experience and in-game achievements. For most of us, we are not good enough at video games (my lifetime KD ratio is sub-.6...) to make money streaming or competing professionally. Web3 allows these players to cash in on the time and effort invested into these games.

Gamee caters to players of both categories. No crypto wallets are required to play games across its platform. However, those interested in monetizing their experience can still take ownership over their collectibles. This allows the company to tap into massive markets in both of these categories across the globe without alienating the other.

Gamee's platform does nudge players towards crypto adoption, but it does so in a way which is not so obtrusive. The Prizes App offers free, ad-supported play-to-earn (P2E) games by taking a cut of revenue to redistribute to players. Prizes are only redeemable, though, in Gamee's own token, requiring users to set up wallets.

I view this as one of the better ways to handle web-3 indoctrinate. Any user can find enjoyment in the game but are still provided incentives to embrace the potentials of blockchain in gaming. It will be interesting to see how this approach could be extended to games of other genres, particularly those with more popular titles.

Only 297 days until July 1. We can do this, CFB fans. In the meantime, I guess that busting out Mario Kart and Apex Legends Mobile will have to do.

Cheers to another day,

Trey