Gaming Needs Blockchain Innovation: Oasys Unveiled Ideas and Upcoming Roadmap at Consensus 2024

Oasys, a blockchain project specializing in gaming, has unveiled its ideas and upcoming roadmap to bring further innovation to the intersection of gaming and blockchain at "Consensus 2024", the global crypto and Web3 conference in Austin, Texas.

Gaming is seen as the most promising use case for mass adoption of Web3. However, Ryo Matsubara, Director of Oasys, stated, "Blockchain and Web3 need gaming, but gaming also needs innovation through blockchain."

The gaming population is now estimated to have reached 4 billion worldwide, nearing saturation. The competition for user’ discretionary time with social media and video services is intensifying.

"New games are not selling well, and the top 10 popular games have remained unchanged for a decade," said Matsubara. Even when new games are released, they struggle to gain popularity and often end service shortly. The money and time spent by users vanishes when the service ends, creating a situation where people inevitably return to older games. As a result, the gaming industry remains stuck in a situation where innovation struggles to take hold.

Gaming Asset: Viewing Achievements and Records as Assets

Matsubara believes blockchain can break this situation. He explained that by leveraging blockchain, the time and money users spend on games can be "converted from consumption to assets."

However, it is important to note that even if money and time are turned into assets, it is impossible to provide positive returns to all users. A scheme where everyone profits would turn into a "Ponzi." The game must be successful as entertainment and be able to generate revenue from users. "The balance between entertainment and assetization is crucial," emphasized Matsubara.

Matsubara further identified game records and earned trophies as player assets, calling them "Gaming Assets." Even if the game itself ends, these Gaming Assets can remain as the user's achievements and records through blockchain. This approach could provide a significant solution to the structural problems of Web3 games, or Play to Earn (P2E) games.

Blockchain Challenges and Oasys's Vision

While highlighting the transformative potential of blockchain in gaming, Matsubara also pointed out, "Current blockchains are not suited for gaming."

Ethereum, for instance, has DeFi and token issuance as its primary use cases, leading to the emergence of various Layer 2 (L2) solutions to solve scalability issues. However, as each L2 has expanded its own ecosystem, the challenge of interoperability between L2s has emerged. To address this, ideas such as L1.5 have been introduced, and further concepts like L3 have arisen to solve the security and interoperability issues of L1.5. Additionally, from a scalability perspective, Ethereum aims to discard L2 data, leading to building a Data Availability Layer (DA Layer).

The emphasis on Token Marketing for user acquisition and liquidity has contributed to this situation, with Matsubara noting that "it has reached a level of extreme modification."

Foreseeing these issues with existing blockchains, Oasys has been working ahead to design the optimal structure for a blockchain dedicated to gaming. Oasys, which can be considered the best solution to the challenges faced by many L1 and L2 blockchains, already has major game companies such as SEGA, SQUARE ENIX, BANDAI NAMCO, and UBISOFT participating as initial validators.

Oasys Roadmap

Oasys has outlined the following roadmap to address the challenges in the gaming industry:

App Data Availability: Each game is designed to create its unique chain (L2). Even if a game ends, the data remains on Oasys's mainnet (L1), ensuring data availability.

Layer2 Interoperability: Enhancing messaging between L2s, enabling free movement of assets and collaboration of game logic.

Ecosystem Scalability: Providing a developer kit that allows developers to easily build L2 and connect to the Oasys ecosystem.

As gaming leads the way in Web3 mass adoption and blockchain becomes increasingly important for games, Oasys's presence is growing more significant.

In fact, starting this summer, several games are scheduled for release on the Oasys platform. The titles that can be disclosed at this point are Ubisoft's "Champions Tactics," SEGA and doublejump.tokyo's "Battle of 3 Kingdom," Com2Us's "Summoners War," and Enish's "Last Memories." among others anticipated. Releases from major studios are also expected to be announced soon.

"The true value of Oasys, which has been working on gaming challenges, will be tested from now on," said Matsubara.