Blockchain Games in Japan
Japan is one of the countries with the highest per capita profit in the global gaming market. Among them, the initial public offering of "My Crypto Heroes" reached 16,000 ETH.
Key Points:
Japan has a strong gaming foundation, making it an ideal region for the development of crypto games.
Popular crypto games in Japan include "My Crypto Heroes," "Captain Tsubasa RIVALS," and "Crypto Spells." In addition, Line's NFT subsidiary plans to release five user-centric NFT games by 2023.
Japan is one of the most vibrant gaming markets globally. Most people are familiar with Japan's gaming industry due to the popularity of platforms like PlayStation (PS) and Nintendo. In addition to the traditional gaming market, Japan's crypto gaming industry is also rapidly growing.
In addition to having a globally influential gaming industry, Japan is also one of the countries with the highest per capita profit in the gaming market worldwide. Japanese people have a special affinity for games and are willing to pay for them. Therefore, the gaming market in Japan is highly lucrative.
If you want to learn more about the crypto market in Japan, you can click here to read the full report: Crypto Market Report in Japan: Industry Trends and Future Prospects.
The Future Potential of Blockchain Games in Japan
Blockchain games are games built using blockchain technology, combining on-chain assets (cryptocurrency, NFTs) to provide players with a more secure and transparent gaming experience.
In blockchain games, players can truly own the assets in the game. Moreover, all game actions, including transactions and exchanges, are recorded on the blockchain. By combining blockchain technology, games can establish a more transparent and dynamic gaming economy where players can gain real economic value from the time and effort they put into playing.
"My Crypto Heroes" is an RPG battle game based on the Ethereum blockchain, launched in November 2018. It is the first mature blockchain game in Japan. Since its release, the game has ranked first globally in terms of trading volume and daily active users. As of January 1, 2023, the amount raised in its initial public sale has reached 16,000 ETH.
Several major players in the Japanese gaming market are actively involved in the cryptocurrency field, including top-listed companies like Line. Line's NFT subsidiary also plans to release five user-centric NFT games in 2023. MIXI has also joined the Oasys blockchain and serves as a validator. In addition, Japan has some powerful native crypto companies, such as Double Jump and CryptoGames.
In summary, the blockchain gaming industry in Japan has three main characteristics:
Strong foundation: The Japanese gaming industry has a long and rich history in traditional games, providing a solid foundation for the development of crypto games.
Unlimited potential: Japanese players are known for their willingness to pay for high-quality games, making the Japanese blockchain gaming market highly profitable.
Mobile focus: In Japan, mobile games are more popular than PC or console games, leading many game companies to prioritize the development of blockchain mobile games.
Introduction to Japanese Blockchain Gaming Case Studies
In this section, we will introduce three popular blockchain games in Japan and explore their opportunities and challenges.
My Crypto Heroes
MCH Verse & My Crypto Heroes🎮🏝 (@mycryptoheroes) / Twitter
"My Crypto Heroes (MCH)" is an NFT game originated from Japan and developed by double jump.tokyo. The game's economic basis is a token called GUM. Since its release in November 2018, the game has gained a large global user base and trading volume, and has enabled some players to earn actual economic benefits.
The main gameplay of the game is to collect and cultivate historical hero characters, and use them in dungeons (referred to as nodes in the game) for battles. Some heroes and game items are presented in the form of NFTs, and players can trade them with each other.
From an economic perspective, the main economic cycles of MCH include the following:
Missions: Players can use heroes to battle and win experience points, crafting materials, and other expansion items as rewards.
PVP (Player versus Player): Players can earn ranking points and items by participating in battles, which can be traded on the marketplace.
Marketplace: Players can buy and sell their own items and heroes using the in-game currency, GUM.
Land activities: Players belong to a virtual country called "Land" and participate in collection activities. These activities can increase the value of the country's land and distribute dividends in the form of GUM.
According to Footprint Analytics data, although "My Crypto Heroes" has not consistently maintained a high number of active users, it has experienced several significant growth in user activity. Although these growths may be insignificant, after several cycles of ups and downs, this game has successfully attracted a group of long-term participants.
Recently, the development team has expanded their game development capabilities and launched "MCH Verse" - a game-specific Layer 1 blockchain "Oasys" Layer 2 Optimistic Rollup. This strategic move fully utilizes the infinite scalability of blockchain technology, improving user experience and interoperability within Verse.
Although many mobile blockchain games tend to reduce the use of on-chain resources and focus more on off-chain development to avoid complex on-chain functionalities, MCH still maintains a leading position in the Japanese encrypted game market. It quickly adopts and integrates various technologies to enhance the gaming experience.
Captain Tsubasa RIVALS
Captain Tsubasa - RIVALS - (@TsubasaRivalsEN) / Twitter
"Captain Tsubasa - RIVALS" is a blockchain game based on the popular manga "Captain Tsubasa". The manga series has sold over 70 million copies in Japan, and the game has over 70,000 fans on Twitter. This game combines the popularity of the anime series with a football theme and a dual token mechanism to create a high-quality game.
"Captain Tsubasa - RIVALS" has two types of tokens: TSUBSAUT and TSUGT. They serve as utility tokens and governance tokens within the game. Taking inspiration from the model of Axie Infinity, the game balances its in-game economy, improves user engagement, and effectively reduces token price volatility through a differentiated reward system and governance system.
However, since the launch of TSUBASAUT, its value in USD has been steadily declining. This may be due to its unlimited supply and its primary use for player cashouts. The operating company has implemented a balancing system to stabilize the price of TSUBASAUT within a certain range, but the effect has been minimal so far.
Similar issues have also arisen in other blockchain games, such as Axie Infinity and STEPN. For potential players, it is crucial to understand how "Captain Tsubasa - RIVALS" maintains long-term user liquidity before starting the game.
Compared to other tokens, the governance of the TSUGT token has remained stable since its launch. This is because the supply of TSUGT tokens is limited and they possess practicality directly related to key game functions such as upgrading. Therefore, their performance is more robust and reliable. Currently, the team, investors, and advisors collectively hold 37% of the tokens, which will be released within 12 months after the lock-up period ends. This helps maintain supply-demand balance and establish a stable token ecosystem.
However, despite adopting a dual-token system, the game mechanism is very simple: each player has three different character cards, comparing the numbers on the cards in three repeated rounds, and determining the winner in the end. Players need enough strategy to decide the order in which numbers are used.
In fact, the game has been criticized for being too simple, as players only need to compare numbers, and users cannot play the game without purchasing NFTs.
Although the game faces some issues, "Captain Tsubasa - RIVALS" showcases the potential of combining Japanese intellectual property with blockchain games, as well as the integration between NFTs, intellectual property, and gaming. This opens up new possibilities for blockchain games.
Crypto Spells
クリプトスペルズ (クリスペ) Japanese official (@crypto_spells) / Twitter
"Crypto Spells" is a popular strategic digital trading card game launched by Crypto Games in 2019. The gameplay of this game is very similar to "Hearthstone" and "Gods Unchained". The game has a built-in wallet feature (supporting iOS and Android), making it easy for newcomers who are unfamiliar with the crypto world to get started.
Crypto Spells adopts the L2 system called "TCG Verse" running on Oasys L1. Similar to "My Crypto Heroes", its purpose is to further expand blockchain-based gaming systems. Recently, they also launched a new series called "NFTWars", which allows verified NFT holders to create their own game cards. By increasing the number of NFT holders, players have the opportunity to earn some OAS (native tokens of Oasys). This ecosystem has the potential to expand into the global market.
In Crypto Spells, players can battle using a deck of 30 cards. Each deck can have up to two identical cards. Additionally, players can add three skills to their decks to increase strategy diversity and competitiveness. Through the game, players can accumulate battle points, which can be used to forge new cards and have a chance to obtain rare NFT cards.
Starting from the fourth quarter of 2021, the total number of users for Crypto Spells has experienced significant growth.
However, when we observe the active user data, we find that this game is facing difficulties in maintaining growth momentum. Although it attracts new users, the growth of active users is relatively limited. As the game more closely integrates players with the game universe (Verse), the situation may change, thereby increasing user engagement and activity. With a strong gaming culture foundation in Japan, Crypto Spells regularly holds official and unofficial competitions, with the latter being community-driven. These competitions are not only held online but also have offline events, attracting fans from beyond the crypto community. The game emphasizes the strategic display of player skills, making Crypto Spells an ideal ecosystem centered around gaming. Winners will receive rare NFT rewards, which can be traded on the secondary market.
Summary
The gaming industry in Japan is transitioning from traditional game consoles to the thriving field of crypto games. The Japanese market has a particular appeal to project teams because people here are willing to pay for high-quality games. Although Japan's crypto gaming business is still in its early stages, it has already laid a solid foundation and has enormous potential for development.
To attract more players, project teams must continue to adapt to the rules of the crypto world and attract more players through engaging games and other marketing strategies.
Footprint Analytics is a structured data platform that connects Web 2 and Web 3. With cutting-edge artificial intelligence technology, we provide the first no-code data analytics platform in the Crypto domain and a unified data API, allowing users to quickly retrieve data on over 26 public chain ecosystems of NFTs, GameFi, and DeFi.
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