◾ About YGG Japan
YGG Japan aims to elevate blockchain games to provide more accessible content for all game users in Japan and lead them to the world of “Play-to-Earn”, where enjoyment and earning can coexist.
Japan is a content powerhouse, owning a large number of popular IP on a global scale through media such as manga, anime, and games, and new IPs are being created every day. There are many game publishers, game development studios, and companies in Japan that create and distribute various types of content. YGG Japan will contribute to the trend of blockchain games by leveraging ｑJapan’s unique ecosystem, providing development and marketing support in the Japan market, and building a pipeline to bring blockchain games with Japanese IP to users around the world.
There are tens of millions of game users in Japan. Meanwhile, the number of users playing blockchain games is still a very small portion compared to the global blockchain gaming population. We aim to scale up the blockchain game market in Japan by developing services that enable participation in guilds, which are gaming communities, strengthening partnerships with existing guilds and scholarship structures, and promoting awareness of blockchain games among the many game users who have yet to experience them. This will enable us to accelerate the shift to blockchain games among Japanese gamers who play social games, consumer games, PC games, etc., and through “Play-to-Earn,” create a world where the gamers become more affluent and the games become a more productive part of their lives.
◾Background of Yield Guild Games(YGG)’s expansion into Japan
The Japanese gaming market was one of the world’s first gaming markets and is currently the third largest, after China and the US. Mario, Pac-man and Sonic the Hedgehog were all born during the early days. Furthermore, big players like Sony PlayStation, Nintendo, Bandai Namco, Square Enix, Sega, Konami, Capcom and, Koei Tecmo are all Japanese game companies that have global users, with popular games like The Legend of Zelda, Pokemon, Final Fantasy, Street Fighter, and Animal Crossing. In recent years, Japanese mobile games have introduced the idea of “gacha (blind box)” into games, which hugely increase the revenue of the entire gaming industry. Japan has the highest spending on games per capita in the world. YGG Japan will not only onboard Japanese gamers to Play-to-Earn games, but also support Japanese gaming companies to launch blockchain games.
◾ Business Partnerships
Partner companies and individuals
IVC, YGG, YGG SEA, Akatsuki, Double Jump Tokyo, Crypto Games, Kii, Days, angel investors (Hironao Kunimitsu, Kazutaka Mori, Hiroyuki Miyake)
＊YGG Japan is also in discussion with other potential investors including Animoca Brands.
Infinity Ventures Crypto (IVC) was founded to empower and invest in pioneering GameFi, DeFi and Web 3 startups. The fund’s partners have invested in crypto assets since 2015 and have guided companies through a rapidly-evolving landscape. Since August 2021, IVC, currently the most active crypto VC in Asia with over 100 portfolio, has made numerous strategic investments into a diverse range of startups including Yield Guild Games (YGG) and the Japanese yen-pegged stablecoin, JPYC. It is supported by Animoca Brands, Digital Currency Group, Circle, SEGA SAMMY, etc. IVC aims to innovate, build, and catapult forward the next generation of founders.
Akio Tanaka, Partner
Jonathan M. Hayashi, Senior Associate
“IVC had noticed the possibility of Play-to-Earn very early on. We invested in the pioneer of this field, YGG, and have been committing to the global expansion of the Play-to-Earn model by incubating subDAOs such as YGG SEA. Based on our previous experience in establishing and investing in social games in Japan, we believe there is an enormous potential for Play-to-Earn to grow exponentially in Japan. We are honored to participate in the incubation of YGG Japan together with ForN’s team and YGG.”
Yield Guild Games (YGG) is a decentralized gaming guild acquiring yield-generating non-fungible tokens (NFTs) in blockchain games. With 100,000+ members and 20,000+ scholars present in 24+ countries, YGG’s mission is to onboard millions of players around the world to the “play-to-earn” revolution, that brings the benefits of blockchain technology to those that need them the most. It raised funding from Delphi Digital, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), BITKRAFT, Infinity Ventures Crypto (IVC), and other prominent investors. Later on, it completed its public token sale and raised $12.5M in 31 seconds.
Gabby Dizon, Co-Founder:
“Japanese gamers would be a great community to explore the world of blockchain gaming. Together with YGG, and YGG subDAOs, we believe YGG Japan would play an essential role in onboarding players, growing the community, and partnering with games that will bring Japanese gamers into the Metaverse.”
Gabby Dizon’s Profile
Gabby Dizon is a game industry veteran with over 18 years of experience. He co-founded Yield Guild Games, a Play-to-Earn gaming guild and decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that provides gamers all over the world an opportunity to access the NFT game assets needed to start playing blockchain games and earn crypto-based rewards. Gabby is also a founding board member of the Blockchain Game Alliance. Gabby’s mission is to onboard millions of gamers so they can find opportunities in the digital world. He believes that the future of work is in the open Metaverse.
YGG SEA, the first subDAO of Yield Guild Games, is a decentralized autonomous organization for acquiring and managing NFTs used in the metaverse. Our mission is to create the biggest and most sustainable Play-to-Earn virtual economy in Southeast Asia. YGG SEA is a founding member of the Asia Blockchain Gaming Alliance.
Evan Spytma, CEO:
“YGG SEA is a successful example that showcases how the innovative “Play-to-Earn” model can be expanded across different countries. As a committed partner of YGG Japan, YGG SEA will be sharing our tools, technology, operation knowhow, network, and other support to help YGG Japan become the leading gaming guild in Japan.”
◾ Roadmap
◾ Core members of YGG Japan
After working at CyberAgent, Inc., he moved to Netmarble Japan Inc. As the head of marketing, he was in charge of the strategic numeric design, planning, and production of several marketing initiatives. He moved to GAMEPLEX and started up the company, which was founded by the president of Netmarble independently. He founded ForN in 2021 and serves as the CEO.
At SEGA, he produced many online games and served as the Director of the Strategic Planning Department and the Deputy Director of the Programming Department. Appointed as the President and Representative Director of GameBank Corporation, a subsidiary of Yahoo Japan Corporation. Subsequently, he was appointed as the Director of the Business Development Office at Netmarble Japan, where he was in charge of game development and alliance development in Japan. At ForN, he serves as a Director.
After joining CROOZ, he was in charge of multiple areas of the game development division such as product and marketing sections. He also served as the representative director and the head of a subsidiary company of the said group, and concurrently as the director of a business division in another subsidiary. After gaining experiences in establishment of several new businesses and business planning, he joined ForN as a Director.
Founding partner of Headline Asia, a leading Asian venture capital firm, and founding partner of Infinity Ventures Crypto, the most active crypto venture investment firm in Asia. Akio was formerly the head of venture investment program for Adobe in Asia and was responsible for Adobe’s corporate venture investment in Greater China, Japan, and India. Previous to Adobe, Akio held the position of CTO for Macromedia Japan working as part of the local management team as well as the position of Technology Advisor to the CEO for Macromedia Inc.
■YGG Japan will release future information on its website (to be released) and the following social media.
Twitter https://twitter.com/YGGJapan
FaceBook https://www.facebook.com/YGG-Japan-101792249155416
Discord coming soon
