Yumerium — ICO Review
Yumerium aims to be a platform that will allow game publishers and gamers to interact via an interface similar to Steam and Kickstarter combined, but on the blockchain. The Yumerium platform will offer a way for game publishers to both kickstart and raise funds, and also to publish their games on the platform for gamers to play. Gamers themselves will be able to earn Yumerium tokens simply by playing these games.
Typical monetization models in the gaming industry are heavily focused to benefit publishers. Currently games are either “pay to play” via one-off or monthly fees, or “free to play” whereby players acquire in-game benefits through microtransactions. Yumerium aims to introduce a “be paid to play” model whereby gamers themselves can now receive payment in the form of tokens for playing games on the platform. This will be achieved whereby publishers can easily offer incentives for gamers to play their games.
Yumerium aims to target all categories of gamers, from casual to the hardcore crowd, on all platforms including PC, mobile and virtual reality. Games themselves can be owned on the platform in a similar manner to traditional physical copies. For example, if a gamer wants to buy a special limited edition copy of a game, typically they must do so by purchasing a physical copy. On Yumerium, special limited edition copies of a game can be purchased and downloaded digitally, and these special copies will be signified in some way virtually, such as via a special text. Furthermore, gamers can sell their owned games to other gamers on the platform through a secondary market, something not possible on platforms such as Steam.
How It Differs to Steam
Traditional platforms such as Steam only give gamers a “license” to run the game, whereas Yumerium will give actual digital ownership of certain game copies via blockchain authentication. This to me shows a lot of potential in bringing back the 90’s days where gamers could own physical game copies which they could then sell to friends when they’re done with the game, but unlike the 90s we’ll be able to do this all digitally.
In-game competitions can also be easily programmed by game publishers via Smart Contracts if they wish to run contests or weekly prize pools. Gamers completing the milestones set forth in the Smart Contract will be instantly rewarded, avoiding the possibility of game publishers delaying or withholding payment. The sort of milestones/conditions set forth in Smart Contracts could range to anything from simply completing designated tasks right through to winning a competitive tournament/competition with a prize pool. The need to register in tournaments with personal details, as is typical with most centralized game services, will be bypassed as users can remain anonymous and simply provide their token address to receive rewards. All rewards can be paid out automatically via Smart Contracts.
Yumerium will also offer a marketing platform whereby high quality Twitch, Youtube or other streamers can be paid directly in order to advertise/stream a certain game, bypassing the need for external marketing services entirely.
All of these things will will be payable with the Yumerium platform token.
Yumerium Team Experience
What I like about this project is they already have some games published. You can view the showcase in their store here: yumerium.com/store
The team behind Yumerium are also game publishers themselves. Their game publishing company Subdream Studios has published numerous games, with an emphasis on VR. They are also the original creators of gPotato before it was sold to Webzen.
The Yumerium team will be publishing “Crypto Mine” as their own in-house game on the platform at release.
A lot of ICOs, particularly gaming ICOs, consist of teams that haven’t had any experience creating games or businesses before. Yumerium is different in this regard, as it has actually published games which you can see on the Subdream Studios site. This lends the project credibility, and raises the potential of the team in achieving their goals and meeting their roadmap.
ICO Details
The ICO begins May 24th. The total supply of Yumerium (YUM) tokens will be 633,813,700 at release, with 184,461,152 YUM being reserved for later platform use. Fund allocation seems appropriate, with 20% reserved for the team, and 50% distributed to token sale participants.
There is a slightly high bonus structure which I’m not too fond of, whereby bonus tokens up to 80% will be issued depending upon volume. As you may well know, I’m not fond of bonus structures at all since there is no such thing as free tokens — any bonuses are usually priced into the token’s market price upon release, and those not receiving the bonus miss out. In saying this, the bonus structure isn’t too bad, but I do recommend you get into the May 24 — June 9 sale period as this has the most attractive initial bonus which is set at 30%. The volume bonuses will depend upon total raised funds.
55% of raised funds will be allocated to development, with 45% focusing on game development and 10% on development of the actual platform itself. This is good to see, as over 50% of the project funds will be spent on actually developing the product, which is always a plus in my book. 20% will be allocated to marketing which seems fair, and in-line with investor interests.
Conclusion
Yumerium looks to finally offer gamers a way to receive payment for playing games, by simplying playing the game, or by completing milestone tasks within a game, or winning various tournaments and competitions as set forth by the game publishers. With Yumerium, gamers now have an incentive to play games for potential rewards in addition to their entertainment value. The platform itself is also based entirely on the blockchain, which will keep an immutable record of game ownership, and will allow the reselling of digital copies of games owned by gamers.
Unfortunately the ICO has a bit of a high bonus structure, which I’m not too fond of, however the actual project itself and the utility of the YUM token both seem sound, and the team seems to have the game publication experience to make their platform a success. All in all, I believe Yumerium has a lot of potential as a project and is worth keeping an eye on, and is worthy of a solid 8 score.
Links
Originally published at icoveteran.com on May 22, 2018.