Introducing Planetarium Labs Web3 Fund
Planetarium Labs is at the forefront of community-driven decentralized games, serving as a catalyst and a prominent participant in the Web3 gaming space. Our goal is to foster a more inclusive and dynamic gaming ecosystem by integrating tokenomics, decentralization, and innovative fundraising methods. Our current focus includes game development, publishing, and early-stage investments in Web3 projects. This article presents our investment thesis on Web3 gaming, offering insight into our approach and focus areas.
Introduction
How Games Evolved to Mimic Life
Gaming has come a long way since its early days, when it was primarily enjoyed by a small group of computer enthusiasts. The 1970s ushered in a new era of gaming, where arcades and home consoles brought gaming to the masses. People gathered in local restaurants and arcade centers to play hit titles like Space Invaders (1978), marking the beginning of games as social activities. Yet despite their social nature, these experiences were offline, also inhibited by plain graphics and simple objectives.
Within a decade, games evolved into more complex forms of entertainment. Narratives and character progression were added that led to higher sense of achievement. Action and physics were improved for a more immersive and addictive gameplay. Wolfenstein(1981) and Prince of Persia(1989) landmark such evolution representing significant advancements in game mechanics and graphics.
Then games became multiplayer. This shift transformed previously solo objectives into collaborative endeavors. New social dynamics such as cooperation and competition emerged. In-game assets became tradable among players, giving rise to an active, capitalistic market driven by supply and demand. Ultima Online(1997) is widely recognized as the first MMO (Massively Multiplayer Online) game, wherein players started to pursue self-realization and enjoyment from both social and economic activities within the game world. For instance, crafter professions emerged for the sole purpose of creating items that others may need and gaining economic benefits by selling these items. Lineage, launched in 1998, has remained one of the longest surviving MMORPGs to date, showcasing the lasting appeal and longevity of this genre.
An Era for Hyper Immersive and High Worth Digital Experiences
Games have more recently evolved into online environments where players not only can have fun, but also assume new identities. Top-grossing titles such as League of Legends or Fortnite are played in multiplayer settings and offer a variety of social features alongside core gameplay.
With this added layer of social immersion, players began assigning higher monetary value to in-game assets. The market observed and quickly realized that gamers were willing to pay a significant amount of money to acquire rare and valuable in-game assets or aesthetics for status and fame. To take full advantage, game developers introduced free-to-play business models to attract more gamers and produce more in-game assets for sale. Today, “free-to-play” remains as the most dominant business model for the industry. PUBG now makes more money from selling digital cars and clothes than from selling access to the game.
We now encounter an era of hyper-immersive games (or the “metaverse”) on the horizon as advances in technology enables increasingly life-like experiences. Simultaneoulsy, the ever increasing gamer population is expected to hit 3.3 billion by 2024, meaning 4.3 out of 10 people will be gamers in the future as opposed to 2.7 people in 2015. With advancing technology and social infrastructure, digital assets like luxury clothing, vehicles, property, weapons, and VIP memberships will be traded freely at fair market value based on supply and demand. This new market dynamics could empower digital assets to be traded at previously unimaginable prices. We believe such transition unlocks potential for the market that stretches far beyond the current $300 billion gaming industry.
Web3 plays a crucial role in this transition. Blockchain technology grants complete ownership of digital assets, enabling free transactions across various platforms and environments without interference from centralized entities. Creators are empowered with fairer economic incentives and governance to form robust and lasting open-source creative communities. We now have the opportunity to adopt Web3 to create new environments driven by ownership and community, disrupting one of the fastest-growing industries.
Investment Focus
Capitalizing on the Market Shift
As investors, we can capitalize on this market shift to generate returns by focusing on two main areas: (1) content and (2) infrastructure. Some key areas of investments that Planetarium Labs plans to focus on include:
(1) Content
- Massively Multiplayer Online (MMO) Content. Among all game genres, MMO content demonstrates the most developed social networks and diverse group of contributors in the economy. As a result, MMOs have historically been the environment where in-game content commands the highest value.
- Constantly Evolving Content. Today’s leading gaming titles utilize live operations to ensure ongoing engagement. Content must constantly evolve and be updated to retain its value. We support teams committed to the long-term expansion of their game’s intellectual property. Importantly, we encourage sustainable content updates fueled by community contributions via user-generated content, rather than relying solely on centralized sources.
- Community-First. We support systems that are more receptive to community opinions and can better reward contributions. We seek teams that can build strong and active fan bases who proactively contribute to the ecosystem. We are especially excited about fully on-chain games and systems that effectively implement such structures.
- Protocol Ethics. We advocate for token designs with high transparency and decentralized governance structure. Tokens should be implemented only when there is a clear use case and user benefit. Usage of tokens must be the key drivers of token value and liquidity.
(2) Infrastructure
Infrastructure refers to technologies that facilitate discovery, onboarding, payment, play, and social activity of games. These services help game developers focus on their core strengths.
- Enabling technologies that enable efficient and effective creation of highly immersive multiplayer content experience
- Financial technologies that help facilitate in-game economic activities, such as payment, on-ramp & off-ramp, wallets, asset rental etc.
- Client-facing super apps with high usability that facilitates mass adoption of web3 elements
- Discovery and distribution platforms that aid with game adoption
- Technologies that can enable and monetize user creativity
- Technologies that support planning and testing of in-game economic models
We remain open to any other innovative ideas that contribute to our vision of creating a new digital economy.
Lastly, Web3 offers a variety of investment options including, but not limited to fungible and non-fungible tokens that provide greater accessibility, flexibility, and transparency over equity. We will fully leverage the rise of these new asset classes and continually explore more creative investment methods.
About Planetarium
Planetarium Labs: A Unique Investor Value Proposition
Since 2018, Planetarium community has been at the forefront of blockchain technology for games, making it one of the earliest Web3-native game developers worldwide. We have created and launched Nine Chronicles, one of the first fully on-chain, open-source games, and developed a game engine that enables Nine Chronicles to operate entirely on a blockchain network.
Nine Chronicles launched in 2020, at a time when there were only a handful of blockchain games including Axie Infinity, Gods Unchained, and no RPGs. Since then, Nine Chronicles has cultivated a vibrant, global community of players and contributors. By fostering this community, we have garnered a unique and in-depth understanding of the Web3 investor and gamer audience.
As founders ourselves, we accumulated years of experience navigating through the fast-changing tech infrastructure and regulatory landscape to ultimately find and deliver our product to the target audience. We understand the additional challenges Web3 founders face and can support them in focusing on the most crucial journey — finding and serving their target audience.
Geographically, Planetarium Labs has strong presence in Asia-Pacific region, where many of our users and employees are based. Specifically, Planetarium Labs have a strategic branch in Korea, a country experiencing rapid Web3 content adoption. Korea is well-positioned to become the powerhouse of Web3 gaming, with its $7B game production industry actively prototyping and adopting blockchain games. Korean gamers are also among the most fervent MMORPG power users already familiar with the concept of digital ownership through active item trading platforms.
Planetarium Labs aspires to be both a catalyst and a prominent participant in the Web3 gaming industry. Our contributions include publishing and investing in games, as well as providing distinctive guidance to partners on blockchain technology, tokenomics, go-to-market approaches, talent, and capital networks, all grounded in our extensive hands-on experience and network. To support this mission, we have established an early-stage fund dedicated to investing in an array of assets derived in this unique environment.
Please feel free to contact us at investment@planetariumhq.com for further discussions and collaboration opportunities.
