Gaming for Dollars
How Monetizr is Bringing Gaming Rewards to Life
This is the best time to be a video gamer
Growing up, I witnessed the birth of PC gaming, the NES, the GameBoy. Every iteration felt like future alien-tech; we were getting better and better graphics and gameplay with every new release. Check out the difference between Mario and Mario 3 to see how much changed on one gaming system. I’m jealous of how awesome the new games are and how little time I have to enjoy them. But the biggest insult to an aging gamer is how today’s gamers can monetize their love of gaming.
E-gaming has reached an all time high, with last year’s International Dota 2 Championship sponsoring a whopping $11.2 million grand prize going to the first place team. Gaming celebrities like Ninja pulled in $10 million in Twitch streaming and ad revenue on Fortnite in 2018. This trend for rewarding gamer’s accomplishments is growing, and it’s about to reach the next level.
A challenger approaches
The new idea is to bring a slice of that gamer compensation to the entire gaming audience. Imagine beating the boss at the end of a game and receiving swag to show off that you beat it at its hardest setting, like a limited edition T-shirt. Or a gift card for more in-game content. Monetizr is doing this today, with game developers seeing player lifetime value increase as high as 25% by incorporating real world rewards into their games. They’ve sent superhero tshirts, badge-of-honor caps and premium decals to over 50 countries, and they are just getting started.
Although gaming tokens aren’t a new concept, they were lacking real-world value. We’re set to change that.
With over 17 million users interacting with their in-game currencies, Monetizr is a universal game currency that plans on converting all our gaming hours into cash. Created for video games and gamers alike, the Monetizr Ecosystem is built on the Ethereum Classic blockchain and is meant to bring real world rewards to our virtual adventures. “Although gaming tokens aren’t a new concept, they were lacking real-world value. We’re set to change that.” says Monetizr’s Chief Product Officer Martins Bratuskins.
Every gamer is a superhero
The key to Monetizr’s revolutionary idea is their patented Game Reward Engine. “We use a gamification framework to analyze our customer’s games before the Game Reward Engine is implemented. Knowing the audience and key drivers behind gamer motivation helps us engineer more effective incentives in correct places along the game storyline. When there is a breaking point or a huge win in the game, the user experience is boosted with unlockable rewards” says Martins. “We believe that gamers should be rewarded and their gaming experience should go beyond one game — kinda like in the movie — Ready Player One.” It’s this understanding of emotional accomplishment that brings the companies motto to life: “Every gamer is a superhero”.
It’s not just gamers who are loving the new ecosystem, but game developers too. With user engagement increasing an average 25% using Monetizr, this much welcomed revenue stream comes to an industry that has constantly been looking for new monetization opportunities. “For game studios, the biggest advantage cooperating with us is white-labeling our technology. It makes players feel more comfortable in the gaming environment as there are no sudden redirections to 3rd party pages.” This uptick in engagement not only brings more revenue today, but helps build a loyalty system.
In-app purchases are quickly becoming the main revenue source for video game developers, representing an estimated 43% share of gaming related earnings. The conversion rates for these purchases also increase using Monetizr. Video-game Blackbox has reported seeing an uptick of 10.6% on in-app related purchases using the Monetizr platform. Another added benefit is that Monetizr expands purchases available by offering real life awards along side the usual virtual options. It’s a nice addition for gamers looking for options and they handle all of the process without any hassle for the game developer.
When we started Monetizr, we interviewed more than 500 game developers, helping us to shape the company
The team has a rich background in startups and gaming, and advisors with experience from Zynga, Activision Blizzard, EA, AdColony and Facebook. Founders Andris Merkulovs (CEO) and Martins Bratuskins (CPO) tagged System Architecture and Machine Learning expert Martins Jansevskis for the CTO role in 2017 and have been growing the idea ever since. “When we started Monetizr, we interviewed more than 500 game developers, helping us to shape the company” said Martins. “We are proud to say that Monetizr was developed hand in hand with our customers, meaning that we have the best network of gaming and blockchain people around us and with us.”
Next Level
Currently, the Monetizr ecosystem exists as a separate currency for each gaming partner, but the long term goal is a currency that can be swapped and ported between games. The future could see gamers that performed well in Call Of Duty bring over their cash into the new Warcraft game, instantly enjoying an upgraded experience, paid for by their previous hours of gaming. Cumulative game time will lead to a more refined experience, as newbies and gaming veterans will have different starting off points that feel more logical to their overall gaming history.
Joining the Ethereum Classic Labs incubator in January, the team now has access to the ETC Labs Core dev team for additional help with building this ambitious project on the Ethereum Classic blockchain. “With ETC Labs we see an opportunity to leverage the worlds top developers to help improve how we are building our blockchain, as well as gain advice from some of the most successful business leaders. ETC Labs has a very strong community” said Martins.
Monetizr has set major achievements for this next level, with the group aiming to grow their 17 million users to over 100 million interacting with their currencies by end of 2019. New game developers are joining everyday, with names like Sega and Electronic Arts soon to be added to the platform. The team just won the most innovative company in Georgia and the Sharktank pitch competition at BlockChaingeDC 2019. Martins is confident that this winning trend is just the beginning, “More wins to come and we believe that participating in ETC Labs will unlock new opportunities for us.”
Learn more about Monetizer at monetizr.io and join the conversation on Telegram
Disclaimer: Monetizr is part of the ETC Labs Accelerator where the author, BobTheGrownUp, work’s as Marketing Director.
Apply for the ETC Labs Accelerator Now!
ETC Labs is holding their second cohort accelerator in San Francisco this summer! Applications are open until May 1st. Learn more at https://etclabs.org and apply at https://www.f6s.com/ethereumclassiclabs/apply
