Introducing Jogo Labs
Building the intersection between the metaverse, web3, and gaming
I recently started Jogo Labs, a venture studio, to build the intersection between the metaverse, web3, and gaming. It is understandable that some may think that this is an incredibly stupid time to focus one’s time and energy on anything metaverse/web3 + gaming related.
After all, most gamers, professional game designers, and gaming publications hate everything web3 gaming related (especially P2E). Many companies think the ‘metaverse’ is bullshit by their own definition or Meta’s definition. To top it off, we’re in a bear market, especially for growth stocks and crypto/NFTs.
I understand all the negativity and frankly, most of it is justified (NFT rug pulls, Luna/Celsius, metaverse brand experience with 0 players, etc.). However, there is a lot to be excited about. Here are three theses I’m actively working on.
1) By 2030, every company (and many individuals) will have a metaverse destination.
John Riccitiello, the CEO of Unity, made this prediction during his 2022 AWE conference talk. Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella echoed a similar sentiment in his Q2’22 earnings call. There’s a lot of debate about the definition of the metaverse and I personally like Riccitiello’s the most: “The metaverse is the next generation of the internet that is 1) always real-time, 2) mostly 3D, 3) mostly interactive, 4) mostly social, and 5) mostly persistent.” I believe it’s more useful to start using terms that are more descriptive than just metaverse, like metaverse destinations.
This reminds me a lot the late 1990s where many folks, including myself, were learning how to make websites like Blue’s News or Shacknews. Those were the days where animated gifs were considered “advanced” web design. Today, companies/brands are building in games/platforms like Roblox, Fortnite Creative, and Sandbox. For example: JP Morgan in Decentraland, Gucci Garden in Roblox, Carrefour in Fortnite Creative, and countless other brands launching their worlds every week.
In the short term, we’re going to see more agencies (like WPP) and consulting firms (like Accenture) jump into this space to help brands build in games/gaming platforms. Creators are almost always better at world building but they won’t know how to manage master service agreements and statements of works as well as agencies, so they’ll end up paying a tax. Eventually, as the creator ecosystem develops, I envision game companies focusing more on letting creators help brands directly.
In the long term, I believe companies/brands will want to have their own destinations either on a dominant platform (like Horizon, if Meta wins) or imagine future websites having desktop, mobile, and metaverse versions powered by Mesh/Azure, AWS metaverse services, or Google Cloud metaverse services. There could be some VC-return metaverse SaaS startups that focus on Avatars (like Genies), photos → 3D assets (like RealityScan), NFT management, and more.
My current focus is to work on a couple of metaverse SaaS idea mazes by building metaverse destinations for companies/brands in Fortnite Creative, Sandbox, etc.
2) By 2025, there will be at least one AAA web3-first 100MM MAU game.
Web3 essentially boils down to ownership and in the world of gaming, multiple vectors have been attempted in the past (Diablo 3 Auction House, trading Pokémon across games, CSGO skins [1,2], and more). It is just as likely that a “web2” game with a large but declining userbase starts adopting some web3/ownership elements as a web3-native game builds a player base > 100MM MAU.
Games that charge up front, yield a token in game, or have p2e as their primary monetization models will largely be non-existent from a AAA game perspective, but may survive as some form of social casino game.
In the short term, we’re going to see a lot of browser-based games that integrate NFTs built on PixiJS (primarily 2D games) or PlayCanvas (primarily 3D games). I see a convergence between NFTs and instant games and companies like Snap (acquired PlayCanvas) are the most well-positioned to win that field today.
In the long run, we’re going to see web3 games across all platforms, built across all blockchains. Let’s be real: players of mainstream web3 games probably won’t care if a game is built on Solana, Flow, Immutable X, Polygon, or Avalanche. While there are differences between each blockchain’s developer ecosystem today, I foresee tech parity eventually. Don’t know enough and won’t know enough to opine on which chain wins, which leads to my next point.
My current focus is to build a game on each chain, exploring different components per game, e.g. using the chain as the source of truth for a game engine, typical NFT management, throughput, etc. My first project will be on Flow, more in this in a future post.
3) By 2025, NFTs become mainstream when attention is monetized.
The biggest question not being asked with NFTs are, “who is paying?” Setting art NFTs aside, especially on the gaming front, I can play a game like Elden Ring for $60. Besides speculation, why in the world would we want players to pay hundreds to thousands of dollars for games that don’t even match 5% of that experience?
If companies, games, and projects want to raise capital via NFTs, then just say so. But it’s time to stop thinking of players as the only source of capital. If your game, NFTs, etc. are truly that fun, you are essentially capturing attention. And the tech/media industries has decades of experience of capturing that attention via ads.
In the short term, well-funded NFTs will experiment with utility other than access (e.g. content). Maybe it’ll be a TV series like White Horse Tavern, even though Seth Green had to buy back his bored ape. Or maybe it’ll be an ad-supported f2p mobile game that leverages popular NFTs.
In the long run, I believe most NFTs will become free-to-mint. There will always be the blue chips and speculative newness, but competition will force NFTs to compete on utility — and someone or some entity besides the user/player will have to pay for that.
My current focus is centered around experimenting with non-access utility with a third-party for the gaming project mentioned above.
Let’s build together
There are so many examples of failures, scams, and heartache in crypto, web3 gaming, and NFTs. There’s a chorus of critics across social media, especially with the recent market turn. Meanwhile, success and fun are a lot more rare, especially when “success” is measured via number of PR releases rather than engagement, retention, and monetization.
I appreciate the critics because their intent is generally around consumer protection. However, my main criticism of the critics is that they generally have not built anything in web3 — so it’s all theoretical for them. And they very well may be right, but our team is going to build it and see it for ourselves before making a conclusion.
Please reach out via DMs on Twitter or jon@jogolabs.xyz if you want to collaborate. We have pursued a variety of models (profit sharing, equity, work-for-hire, etc.) for our first-party and third-party projects.
We’re very interested in speaking with PixiJS and PlayCanvas developers as well! Introductions are welcomed!
