YGG Ramps Up with Major Updates at Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2024
Yield Guild Games (YGG) returned to San Francisco for the annual Game Developers Conference (GDC) on March 18–22, 2024, with the team dropping massive updates throughout the event while catching up with leaders of the web3 gaming community.
During GDC week, YGG was featured in a New York Times story covering the resurgence of crypto in the Philippines, where two YGG guild leaders have continued to support and grow their communities despite the Crypto Winter. An article about YGG’s transition to a guild protocol was also released by Decrypt, while numerous other publications like VentureBeat, BitPinas, The Philippine Star, Forkast and PlayToEarn covered the YGG token launch on Ronin as well as a surprise airdrop to its loyal delegators. Meanwhile, core team members went meetup-hopping in YGG’s latest drop of branded merch.
Overall, GDC was an opportunity for YGG to spend quality time with its supporters who have been there all throughout the years, while sharing its updated vision for the future as a “guild of guilds” that exists to enable and scale guilds globally. Here’s how GDC went for YGG, plus a hint of more things in store for 2024.
A Trinity to Study
YGG shipped a series of new announcements the week of GDC, starting with the launch of the eagerly anticipated Pixels Superquest. As ardent questers rushed in droves to the YGG dapp to sign up, an IRL energy party took place at the House of Shields, hosted by YGG, Sky Mavis and Pixels.
Sky Mavis Director of Business Development Kathleen Osgood was in attendance, as well as Pixels founder Luke Barwikowski, CMO Heidi Christine and Executive Producer Tyler Greenberg. Among those who joined the mixer were Shi Khai Wei, co-founder of YGG partner LongHash Ventures, OG web3 gaming champion CryptoStache, pseudonymous investor Flying Falcon, and representatives from Animoca Brands, Spartan Labs, Limit Break, GAM3S.GG, Laguna Games and Moku. Also in attendance were YGG allies King River Capital, who announced during GDC that it has set up a US$100 million web3 gaming fund, called the Inevitable Games Fund, with Immutable and Polygon Labs.
The Pixels Superquest launch was quickly followed up with the announcement of the YGG token going live on the Ronin network. In further exciting news, YGG tokens were being airdropped to delegators staking RON with YGG. The YGG Pilipinas community would also soon be able to transfer their YGG tokens from Polygon to Ronin at low costs through YGG’s new partnership with leading Philippine crypto exchange, Coins.ph.
Meanwhile, the Ronin network dropped equally thrilling news of its RON token being listed on Coinbase, solidifying its position as a king among web3 gaming chains.
YGG Partners Shine at GDC 2024
GDC week saw many more YGG game partners celebrating the fruits of their hard work throughout the Crypto Winter. The trading card game Parallel teased some of its planned updates for 2024, including new cards for Planetfall. YGG co-founder Gabby Dizon met up with Parallel co-founder Kohji Nagata after the announcement of a partnership between YGG and Paragons, a leading community advancing competitive gameplay in Parallel. YGG and Paragons are collaborating to host Awakening: The Official Parallel Open Beta Tournament.
YGG and Parallel also co-organized an event with YGG partners Base and Iskra at The Executive Order Bar & Lounge. The YGG core team, including Head of Ecosystem Development Andy Chou and Head of Community Mark Tan, got to catch up with Base creator Jesse Pollak and Head of Ecosystem, Sam Frankel, as well as the Chief Business Officer of Iskra, Ben Colayco.
Additionally, Gabby met with David Johansson, co-founder and CEO of BLOCKLORDS. He also had fruitful conversations with Gabriel Leydon, founder of Limit Break, developer of the free-to-own game DigiDaigaku, Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CEO of CCP Games, creator of the well-loved sci-fi strategy game EVE Online, and Sean Pinnock, CEO of the MMORPG Avalon.
The founders of some of YGG’s regional guild partners were also in town, and Gabby was able to catch up with Mark Engelhardt of AMG DAO, Rohit Gupta of NYXL, Nico del Pino of OLA GG, and Manish Agarwal and Ishank Gupta of Kratos Generation, or KGeN (formerly IndiGG). During GDC week, KGeN unveiled its new brand identity and Proof of Gamer Engine.
The Vision for Web3 Gaming in 2024 and Beyond
Coinciding with GDC was the release of major feature pieces highlighting YGG and its current trajectory. New York Times journalist Eli Tan published an article describing the crypto market’s resurgence in the Philippines, with YGG and its community leaders Disi, captain of YGG’s esports team YGG Elite, and JB, co-founder of YGG guild NFT X Street, at the forefront. Andrew Hayward of Decrypt released an article on YGG’s transition from a guild to a protocol that will power web3 guilds through onchain infrastructure, as showcased in YGG’s recent collaboration with Pixels for the game’s guild system.
The week of GDC, Gabby also met with Dean Takahashi of VentureBeat, who reported on the YGG token launching on Ronin and YGG’s partnership with LongHash Ventures. The arrival of the YGG token on Ronin was received enthusiastically by the community and garnered coverage from several other publications including Forkast, PlayToEarn, BitPinas and The Philippine Star.
Gabby aligned with some of YGG’s VC supporters as well, including Linda Xie of Scalar Capital and Joseph A. C. Lloyd of Delphi Digital, as well as the Animoca Brands team and Carlos Pereira of BITKRAFT Ventures. Later that week, YGG went to an event hosted by Carlos’ team alongside Silicon Valley Bank, Xsolla and CMS, as well as a party hosted by a16z Games.
Other events during the week included NPC Day San Francisco, where YGG Global Head of Growth Angel Pui spoke on a panel about YGG’s vision for onchain guilds, quests and the new reputation system. Another memorable side event was Play Beyond: Sui Gaming Summit, which drew key figures such as Keiichi Yano, Chief Creative Officer at YGG partner Meta-X, Andrew Chen of a16z Games, Nenter Chow of Animoca Ventures, Leah Callon-Butler and Nathan Smale of Emfarsis, and Mark Long of Shrapnel. YGG also attended a few invite-only events such as the Samsung Next Dinner at The Vault Garden.
GDC was a meaningful opportunity for YGG to share the possibilities of web3 — enhanced gameplay, robust game economies, a thriving esports scene, and the rise of web3 guilds — with the broader gaming industry. This bustling, fruitful week has not only steered YGG’s trajectory upward but also aligned its goals alongside its partners and newfound friends, shining a bright light at the end of a long Crypto Winter.
Check out the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2024 website to learn more about the event.
Want to join one of the first guilds YGG is supporting in Pixels? Complete the Pixels Superquest with Player_w3, and get a chance to win a 12-month VIP coupon or an ultra-rare YGG Founders’ Coin!
If you’ve been staking your RON with YGG, don’t forget to claim your airdrop to celebrate the YGG token coming to Ronin.
Join YGG on Discord and follow us on X to learn more about what’s in store for the coming year and beyond.
