The gaming sector has been in a perpetual state of flux for decades. One area that has soared beyond what damn-near everyone predicted is the mobile platform, which was scoffed at and ignored. Not only has it proven people wrong, but it may have another significant part to play with Web3 gaming. Game publisher, Jungle, thinks so and has raised a considerable sum to pursue it.
We have written a lot about mobile gaming, with some great articles from Murtagh on the subject too. The synopsis would be that mobile gaming is a titanic force in the gaming sector and represents a gateway for Web3 games due to a number of factors: accessibility, playerbase, and lower developmental requirements (generally) of the games. As for accessibility and playerbase, this slightly outdated infographic is a decent indicator and the numbers may now be even more in favor of mobile:
We have seen a number of impressive Web3 gaming projects in the works for mobile in the past year (and you can see five of them here). That number is only ramping up and a recent funding round has grabbed a few headlines.
Jungle Raises $6M From Major Web3 VCs
Jungle, a new Brazilian Web3 games publisher, has just seen a $6 million injection from some of the biggest VCs in the space, including Bitkraft Ventures, Delphi Digital, and Framework, as well as regionally-focussed investors such as Norte.
The Web3 games publisher, founded by Joao Beraldo, Guilo Gerraro, and Lucas Ketzman, aims to create hybrid (albeit mobile-first) blockchain games. The first title will be a Web3 shooter which has no public name or footage, save for a sneak preview embedded on the Jungle homepage. However, what is most interesting about this story is Jungle’s strategy toward building up their library of games:
Our strategy is to identify mobile games, either already live or in the process of being launched, which have the potential to be successfully converted to Web3-first titles and become dominant titles within their genre in the blockchain gaming space…
Now, this is a strategy I have spoken about in articles before, as well as on the podcast. Although it’s remarkably obvious on the face of it, hoovering up games and integrating blockchain technology could be a powerful route of adoption. Although Jungle is focused on live and pre-release games, I would suggest that previously popular but currently dead games could be fruitful; the developers may not be maintaining it and would accept a small payday and the game is provably attractive to players.
This seed round for Jungle is small in the grand scheme of things, but it might just mark another thread to the ever-growing ball of yarn that is the mobile portion of Web3 gaming.
Lead image by Onur Binay via Unsplash
