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🚀 Game Launchers - Infrastructure for Web3 Gaming Lift-off?

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Tom Rogers & Web3 No Re
July 26, 2023

Last week we had an awesome time partying up at the Web3 Gaming LAN Party with HyperPlay at ETHCC. Attendees were able to play against each other through the library of games on HyperPlay’s web3-native game launcher.

Although HyperPlay has been leading the news recently with their partnership with web3 gaming giant Immutable, several projects are looking to build the next Steam of blockchain-enabled games. At No Re, we are firm believers that for gaming to evolve, infrastructure will need to adapt by either continuing the standard behaviors players have with traditional video games or abstracting away any technical difficulty guiding players through any interactions that may be foreign when interacting with blockchain. The interface in which players access their favorite titles is vital.

Launchers Overview

Not that sort of launcher CJ.

Game launchers are apps that allow players to access games. This statement in itself is very simple, but game launchers are important for both players and game developers. The base features for a launcher:

  • Automatic Updates: They handle updates for all the games hosted. When an update for a game is released, the launcher will automatically download and install it, ensuring that players always have the latest version of the games they own.

  • Cloud Saves: They provide cloud-saving features which allow users to save their game progress to the cloud. This means that if you switch computers or lose your local save data, you can continue from where you left off.

  • DRM (Digital Rights Management): Launchers such as Steam and Epic Games Store use DRM as a measure to prevent piracy. The games you download are tied to your account and require authentication through the launcher to run.

  • Achievements and Game Stats: Many games on these platforms have achievements you can earn throughout gameplay. The launcher will often keep track of these and other game statistics.

Launcher Development in Web2

The above functionality can be seen even on some of the most basic game launchers tied to a single title. Over time these have moved towards a game library approach with varying degrees of storefront as well as further functionality built on top of these core processes.

  • Distribution platform: They are primarily used as digital distribution platforms, meaning they facilitate the sale, download, and management of video games. Developers can release their games through these platforms to reach the entire user base of each platform.

  • Game Library Management: These platforms also act as a library for all your games. You can view, sort, and directly launch your games from the launcher without needing to find the game’s executable file in your computer’s folders.

  • Social Features: Friends lists, messaging, group chats, and forums where players can connect with each other, discuss games, and share achievements.

  • Storefront: They often feature sales and promotions to purchase games at a discounted price. (RIP to all the funds spent on unplayed Steam sale purchases, better off buying CSGO keys).

  • Early Access and Beta Testing: Some games are released in an early state for players to try out before the full release. These “Early Access” or “Beta” versions of games can often be accessed through launchers.

  • Workshop/Mod Support: Particularly in the case of Steam, the launcher provides extensive support for community-created content. Users can create, share, and install mods and other user-generated content through the platform.

  • In-Game Overlay: They provide an in-game overlay that gives you access to certain launcher features while playing a game. This includes chatting with friends, viewing your achievements, browsing the web, and more.

Web2 Woes

“Countin' money, you know how it goes”

- Aubrey “Drake” Graham

Where Web2 might have got it wrong is with exclusivity rights and limiting games to be accessed to a singular platform. Yes, this makes sense for the likes of Riot or Blizzard to have a launcher dedicated to all the titles made by the studios. However, one of the biggest game franchises of all time, Call of Duty, may have been on the short end of an exclusivity deal when they opted to release Call of Duty for PC exclusively through Battle.net launcher. On the other side of the spectrum, we have seen the likes of freemium games hit virality by being accessible through many launchers, such as Fall Guys, Among Us, and Rocket League.

More importantly, games launched on the likes of Steam a required to pay up to 30% of all sales to the distribution platform for the pleasure of including the game in their storefront. Cuts like this are commonplace in digital marketplaces, with Epic taking 12% of sales and Apple standing beside Valve and taking 30% as well. This value should be driven back to the developers and games studios, especially for smaller indie studios, as this further increases the barrier to entry (or success) for fresh takes in the video game industry. This leads to the stifling of innovation and feels like the slacker on the group project taking credit for the A+ grade.

Web3 Launchers

As well as all of the above, Web3 launchers have the added fun(difficulty) of building blockchain-ready infrastructure to support interaction with relevant chains. At its base, players will need a wallet to manage digital assets for blockchain games, but this comes with a whole host of new considerations and connections to be built. This may be via a Connect button so users who already have one setup can connect and start playing, or this may be integrated into the UI itself to help new players onboard into the ecosystem.

HyperPlay

First up, we have HyperPlay—a platform providing a web3-native games store with the ability to aggregate games from the Epic Store and GOG Galaxy, expanding the universe of games to the widest degree. Their main aim is to reverse some of the wrongdoings and monopolistic fees seen in web2. They do not take any fees from game sales or in-game transactions, revamping the flow of value back to the developers and builders in blockchain gaming. Currently, HyperPlay is not monetized but looks to capitalize on quality-of-life features in the future.

Elixir

The Elixir launcher is not only a pathway into their library of supported games across nine networks, but they are pushing heavily on the social aspect of gaming. Through the events tab, players can watch live gaming events and jump straight into tournaments and leagues with cash prizes. They have also partnered with over 50 creators who are featured on the site with a notification of any that are live in the sidebar. Their developer dashboard provides builders with the tools they need to launch their game ranging from project version control to in-game anti-cheat systems.

KAP Games

KAP Games focuses on in-browser and mobile native gaming experiences. It is a distribution portal purpose-built for mobile and browser games, providing convenient web2.5 rails for easy asset management, login, and analytics to unlock the next generation of gaming. The platform provides technical support, community growth tools, and access to an extensive network. KAP Games differs as it is the first launcher on this list powered by its own native token, $KAP. Holders can stake their tokens for premium features or discounts and vote on governance proposals on partnerships, acquisitions, and possible rewards.

How Launchers Support Stronger Web3 Gaming Growth

For the players: a Web3 launcher will enable further exposure and discovery of blockchain titles and ecosystems. Integrating wallets at the platform level may abstract away some of the issues that arise from the crypto wallet requirement, and accessing game asset marketplaces further improves user experience when interacting with in-game economies.

Web3 launchers can also provide a level of trust for new market entrants and new players of a particular game. By establishing a single place of origin to interact with a game, users can be assured that they are, in fact, connected to the title they want to play and not a phishing scam.

For the builders: Simply put, one of the greatest features Web3 launchers offer builders is a home for their product. Epic Games just started allowing Web3 products to exist on their store, but it may be some time before some of the other web2 launchers follow suit. Google and Apple have only slightly eased on their restrictions, and Apple hasn’t eased up on its 30% take for existing. Launchers also provide a host of developer tools and resources to support the development of games, in some cases with dedicated technical support.

For the investors: With those that have backed games studios directly, the value comes with the growth of their games, benefitting from the increased exposure to their investment. However, the topic of native tokens for launchers is interesting to sway potential users and games to use their platforms or incentivize user interaction and retention.

Conclusion

It isn’t easy to see what the future of launchers will look like. On one hand, launchers are a portal for gamers to play and discover their next favorite title—however, the focus is still primarily on the former. Many of us don’t give a second thought to the launcher—it is just another step or setup that needs to be completed before we can hop into the action.

We’ve already seen Epic start introducing blockchain games in their store with a searchable tag accessible by their behemoth user base. Although the infrastructure needs to be created, a great game or franchise is the current determining factor when it comes to launcher selection. With this, we will probably see games forgoing the exclusivity rights woes that have been seen with web2 titles and trying to get exposure through as many platforms as possible.

But don’t take our word for it - we’ve included a list of web3 launchers below. Jump in, and maybe see you on the scoreboard!

Web3 Launchers

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