A New Era of Open Game Ecosystem: Addressing Structural Issues in the Web3 Gaming Industry

Key Summary

• The Web3 gaming industry has fallen into a slump after experiencing an initial speculative boom. Critics point out that the closed ecosystem structure is the fundamental issue.
• A group of industry veterans has created a third-layer infrastructure specifically optimized for gaming. The team has developed a high-performance, low-cost, industry-customized infrastructure and built an open gaming ecosystem based on high interoperability to break through the structural limitations of the Web3 gaming industry.
• The vision of this project is not limited to addressing the limitations of the Web3 gaming industry. They aim to provide a new paradigm for the traditional gaming industry through a community-centered governance model, a cooperative rather than competitive inter-game model, and the development of an expanded virtual economy.

1. The Crisis in the Web3 Gaming Industry: Speculation or Innovation?

Web3 games were initially seen as a growth engine for the gaming industry due to the new possibilities brought by blockchain integration. However, contrary to early expectations, public interest has rapidly cooled, and doubts about their "innovative nature" continue to brew.

The data confirms this shift. The search volume for related topics has continued to decline after peaking, and the trading volume of major tokens remains low.

Nevertheless, many builders still firmly believe that Web3 games will revive. However, after the wave of speculation recedes, it is difficult to rebuild public trust. While the cryptocurrency industry finds new growth points through institutional adoption, the Web3 gaming industry is still seeking breakthroughs in stagnation.

Today, Web3 gaming stands at a critical crossroads: will it become a true vehicle for innovation, or will it degenerate into the final chapter of speculative bubbles? To move forward, the industry must confront its limitations and establish a clear breakthrough strategy.

2. The Fundamental Limitations of Web3 Games: Walled Gardens

The core crisis of Web3 games stems from the closed ecosystem structure. Although it markets itself on openness and interoperability, the reality often falls short. Blockchain technology theoretically allows users to own gaming assets and transfer them freely across platforms — this is precisely the core value proposition of the field.

But the current Web3 gaming ecosystem presents a paradox: most games operate on isolated blockchain infrastructures, creating "walled gardens". This fragmentation limits the industry's growth potential by splitting an already limited user base and diluting liquidity. Game companies compete in a zero-sum environment, fighting over the "existing pie" instead of collaborating to "expand the pie"; this dynamic hinders innovation and drags down overall development.

To break the deadlock, Web3 games must break the closed structure and build an open and interconnected ecosystem. This requires a strategic shift from individual competition to collaborative growth, surpassing mere technical fixes, allowing developers, platforms, and communities to co-create value.

Some projects have started to tackle this challenge. For example, a gaming infrastructure project initiated by a well-known blockchain creator proposes the vision of "open gaming," aiming to address the interoperability problem from a structural level and provide a fundamental solution for the fragmentation of the Web3 gaming ecosystem.

3. Opening a New Era of Open Game Ecosystem

This project is a blockchain game infrastructure initiative created by a group of industry veterans. While building the ecosystem, the team identified a critical limitation: the existing blockchain infrastructure cannot support the high transaction volume demands of gaming applications, leading to the development of a high-performance, low-cost solution tailored specifically for games.

The project's ambition goes beyond optimizing throughput. After the mainnet launch in August 2024, the team will release the "Open Game Manifesto," aiming to address the structural issues of Web3 gaming. The manifesto advocates for maximum interoperability, making games no longer isolated islands but rather components of an interconnected and open ecosystem.

The project's technical direction and grand vision have attracted the attention of top investors. The project has raised approximately $21 million in seed funding from well-known institutions. As of May 2025, its chain has reached 6.9 million wallet addresses, with a total of over 300 million transactions—establishing its leading game infrastructure position within the ecosystem.

3.1 Open Game Layer Three: Game Optimization Infrastructure

The third layer of open gaming is the philosophical foundation and technical cornerstone of the project's vision, achieving two major goals through the concept of third-layer infrastructure:

First, develop high-performance Rollup infrastructure to provide an optimized environment for games.

Secondly, assist game companies in building a horizontally scalable "game chain" based on this chain, maintaining interoperability while achieving independence.

3.1.1 High-Performance Rollup Infrastructure

This chain provides infrastructure for game developers without the need for a dedicated blockchain. Built on a well-known chain, it inherits the security and flexibility of the EVM stack, while achieving low-cost and high-performance transaction processing through an off-chain scaling solution based on Optimium.

This off-chain third-layer infrastructure is designed specifically to meet the needs of the gaming industry. Existing second-layer solutions improve general performance, but still face limitations in costs and throughput when dealing with millions of concurrent gaming transactions. This challenge is akin to peak traffic on a multi-lane highway—widening the lanes (first layer) helps, but congestion is still hard to avoid.

The chain addresses this bottleneck through a third-layer architecture specifically designed for gaming. By providing dedicated channels for game transactions—similar to bus lanes on a congested highway (third layer)—it achieves high throughput and cost efficiency.

As of July 2024, the cost of a single transaction on this chain is only $0.001, significantly lower than Ethereum Layer 1 ($0.34), a well-known chain ($0.017), and even Solana ($0.004). This allows developers to reliably and efficiently operate chain games, eliminating cost friction.

3.1.2 Game Chain: A Customized Infrastructure with Independence and Scalability

The project team provides an internal toolkit and technical support for companies developing a "game chain" based on its blockchain. This model is similar to an independent hotel network connected through a global reservation system—game companies retain autonomy while achieving seamless interoperability within a larger ecosystem.

These game chains adopt a central-radiation architecture: a well-known chain serves as the central hub, while the project chain acts as a radiation node with various game chains. This structure allows each game to operate in an independent high-performance environment while maintaining cross-chain connectivity and shared infrastructure. The project extends Optimism's "super chain" concept to the third layer, providing a scalable framework that enables assets and interactions to flow freely between chains without sacrificing sovereignty.

Developers can add functionality chains on demand, similar to designing microservices. For example, setting up dedicated chains for high-traffic NFT transactions to avoid the "noisy neighbor problem" (where the load of one function affects the overall infrastructure performance).

Currently, four game studios are building game chains, which form the early pillars of the interconnected open game ecosystem supported by the project's infrastructure.

3.2 On-chain Gaming Platform

The frontend client developed by the project team provides a user-friendly entry point for blockchain games. This platform allows users to experience blockchain games without the need for specialized Web3 knowledge, and offers developers easy tools for deploying and managing blockchain games.

3.2.1 User-Friendly Design: Seamless Onboarding Experience

Users can register with just an email or phone number. The platform supports integration of social logins, MetaMask and other EOA wallets, as well as the global account model of a certain well-known smart wallet. The guest mode allows for instant gaming without login, significantly lowering the entry barrier.

To enhance usability, the platform adopts its proprietary account and chain abstraction technology, AnySpend. This feature allows users to instantly access cross-chain assets through a single login account—without the need for bridging or exchanging—providing a seamless experience similar to Web2, enabling blockchain games to reach mainstream users.

In addition to gaming, the platform also serves as a social hub to promote player interaction. The "Play-to-Win" real-time tournaments, which coexist with competition and cooperation, support an immersive experience, and all game processes and rewards are recorded on-chain to ensure transparency.

3.2.2 Developer-Friendly Release Platform: Web-Based Game Launcher

The platform also serves as a publishing platform, providing a web-based game launcher for easy deployment and management of blockchain games. Through this platform, developers can implement key blockchain features such as token gating (restricting access to specific token holders) and a task system based on on-chain activities.

In addition, the platform provides operational tools such as game reviews, leaderboard management, and notification features, allowing developers to focus on game design and content creation rather than backend infrastructure.

4. Assumption: The project will open the future of the gaming industry.

The project's vision for open gaming brings new possibilities not only for Web3 games but for the entire gaming industry. Although the traditional industry has developed for decades, it is still constrained by centralized decision-making and closed economic structures. This project aims to break these limitations by building a more open, interconnected, and community-driven ecosystem, paving the way for innovative new paths.

4.1 Assumption: The game development decision-making power shifts from the publisher to the community?

In traditional games, large publishers control core decisions, limiting development and creative diversity. Studios often rely on commercially validated remakes or sequels rather than investing in new IPs, leading to a stagnation of innovation.

The project will provide an alternative model through tokenized community governance. Using its tokens, the community can directly vote on game projects, and selected works will receive development funding through grants.

This model allows game development to more transparently reflect the interests of players rather than those of publishers. Similar to successful cases like "Pillars of Eternity" which gained community support through crowdfunding, or "Stardew Valley" which revived the farming simulation genre outside of commercial constraints as an independent game. The project aims to create a growth space for original player-driven creativity that is not constrained by top-down market logic.

Ultimately, the project's vision for open gaming goes beyond technical interoperability, introducing a more transparent and inclusive governance structure, empowering the community to shape the development direction, and injecting new vitality into the gaming industry.

4.2 Hypothesis: Is the gaming industry shifting from competition to collaboration?

The traditional gaming industry suffers from structural inefficiency, most notably user data silos. This fragmentation makes precise targeting and cross-platform marketing difficult. Coupled with rising user acquisition costs and declining marketing efficiency, companies face severe challenges.

In contrast, the project launched a global state system that matches the vision of open gaming, allowing user data, achievements, and evaluations to be recorded and shared across all game chains. This shared infrastructure supports more precise and effective marketing.

The project proposes various collaboration models based on high interoperability. The "shared incentive" model encourages games to expand their user base through cooperation instead of exclusive user competition. For example, if a user from Game A purchases items in Game B, Game A will receive a portion of the revenue as a referral reward.

The "shared liquidity" model bridges the project tokens or other underlying assets to achieve free movement between game tokens. This allows games to focus on content development and ecological collaboration, rather than competing for liquidity.