Trade and industry shows can often provide us with useful insights, offering portents for trends and technologies to come, along with highlighting varied markets and potential opportunities. At the recent Esports and Gaming Business Summit in Las Vegas, one insider shared his views on the mobile blockchain gaming sector, and his thoughts are certainly interesting.
As the Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at Bandai Namco, Karim Farghaly gave decrypt.co journalists his views on blockchain and Web3 gaming during quite a revealing interview. At the moment, one of his challenges is looking at how to integrate blockchain with the mobile gaming model.
“We’ve dabbled internally with researching how Web3 infrastructure could work,” acknowledged Farghaly. “From an Asia point of view, I work very closely with a team in Tokyo through our corporate planning that thinks about these things and the differences between the Western market and the Asian market when it comes to Web3.”
“Web3 is definitely something that doesn’t have the backlash that gamers feel in the West, in Asia. I think that, most likely, the very first games that will be successful in Web3 and crypto that will start bringing big audiences are going to be in Asia. That’s my personal opinion,” suggested Farghaly, imparting his inside perspective on future developments.
While there are various established blockchain gaming brands enjoying Western success, judging by the coinmarketgap.com listings for the highest value crypto assets and tokens, “there’s just more going on” in Asia, says Farghaly. The company he represents, Bandai Namco, also has a major base in Sydney, Australia, which could give their Web3 research and efforts quite a distinct advantage.
Given that Australia has its tech ball in both courts, thanks to strong cultural and economic ties with both the Western and Asian regions, innovative developers and publishers in the country could help to bridge the gap. Trade and commerce have flowed through the land Down Under for generations, making Australia one of the key gateway hubs for the movement of ideas between Western countries and their Asian counterparts.
Many of the biggest and most established international game developers have bases in Australia, including those focused on products within the iGaming sector, which typically focuses on digital wagering activities, including sports betting and casino gaming. One example is another Japanese company, Konami Digital Entertainment. They are often associated with console games, but their base in Australia is dedicated to online and offline casino games.
Intriguingly, many of the sites featured in gambleonlineaustralia.com reviews are Western-influenced, albeit with an audience that is culturally receptive to Asian themes and ideas. For example, the Aussie passion for online pokies originated from poker machines, first invented in the United States, before evolving into electronic gaming machines and video slots. On the flip side of the coin, the Chinese game Pai Gow is enjoying increased Western popularity.
Some of the most reputable casino sites have deployed blockchain technology in gaming and use cryptocurrencies for transactions, both of which are widely accepted in their Western markets. Given the depth of iGaming experience in Australia, market leaders in the country have valuable knowledge to share with the blossoming Web3 gaming sector, and that could ultimately help improve the flow of blockchain adoption in Western mobile gaming.
