Ready Games launches mobile web3 division for iOS and Android, plus FAQ

The shared utility token- $AURA- allows devs to seamlessly go live with a compliant web3 game, and get immediate learning on how web3 gaming can bring value to their gaming portfolio.

The new ecosystem, aimed at democratize access to web3 game development, will go forward with the issuance of the $AURA token and the release of turnkey developer tools.

This should quickly bring mobile web2 games into web3 in compliance with Apple and Google app store rules, according to Ready Games’ strategy, which includes incentivizing web2 game programmers to explore and switch to web3 with minimal development time and cost, while distributing games “as normal” through traditional app stores.

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Ready raised $3m to make it happen

Ready also raised $3 million in a token sale led by BITKRAFT and Hashed with participation of other leading names, has helped Ready push its plan forward, empowering game developers.

David Bennahum, Chief Executive Officer of Ready Games, said: “As a lifelong gamer, I’m thrilled to offer game devs the tools and tokenomics to make it possible to quickly integrate on-chain. It’s incredibly challenging to take the complexities of web3 and make them easily accessible for game publishers: from live operations to loyalty programs and new economic models. We’re excited to see what comes next as we build this collective ecosystem together!”

Christina Macedo, COO of Ready, added: “There are over 3+Billion mobile players worldwide, currently a huge untapped market in Web3, Ready is tapping this market. By allowing mobile gaming to enter and have a place in Web3 gamefi this finally allows a very diverse global demographic of developers, players and creators to finally enter Web3 and collaborate as a united community of game lovers.”

Scott Rupp, Managing Founding Partner at BITKRAFT Ventures, commented: “Web3 presents a new paradigm for how games and their communities are built, distributed, and grown. It’s an exciting tech shift for all stakeholders involved, but it’s also new, daunting and still carries significant friction for those looking to make the leap. Ready’s tools and token will make it a lot easier for mainstream devs to enter web3 gaming.”

Ethan Kim, Co-founder & Partner at Hashed, stated: “We are excited to partner with Ready in building the leading web3 mobile gaming and user-generated content ecosystem. Along with Ready’s ability to seamlessly onboard a wide spectrum of games and content, their in-depth understanding of developers, creator communities and players will accelerate mass adoption of blockchain-based gaming.”

Ray Xiao, Principal at IOSG Ventures, said: “We are always happy to back serial entrepreneurs who stick with a specific vision over the course of one’s journey. In the case of Ready Games, we are genuinely impressed by David’s and Christina’s commitment to democratize access to game creation over the past few years. In a way, this vision of web3 games was ahead of its time when Ready was founded 6 years ago. Now web3 is READY.”

Ready Games was founded in 2016 to help developers transition from web2 gaming to web3 by creating a number of solutions, including live game operations that synchronize on-chain, accessible through a turnkey API and SDK; modular smart contract systems accessible to devs and creators through a simple dashboard; on-chain player profiles, with game achievements serving as a store of “reputational capital” for the players; along with distributed token economics to align the interests of game developers, creators, and players.

Artists can also leverage Ready to create and upload styles and gadgets to be purchased and traded within Ready’s games, while players will be rewarded in an indirect way. Its Play and Own environment allows gamers to purchase items paying with traditional in-game coins.

What about compliance with Apple and Google?

Ready Games has provided a FAQ that answers the many questions developers might have about compliance and control mechanisms.

How can mobile games be on-chain and stay in compliance with Apple App Store and Google Play Store rules?

 

• It’s a misconception that by default blockchain-based games are banned/prohibited by Apple and Google. They are not.
• There are two key criteria that Apple and Google care about in their developer terms of service. Too many web3 games attempt to evade them, because evading them is key to making their tokenomics work. The criteria are:
  • Any purchase of in-game content must honor the requirement that Apple and Google receive their 15%-30% commission. This is true whether the item purchased is a traditional in-game item (e.g. a powerup) or an NFT on-chain (e.g. a rare sword).
  • The developer may not provide links to external websites to purchase any game content. This is why, for example, to this day the Kindle app doesn’t let you tap a convenience link to buy a book from inside the app. 
• So in the web3 context, to be compliant with Apple and Google, you must simply: 1) ensure that the purchase of the NFT-backed asset occurs using traditional in-game currency, purchased through the normal in-app purchase flow (ensuring Apple/Google got their commission), and 2) do not run in-app screens with links to external means to purchase in-game assets, like an NFT marketplace on the open web.
• Ready’s live operations tools allow for all this to happen and be easily managed by the developer. The dev can:
  • Set the price of the item using traditional in-game web2 currency (e.g. jewels, gems, etc) purchased via normal IAP flows.
  • Mint and price the on-chain items using our SmartContract Wizard tool (ensuring the parameters are sensible to overall ecosystem health).
  • And then allow for the purchase of that on-chain item to happen with the traditional in-game currency (setting the in-app price).
  • Et voila! The dev sells an NFT-backed item in compliance with the store rules.

 

OK, so I get what it takes to be compliant. But why would you want to share a token across games? Isn’t that really complicated and crazy- how do you control for publishers doing really dumb things with the token?

 

• Indeed, it is a complex challenge- much more complex than the simpler challenge of issuing a single-purpose token in a single game, like an Axie or Sandbox token.
• So here at Ready we designed three controls to make a sharked token economy possible. These are distinct innovations in the field of tokenomics that work towards solving for a distributed game economy, where publishers still own their games, players own their assets, and all of this works across games.
• Here’s how it works:
  • 1) All on-chain items must be infused with a quantity of the $AURA token. This ensures stability and compatibility of items across games.
  • 2) The infusion of $AURA can only happen using what is called a “FuseBlock”- this is a marketing label for what is a smart contract, controlled by the ecosystem, that the developer then uses to mint the on-chain items. The FuseBlock a) forces the requirement to infuse with $AURA and b) sets the parameters of how the object can be sold. So you have to price within bounds controlled and set by the ecosystem.
  • 3) Because every item manufactured has some quantity of $AURA in it, the value of $AURA is de-correlated from the success of any single game. This creates a universal unit of measurement- an “apples to apples” comparison – between games. It means developers have less risk than if they issued their own token. Think of it as like a venture fund: a collection of 100 investments is more stable than any 1 single investment in the portfolio. As a dev, you are de-risking your web3 game economy by being part of a still-larger game economy. This has a big impact on player behavior, since for the players, there is also less risk that an item bought in a game will eventually crater in value (more on that below).

 

OK, so why do these three control mechanisms lead to a healthy game economy?

 

• Publishers have to purchase FuseBlocks (the smart contracts with $AURA in them) for fiat. So a $1,000 FuseBlock, or a $10,000 FuseBlock. In exchange for dollars you get the fair market quantity of $AURA in the FuseBlock.
• Because the publisher bought these FuseBlocks, rational economic behavior inclines towards selling the combined items for more than the FuseBlock purchase price. It acts as a de-facto control on selling the tokenized items at a loss.
• For players, as they purchase in-game NFT items, because they’re infused with $AURA, the players get two very important web3 benefits, which in turn should lead to more player spending on in-game items (and more dev revenue). Notably:
  • 1) because the items are always infused with $AURA, players can “stake” their collection of in-game assets across all the games, and receive loyalty rewards so long as a) they don’t trade/sell the item for the time period and b) don’t melt down and destroy the item and extract the underlying $AURA. In exchange for not doing “a” or “b” for say 30 days the player receives loyalty rewards from the ecosystem. These rewards are funded by Ready (not the dev), and serve as a powerful retention tool for devs, and motivation to spend in the games by the players.
  • 2) Melting-down is a potent insurance policy for the player. It means that if the game goes sideways, and the market dries up for the in-app purchased items, the player can melt-down and destroy the item and extract the underlying $AURA. The ecosystem controls the distribution of the extracted $AURA- so the player may not get 100% of the value. The player might get 25%. The original dev 25% back. And the Ecosystem Fund, which finances future ecosystem growth, the remaining 50%. This means the dev can receive value back on a game that stopped working. This is quite impossible in a web2 context, and shows the potential for web3 economics to change the perceived value of digital goods- from being disposable consumables you effectively “rent” to becoming digital assets you effectively “own.” Shifting from renter to owner changes the perception of value- the player spending- this points to why web3 gaming at scale could generate quite large transactions over time.

Ready Games has made it available its draft $AURA whitepaper, and draft $HALO whitepaper ($HALO is the secondary loyalty currency related to player rewards).