We Somehow Missed One of the Biggest Developments in Web3 Gaming (To Date)

TL;DR

• In Dec ‘23, Epic Games quietly updated their terms to allow players age 18+ to access web3 games via its store — and since then, 20+ web3 games have been launched.

Full Story

Imagine you came up with a god-level app idea…

You go out to VCs. You show them a demo. They lap it up.

They’re preparing to throw truck loads of cash at you, but before they sign the check — they ask:

“Where’re you launching first? iOS, Android, or both?”

You tell them: “Neither. I’m launching my own phone, operating system, and app store.”

Those fat checks would go straight into the shredder.

Why? Because distribution is important — and Apple (iOS) and Google (Android) own the global mobile distribution channels. Trying to outcompete them at this point is a fools errand.

(It sucks, but it’s true).

These are the struggles just about every web3 app, platform, and tool faces right now — there are some awesome products out there, but access to distribution channels is tight.

Which is why we’re getting a bit giddy over something we just discovered.

We were reading up on how the web3 game ‘Forgotten Runiverse’ is integrating with the Ethereum-based Ronin blockchain before its launch on the Epic Games store.

Epic Games store…did we miss something??

Turns out we did.

Over the holiday season of 2023, Epic Games quietly updated their terms of service to allow players over the age of 18 to access web3 games via its store.

Since then, 20+ web3 games have launched on the platform.

For context:

The reach of the two largest web3 wallets, MetaMask and Phantom, have a combined monthly active user base of 37M.

(Users who mostly use the platforms for sending/trading crypto, not gaming).

Epic Games (the 7th largest gaming company in the world), has 270M gaming-focused users (75M monthly active) worldwide — who are now being exposed to a growing library of web3 games.

We love to see it!