How does Xterio, valued at $300 million, build a player-focused Web3 gaming platform?

Author: Chloe, Chain Teahouse

Nearly 3 billion gamers worldwide led to a total revenue of $175.8 billion in the gaming market in 2021. According to Newzoo's "2021 Global Games Market Report," the market is expected to grow to $239 billion by 2026.

Currently, the vast majority of games only run on a few mainstream platforms. Although player opinions and discussions can influence game development, the control and ownership of development primarily remain with developers and platforms. This results in a one-way relationship in games, where assets and properties are merely records in a database, and players can only use the game based on the developers' decisions.

In other words, the economic relationship between platforms and players is unbalanced. Players' contributions, including time, money, and even emotional connections to the gaming experience within the IP world, are not adequately recognized and rewarded. Even after transitioning to Web3, some platforms still fail to operate based on the mutual interests of developers and players.

From statistical data, the global blockchain market is expected to grow at a rate of 68.4% annually, increasing from $4.9 billion in 2021 to $67.4 billion in 2026. The gaming sector, a relatively advanced virtual application, has naturally played a role in the Web3 world from the beginning, with 52% of Dapp wallets being occupied by gaming, indicating a high retention rate for Dapps.

However, despite the prominence of gaming in the Dapp world, Web3 games still represent a small portion of the entire gaming industry. NFT-related games generated $4.8 billion in revenue last year, which pales in comparison to the $175 billion from traditional free-to-play games. Last year, only 2.4 million, or 1%, of players entered blockchain games, meaning that even at the current growth rate of Web3, it will take ten years to reach significant numbers.

One of the issues is that "the Dapp system itself is a significant barrier." The large-scale adoption of GameFi and Web3 applications has also indirectly led to a proliferation of low-quality games, fraud incidents, and scams focused on speculation rather than actual development. Chain games have acquired a notorious reputation, with over a quarter of Dapps being abandoned.

The emergence of Xterio aims to provide high-quality Web3 games to change the established perceptions in the market.

1. Project Overview

To realize this vision, Xterio has built a player-focused Web3 gaming platform and provides developers with powerful tools and resources to create world-class games that leverage the advantages of blockchain development and learn from the audience and Web2 free-to-play games.

Xterio believes that players who build gaming communities should have real stakes in the game worlds they participate in, and that Web3 has the potential to fundamentally change the relationship between developers and players. The team believes that NFTs can achieve true utility in the context of games, series games, or internet gaming platforms. These proprietary, on-chain digital game assets represent the next step in the development of virtual economies and have the potential to change the business models of the gaming industry.

Thus, Xterio aims to gather developers, players, and platforms together to collaboratively develop high-quality content that can compete with traditional gaming experiences and leverage all the advantages of Web3 development, becoming a leading next-generation gaming platform. To achieve this goal, Xterio provides an end-to-end service suite for players and developers to support their needs.

For players, Xterio will be equipped with a game library, NFT marketplace, on-chain operation interface, decentralized identity system, as well as wallet and community applications. For developers, Xterio offers solutions to alleviate the burden of on-chain programming, helping them secure funding and promotion, and create a seamless path from development and launch to ecosystem.

Differences between Xterio and other platforms include:

• Publishing and acquiring high-premium, high-quality works and free games.
• Xterio has several core games in development. Game names will be announced within a month after being published on the Xterio official website, many of which are licensed from the technology stack and game engine of world-class game developer FuPlus.
• Establishing a carefully designed multi-token economy aimed at achieving participation, fairness, and benefits for all participants. Supporting game-specific tokens and NFTs. Xterio holders can also have sovereignty over their owned game assets through NFTs and participate in the ecosystem and community.
• Implementing extensive and in-depth functionalities throughout the Xterio ecosystem. Xterio will pioneer NFT interoperability gaming standards for metaverse experiences and provide these standards to development partners.
• Achieving cross-game functionality through NFTs, where the value of Xterio's NFTs will exist beyond any single game.
• Realizing this interoperability feature through Xterio's CPDM (a capability for efficiently transferring asset data among developers securely).

2. Application Scenarios

Play-to-Earn:

Xterio does not intend to provide a single game that mimics the real world to global players but rather offers a complete ecosystem composed of great games, providing players with a top-tier experience and offering platform services for developers—managing all on-chain operations within the Xterio platform for players and developers, including rewards, nurturing NFTs, depositing, and withdrawing tokens, all of which can be integrated into the platform for player use.

The platform handles assets and manages transaction activities through wallet services and the NFT marketplace for all games within the Xterio ecosystem.

Xterio also provides developers the freedom and space to focus on creating outstanding games while handling the underlying blockchain technology and functionalities, thereby lowering the entry barrier for blockchain games by building the necessary infrastructure for players and developers.

The connection between individual games and the platform is achieved through Xterio's GaaS solution, which includes APIs (Account API, NFT API, Token API, etc.) and a series of on-chain and off-chain tools designed to streamline processes for developers.

NFT Interoperability:

Xterio distinguishes itself from previous Web2 platforms and other blockchain-based platforms through its NFT interoperability. In the Xterio ecosystem, an NFT from one game can be recognized by another game, increasing the value of individual NFTs and the overall utility of the platform. Xterio also allows games with different visual styles to model a given NFT differently through its cross-database interaction system.

Moreover, developers are incentivized to accept external NFTs, effectively attracting users from other games and even digital communities outside of gaming.

Xterio's Content Provider Data Matrix (CPDM) is designed to help these developers easily achieve interoperability without extensive on-chain development.

Content Provider Data Matrix (CPDM):

In the virtual world, the value of game assets lies solely in the data attached to them, including the original attributes of the assets and any additional data generated through user interactions. This data must be transferable from one party to another, allowing given developers to accept external assets and recognize their value. This is a fundamental principle for the broader development of virtual game assets in the metaverse; however, to date, no GameFi developer has achieved this complex agreement or built a satisfactory asset data exchange framework.

Xterio's Content Provider Data Matrix is a network among peer game developers aimed at addressing this issue. It facilitates the transfer of assets and data between different developers while ensuring user privacy protection.

Xterio's CPDM uses zero-knowledge proofs (ZKP), enabling the platform to verify transactions without requiring any private data from users during execution. In the CPDM's peer-to-peer network, each game developer can play multiple roles, integrating functionalities for data storage, privacy computing, oracles, and nodes.

3. Token Economy

Xterio's token economy is built on the principles of sustainable development for the Xterio platform, aiming to share benefits among all stakeholders of the Xterio governance token XTER within the ecosystem. The platform operates on a multi-token system, which includes the primary XTER token and any game tokens issued and used by developers through the Xterio platform.

The total supply of the Xterio pool is 1,000,000,000 tokens, intended to circulate XTER in a deflationary model through token destruction, which will be used for governance of the Xterio platform and to decide major ecosystem development and operational matters.

Token Distribution:

4. Team Introduction

The Xterio team consists of global game developers and publishers, comprising seasoned veterans from major companies such as FunPlus, Electronic Arts, Zynga, Activision Blizzard, Krafton, Jam City, and NetEase. The team aims to leverage decades of game development and playing experience to legitimize and build user trust in emerging web3 games, bringing stunning worlds and gameplay to 3 billion gamers.

Xterio's founder and COO Jeremy Horn is a former Vice President of Business at Jam City. He has extensive experience in creating and maintaining cross-platform social games. Additionally, Chief Marketing Officer Darion Lowenstein, with over 25 years of industry experience, will oversee marketing, publishing, and licensing. Co-founder and CTO Guan Yitao will be responsible for Xterio's strategic and technical product planning.

5. Investment Institutions

Xterio is led by FunPlus, Makers Fund, FTX Ventures, and XPLA, having raised $40 million in funding, with numerous participants from HashKey, Foresight Ventures, Infinity Ventures Crypto, Matrix Partners, and Animoca Brands.

Future funding will be used to develop and release its own games as well as partner games, create new world-class IPs, and continue development on the Xterio platform, which truly integrates into markets, social community centers, and more.

6. Community Status

Twitter: https://twitter.com/XterioGames 1,747 followers

Discord: https://discord.com/invite/xteriogames 2,277 followers

7. Comments

"At Xterio, we are building an amazing gaming platform that connects with how people play games today and the power of Web3," said Jeremy Horn. "We believe that user ownership can enhance gameplay, but what we are most interested in is creating a lasting platform business model and rich gaming experiences."

It is clear that the resources, technology, and comprehensive strategy behind the Xterio team are all designed to create the next generation of developers and users in the Web3 era, fulfilling the promise of experiential entertainment while balancing Web3 applications.