“Hypercasual might be dead in web2 but it’s a money pit in web3”

• Mirai Labs are an international web3 game studio focusing on the mobile platform in an effort to bridge the gap between web2 and web3
• While the hypercasual genre may not be as lucrative as it once was on mobile Mirai Labs CEO believes the genre is a perfect fit for web3 games

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The web3 gaming industry has largely taken a foothold on the PC platform with browser-based games, but with billions of players gaming on mobile, is there a better option for bridging the gap between Web2 and Web3 gaming? 

Mirai Labs, the web3 games development studio behind games such as Pegaxy and Petopia, firmly believes that mobile can elevate web3 games to a new level and reach a broader audience.

We spoke with Mirai Labs CEO Corey Wilton, who shared his vision on the future of blockchain gaming and the role mobile has to play. Wilton also discusses some challenges in the web3 space, how to combat them, and how the hypercasual genre may be a perfect fit for web3 games.

PocketGamer.biz: Can you tell us a little about what you currently have going on at Mirai Labs? How has the first half of the year been, and what have you been focused on?

Corey Wilton: Mirai Games spent the first quarter of 2024 analysing what was making noise. I don’t mean public noise; I mean what was signalling a potential outbreak in the near future.

This covered a broad spectrum, from airdrops to blast L2 and even the TON network. Since then, building experiences for these signals has been the primary focus for the entire studio.

Mirai has been building blockchain games on mobile, such as Petopia. How important is mobile in bridging the gap from web2 games to web3? What role does mobile have to play? 

Web3 mobile gaming is having its first little moment as we speak.

Telegram minigames -hypercasuals – are taking off, with user counts in the tens of millions. They’re getting little coverage, but they’re much larger, financially and user-count-wise, than the initial run of 2021 and, in my opinion, are showing a level of market maturity for web3 gaming.

There are more users and more money, yet it’s not “ground-breaking” or “life-changing.” It’s simply a growing niche, and plenty of studios are earning great money by entertaining players.

And how do you think web3 games can find a foothold in the mobile market? What should web3 developers keep in mind if they’re developing for mobile? 

The recent rise of hypercasual games in web3 has proven that the ‘industry experts’ who predicted AAA or famous studios would drive the next era are about as good at predicting as all of us.

Opportunity in Web3 comes suddenly and doesn’t care for the opinions of experts – you must be in the trenches, listening to the players, watching the sentiment, and ready to execute the second real opportunity arises.

What about tokenomic infrastructure? We’ve seen many in-game economies fail or struggle to take off. Why is this and what can be done to see greater success here?

Token economies are novel. While an indie studio can try to emulate a supergiant game with $100M in daily trading volume on its token, the chances are obviously extremely low that it will achieve this.

Low market cap tokens have typically best performed in scenarios where they are ‘fair launched’ without VC backing, without early sniper buyers, etc.

Essentially, these were tokens that everybody had an equal opportunity to buy; the only variable was whether they were early or late. These look like meme coins and are what I would expect the future of token launches to look like for at least casual games.

Along with adoption, what other challenges do you think the web3 market faces?

The issues revolve primarily around UX. There’s just not a one-stop shop for everything mobile in web3, and once we reach that point, I feel confident that we will cross the chasm.

What trends have you seen in web3 throughout 2024 so far? And do you have any predictions on how the web3 space will continue to develop? What do you think the future of this space looks like?

Hypercasual might be dead in web2, but it’s a money pit in web3.

There is a huge opportunity, not just in IAP and ad revenue but also in ecosystem value capture and more. What web3 looks like in the future, I have no idea.

There are incredible builders globally pushing hard every day to build insane experiences and technology – all I know is that Mirai will be there pushing alongside them and even using some of the tech they ship.

And finally, what should we be on the lookout for from Mirai Labs? 

Mirai Games will release multiple hypercasual games in an attempt to elevate the current meta to new heights. The vision is much larger than a few hypercasuals, but we will keep the master plan in the shadows for now.