The inaugural GameFi 3.0 Summit hosted by Ambrus Studio concluded successfully, bringing together industry leaders from a16z, Binance, and more for insightful discussions.
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The inaugural GameFi 3.0 Summit hosted by Ambrus Studio concluded successfully, bringing together industry leaders from a16z, Binance, and more for insightful discussions.
Ambrus Studio hosted the inaugural GameFi 3.0 Summit, which concluded successfully, bringing together industry leaders including a16z, Binance, former IDG Capital, and TSM esports team for in-depth discussions.
Navigating Web3 tides with focused insightsThe first GameFi 3.0 Summit hosted by Ambrus Studio was held simultaneously on October 1 across multiple platforms including Twitter Spaces and Binance Live, peaking at 3,000 concurrent viewers with over 6,500 cumulative views on the first day. The summit was moderated by Ms. Yu Jin, former investment partner at IDG, widely recognized by media as the "Queen of Strategy." Participants included Johnson Yeh, founder and CEO of Ambrus Studio known as the "Godfather of Esports," Andy Dinh, founder of TSM—the esports team ranked by Forbes as one of the most valuable globally—Ted Lin, former Chief Growth Officer at Binance, and Robin Guo, GameFi investment partner at a16z.
Following the viral success of Axie Infinity and StepN, the market has yet to witness another GameFi project achieving comparable user scale or discussion volume. While part of this stagnation can be attributed to macroeconomic cooling and the broader crypto market entering a bear phase, it also reveals inherent issues within GameFi projects themselves—questionable user value and short lifecycles. Against this backdrop, several founders, investors, and industry leaders bridging Web2 and Web3 gathered to discuss “How Can GameFi Projects Escape the Death Spiral?” They shared insights from perspectives such as game design, community building, esports integration, and NFT monetization, engaging in deep dialogue and intellectual exchange with the audience.
According to Statista, the total market capitalization of the cryptocurrency market reached $2.3 trillion at the end of 2021. By the end of August, however, it had shrunk to $1 trillion—a 56.5% decline. Despite this rapid market cooldown, PE/VC investment into Web3 has not decreased but rather increased. In 2021, PE/VC investment into Web3 totaled $30.2 billion. McKinsey estimates that number will reach $36 billion for all of 2022. For both project teams and investors, the bear market presents not only challenges but also rare opportunities to build. With ample funding available, a new generation of Web3 projects is being incubated. What key characteristics will define GameFi 3.0 projects in this next evolutionary stage?
GameFi 3.0: Product Focus Returns to User Value
From an industry investor’s perspective, Robin and Ted emphasized that the next generation of successful GameFi projects must be fundamentally “fun to play,” moving beyond mining systems disguised as games, while delivering usability and user-friendliness on par with top-tier Web2 products. Building such products requires adopting a true user-centric approach, where Layer 1, Layer 2, and wallet infrastructures become invisible at the user interaction layer. Products should also account for interaction habits users have developed during their Web2 experiences.
From the standpoint of a GameFi founder, Johnson stressed that beyond refining gameplay quality and lowering entry barriers, Ambrus Studio's core game, E4C: Final Salvation (hereinafter referred to as "E4C"), aims to create a genuinely fun gaming experience. Its esports orientation is designed to foster shared emotional connections between players and the game, helping to build a large-scale player community. According to Johnson, E4C is a mobile-first MOBA竞技 game that innovatively balances competitive intensity, strategic depth, and operational difficulty to deliver a native MOBA experience on mobile. Through features like free-to-play access, no wallet login required, and mobile-optimized controls and interface, the game significantly lowers the barrier to entry.
Of course, current challenges facing GameFi projects are clear. Robin pointed out that the primary challenge lies in the shortage of gaming talent. Game development demands a multidisciplinary team covering art, engineering, and design, requiring years of continuous refinement. Most experienced talent remains concentrated in traditional game studios, and perceptions toward GameFi remain polarized. A clear trend of talent migration from Web2 to Web3 has yet to emerge. Secondly, GTM (Go-to-Market) strategies—including product usability and pricing—are another major hurdle for GameFi projects. Beyond these two prominent challenges, GameFi projects still face common issues seen in traditional games, such as distribution channels, regulatory oversight, and cultural diversity across regions.
GameFi 3.0: Esports Elements Unlock User Value
According to Newzoo, the global gamer population reached 3.09 billion in 2021, with GameFi players accounting for just 0.07%. Beyond improving gameplay and quality, the next generation of GameFi projects must address how to attract and convert mainstream gamers.
On this point, Johnson proposed that community and esports will serve as two key levers for attracting traditional gamers—and they complement each other.
In terms of user acquisition, traditional game user acquisition methods are too costly and ill-suited for GameFi. For GameFi projects, bottom-up community building is the preferred path to acquiring users, with Web3 users serving as the undeniable starting point for the snowball effect. Ambrus Studio currently hosts a community of over 26,000 users. Through numerous co-creation activities related to the game, the studio fosters emotional bonds between users and the project. Moving forward, Ambrus Studio aims to evolve into a user community centered around gaming/esports, rolling the snowball into the domain of traditional players.
In 2021, the esports audience reached 500 million people, maintaining double-digit annual growth. The popularity and influence of esports have been proven within the traditional gaming space, and its positive impact applies equally in both Web2 and Web3 contexts—including lower customer acquisition costs and more diversified monetization paths. Watching esports events and playing games offer distinct player experiences, and the mass appeal of tournaments enables players to share emotional connections with a much larger user base. These emotional connections form a crucial foundation for user asset monetization in GameFi projects.
GameFi 3.0: Commercialization Driven by NFT Technology
At the product level, Web3 may not yet have “disrupted” Web2, but in terms of commercialization, Web3 has undoubtedly opened new avenues for internet products. Innovations brought by NFT technology, in particular, could enable GameFi projects to surpass the monetization ceiling of traditional games.
As an active NFT investor, Ted believes NFTs bring value to gaming projects in three ways. First, virtual assets are a vital part of the player experience, and NFTs make asset trading more seamless. Second, NFT interoperability allows instant IP portability—users can simply connect their wallets to display or use their NFTs across multiple platforms. Third, the scarcity of NFTs is clearly visible, enhancing the perceived value of ownership.
Andy believes that from a player’s perspective, the value of NFTs lies in visibly engraving a player’s unique memories, enabling them to circulate within social networks.
Robin summarized that in terms of monetization, traditional games typically let gameplay dictate business models—such as pay-to-play or loot boxes. However, blockchain technology enables new business models based on transaction markets plus service fees, which in turn pushes game designers to incorporate more trading and exchange scenarios into gameplay. He used Pokémon as an example: in series like Red/Blue and Gold/Silver, certain Pokémon appear exclusively in specific versions. To collect them all, players must interact with others who own different versions—thus encouraging communication and trade.
Beyond encouraging transactions, NFT technology also enhances the value of assets to players. While at Riot Games, he led R&D efforts exploring a next-generation skin system to record player achievements. After transitioning to Web3, he realized NFTs could fulfill his original vision. Continuous technological experimentation now allows players not only to mint NFTs but also to keep adding information records to them or even directly trigger “mutations,” further unlocking GameFi’s commercial potential.
This aligns closely with Johnson’s view—that the advantages of blockchain technology, such as unique ownership and interoperability, cannot directly persuade players to pay. Instead, GameFi projects should leverage these features to enhance traditional monetization methods.
Johnson believes NFTs are an effective tool for monetizing “emotional connections.” Therefore, E4C’s NFTs must continuously record and visualize users’ emotional ties. He refers to this as the “skin upgrade system.” Taking League of Legends as an example, the sale of championship skins each year represents a one-time monetization of fan sentiment. In contrast, E4C will release upgradable, evolving NFTs tied to major tournaments or key achievements, providing players with a lasting vessel to commemorate special events and emotional bonds. For the project team, this transforms one-off purchases into ongoing “upgrade” spending. For players, shared emotional connections become a source of NFT trading value.
Additionally, Ambrus Studio’s Genesis NFT collection offers players rich in-game benefits, including revenue sharing from character skins, limited in-game treasure chests, and lifetime purchase discounts. The Ultimate edition completed auction in early August, selling out entirely despite a starting price of 6.5 ETH. The current Gold edition launched on September 30, with 258 units sold during the whitelist phase and a current floor price of 0.5 ETH.
Ambrus Studio will continue hosting content-driven events, inviting experts to explore the underlying logic of Web3 and current market trends, grounded in project development and committed to advancing industry collaboration.
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