App store fees are extractive rent. The 30% revenue cut from Apple and Google is a tax on developer innovation, not a payment for value. This model forces developers to optimize for storefront discoverability over gameplay quality.
gaming-and-metaverse-the-next-billion-users
Blog
Why Decentralized Publishing Attracts the Next Billion Gamers
Centralized app stores extract 30% rent. Decentralized publishing, powered by blockchains like Immutable and Ronin, dismantles this model, solving core economic and ownership pain points for the next wave of global gamers.
introduction
THE INCENTIVE MISMATCH
The 30% Tax is a Bottleneck, Not a Feature
App store fees create a structural barrier that decentralized publishing eliminates, unlocking new economic models for game developers.
Web3 enables direct economic relationships. Decentralized publishing on platforms like ImmutableX or Ronin removes the intermediary, allowing 95%+ of revenue to flow to creators. This flips the incentive structure from platform capture to player retention.
The new model funds better games. Savings from eliminated fees are reinvested into gameplay loops and asset creation, not marketing budgets. This creates a virtuous cycle where player enjoyment directly correlates with studio profitability.
Evidence: Games like Pixels on Ronin demonstrate this shift. Their migration from Polygon correlated with a 10x increase in daily active users, fueled by a sustainable in-game economy where players, not platforms, capture value.
key-trends
WHY DECENTRALIZED PUBLISHING ATTRACTS THE NEXT BILLION GAMERS
Three Trends Making the Old Model Obsolete
The traditional publisher-controlled model is a dead end for innovation and creator economics. Here's what's replacing it.
01
The Rent is Too Damn High: The 70% Platform Tax
App stores and console platforms take a 30% royalty on every transaction, draining value from developers and players. This tax funds gatekeepers, not game ecosystems.
- Direct-to-player economies via smart contracts reduce fees to <5%.
- Programmable revenue splits enable sustainable funding for modders and community creators.
- Immutable ownership of assets means value accrues to the player, not the platform.
-83%
Fees
100%
Creator Revenue
02
Walled Gardens Kill Interoperability
Games are isolated data silos. Your hard-earned skin in Fortnite is worthless in Call of Duty. This artificial scarcity limits player expression and asset utility.
- Composability via shared standards like ERC-1155 or ERC-6551 creates cross-game universes.
- True digital ownership allows assets to be used, traded, and integrated into any supporting world.
- Emergent gameplay is unlocked when developers can build on top of a shared, player-owned asset layer.
0
Portability
∞
Use Cases
03
Centralized Publishers Are Innovation Bottlenecks
Publisher ROI models kill risky, novel games in favor of sequels and microtransaction optimization. Player communities have better taste and faster iteration cycles.
- Permissionless publishing on L2s like Arbitrum or Immutable allows any studio to launch.
- Community-owned IP via DAOs (e.g., Yield Guild Games) aligns incentives for long-term growth.
- Mod-to-mainstream pipeline turns player creativity (Roblox, Minecraft mods) into viable commercial projects from day one.
10x
Launch Speed
1000+
Experiments
GAMING INFRASTRUCTURE
The Platform Fee War: Centralized vs. Decentralized Economics
A direct comparison of the economic models that determine who captures value in the gaming ecosystem, from player to publisher.
| Economic Feature | Traditional App Store (e.g., Steam, Apple) | Web2 Publisher (e.g., EA, Epic) | Decentralized Protocol (e.g., Immutable, Ronin) |
|---|---|---|---|
Primary Revenue Take Rate | 30% of all transactions | 100% of in-game sales, minus store fees | 0-5% protocol fee on secondary markets |
Player Asset Ownership | |||
Creator Royalty Enforcement | At publisher's discretion | Programmable, on-chain (e.g., 5-10% to creator) | |
Secondary Market Revenue Capture | 0% (banned or restricted) | 0% (captured internally if allowed) | Protocol fee + creator royalty on every resale |
Payout Latency to Developers | 30-60 days net terms | Internal accounting cycles | < 24 hours via smart contract |
Interoperable Asset Portability | |||
Platform Lock-in Risk | High (walled garden) | Extreme (single game/studio) | Low (composability with DeFi, other games) |
Economic Model for Players | Pure consumption (Sunk Cost) | Consumption with grind-to-earn | True ownership with play-to-earn & asset speculation |
deep-dive
THE GAMER'S PROPOSITION
Solving for the Next Billion: Ownership, Portability, and Lower Costs
Decentralized publishing directly addresses the three primary pain points of traditional gaming, creating a superior economic model for players.
True digital ownership is the core value. Games built on blockchains like Immutable zkEVM or Arbitrum grant players verifiable, on-chain ownership of assets. This eliminates the risk of account deletion and creates a liquid secondary market, turning sunk costs into recoverable value.
Asset portability breaks walled gardens. An item earned in one game can be used as a composable primitive in another via standards like ERC-1155. This interoperability, facilitated by intent-based bridges like Across, transforms assets from locked data into portable economic capital.
Lower costs enable new economies. Layer 2 solutions and app-chains reduce transaction fees to near-zero, making microtransactions viable. This micro-economy model, proven by platforms like Axie Infinity, allows players in emerging markets to participate meaningfully, unlocking the next billion users.
protocol-spotlight
THE GAMING INFRASTRUCTURE SHIFT
Architects of the New Stack
Centralized platforms extract value and stifle innovation; decentralized publishing is the technical substrate for player-owned economies.
01
The Problem: Platform Rent-Seeking
App stores and publishers take 30%+ of all revenue, creating a zero-sum game between developers and platforms. This stifles innovation in game economics and monetization.
- Revenue Leakage: Traditional platforms act as mandatory, extractive toll booths.
- Innovation Tax: Novel economic models (e.g., micro-royalties, asset lending) are impossible under legacy TOS.
30%+
Revenue Tax
$0
To Players
02
The Solution: Immutable Asset Registries
Smart contracts like ERC-721 and ERC-1155 create provably scarce, player-owned assets. This transforms in-game items from ephemeral licenses into durable property.
- True Ownership: Players can trade, sell, or use assets across games via standards like ERC-6551.
- Developer Royalties: Creators can program perpetual, on-chain revenue shares from secondary sales.
100%
Ownership
~$5B+
NFT Volume
03
The Problem: Walled Garden Economies
Games are siloed. A legendary sword in one game is worthless elsewhere, trapping player investment and limiting composability.
- Sunk Cost Fallacy: Player time and money are locked into a single title.
- No Interoperability: Game studios cannot easily build on each other's asset graphs or player bases.
0%
Portability
100%
Vendor Lock-in
04
The Solution: Composable Gaming Primitives
Infrastructure like Ronin, Immutable zkEVM, and Arbitrum Orbit provides high-throughput, low-cost environments purpose-built for games. They enable asset bridges and shared liquidity pools.
- Cross-Game Economies: Assets from one game can be used as collateral or items in another via shared standards.
- Scalability: Chains achieve ~4,000+ TPS with <$0.01 transaction fees, enabling real-time gameplay.
4k+
TPS
<$0.01
Avg. Fee
05
The Problem: Opaque & Manipulable Systems
Players cannot verify drop rates, market mechanics, or the true scarcity of items. This leads to distrust and the perception of games as 'black boxes' designed to maximize spending.
- Trust Deficit: Loot box mechanics are legally contentious and erode player faith.
- Centralized Control: Publishers can arbitrarily nerf items or change rules, destroying asset value.
0%
Verifiability
100%
Opacity
06
The Solution: Verifiable Game Logic & DAOs
Fully on-chain games (Autonomous Worlds) and verifiable randomness oracles (Chainlink VRF) make core mechanics transparent and auditable. DAOs like Yield Guild Games enable community-owned asset pools and governance.
- Provable Fairness: Drop rates and game logic are executed on-chain, open for anyone to audit.
- Aligned Incentives: Players become stakeholders through guilds and subDAOs, sharing in the ecosystem's success.
100%
On-Chain
$500M+
Guild TVL
counter-argument
THE ONBOARDING BARRIER
The UX Hurdle is Real, But Not Fatal
Friction in wallet creation and gas management is a solvable problem, not a permanent roadblock for mainstream gaming adoption.
Wallet abstraction eliminates seed phrases. Account abstraction standards like ERC-4337 and Starknet's native accounts enable social logins and gas sponsorship, removing the two largest onboarding friction points.
The cost barrier is already collapsing. Layer 2 solutions like Arbitrum and Polygon process transactions for fractions of a cent, while gas sponsorship models let game studios pay for user onboarding.
The precedent is Web2. Players do not manage payment rails in traditional games; embedded custodial wallets from providers like Sequence or Magic abstract the blockchain entirely, creating a familiar experience.
Evidence: Immutable's zkEVM, built with Polygon, processes over 9,000 transactions per second for under $0.01, demonstrating the infrastructure for seamless, high-volume gameplay exists.
takeaways
THE GAMING INFRASTRUCTURE SHIFT
TL;DR for Builders and Investors
The next billion gamers will be won by platforms that solve Web2's fundamental economic and creative failures.
01
The Problem: Platform Rent-Seeking
App stores and publishers capture 30-50% of all revenue, stifling developer margins and player value. This centralized tollbooth model is the primary bottleneck for game economies.
- Direct-to-Player Economics: Developers retain >95% of revenue via on-chain settlement.
- Composable Royalties: Creators earn perpetual, programmable fees from asset trades.
- Market Size: Unlocks the $200B+ gaming market for on-chain value capture.
30-50%
Platform Tax
>95%
Dev Revenue
02
The Solution: Player-Owned Economies
Decentralized publishing turns players into stakeholders by verifiably owning in-game assets. This transforms engagement from a cost center into a capital formation engine.
- Provable Scarcity: NFTs and fungible tokens create authentic digital scarcity and secondary markets.
- Interoperable Assets: Items can bridge across games and metaverses (e.g., Fortnite x Minecraft-style composability).
- Lifetime Value: Player LTV increases 5-10x when they have equity in the ecosystem.
5-10x
LTV Increase
100%
Asset Portability
03
The Infrastructure: Modular Game Chains
Monolithic L1s fail on UX and cost. The winning stack uses app-specific rollups (via AltLayer, Caldera) with dedicated data availability (Celestia, EigenDA).
- Sub-Second Finality: Enables <1s latency for real-time gameplay.
- Microtransaction Viability: Fees under $0.001 per action.
- Custom Economics: Tailored gas tokens and fee markets for each game's needs.
<1s
Latency
<$0.001
Tx Cost
04
The Flywheel: Community as Publisher
Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs) and creator tools shift publishing power from corporations to communities, mirroring the Roblox Studio model but with ownership.
- Permissionless Modding: Players build and monetize mods, maps, and assets directly.
- Governance-Led Roadmaps: Token holders vote on features, treasury allocation, and partnerships.
- Viral Distribution: Community incentives drive organic, low-CAC user acquisition.
~0
CAC
DAO-Led
Governance
05
The Proof: Axie Infinity & Beyond
Axie's $4B+ peak valuation proved demand for Play-to-Earn, but its centralized infrastructure caused its collapse. The next wave learns from this: Immutable zkEVM, Ronin, and Beam showcase sustainable models.
- Sustainable Tokenomics: Dual-token models (earning/spending) separate governance from inflation.
- Institutional Onramps: Fiat ramps and custodial wallets abstract crypto complexity for mass adoption.
- Developer Inflow: Unity & Unreal SDKs are bringing thousands of traditional studios on-chain.
$4B+
Market Proof
1000s
Studio Inflow
06
The Investment Thesis: Owning the Stack
The value accrual shifts from individual games to the infrastructure enabling them. Investors should target modular infra layers and publishing primitives.
- Vertical Integration: Invest in studios that control their chain, marketplace, and wallet.
- Key Infra Bets: Data availability, interoperability (LayerZero, Wormhole), and account abstraction (Biconomy, ZeroDev).
- TAM Expansion: This isn't just crypto gaming; it's the future of all interactive media.
Infra
Value Layer
$200B+
Future TAM
ENQUIRY
Get In Touch
today.
Our experts will offer a free quote and a 30min call to discuss your project.
NDA Protected
Confidentiality24h Response
Time to ValueDirectly to Engineering Team
No Sales Fluff10+
Protocols Shipped
$20M+
TVL Overall