As the year winds down, every gaming company and its dog are dropping year-in-review reports.

A recent report from blockchain gaming accelerator Game7 suggests that many game developers had an enforced nap instead of pumping out new games.

This year, just 223 Web3 games were launched which is a 65% drop from the 640 games launched in 2022, and even more distant from the 811 games launched in 2021.

So what’s the deal with the sudden nosedive in output?

Well, the optimistic answer is Rome wasn’t built in a day.

It seems to be what Immutable co-founder and president Robbie Ferguson believes…that many great Web3 gaming hits are on the way…but patience is required. 

Speaking to Magazine, Ferguson says there has been a significant surge of money into Web3 games lately, and developers are focusing on crafting standout hits:

“The last year has been really interesting, Web3 gaming has had such an influx of investment, it’s just the time-lag of the production of games until we start seeing hits…roughly $15 billion US has been invested in Web3 gaming over the past 3 years.”

Similarly, Stefanidis also mentions the amount of cash flowing in the Web3 gaming scene, even though new money from retail is yet to flow back into the overall crypto markets.

“The appetite has significantly increased. Projects are minting out and raising money again. I think the belief in Web3 has continued to grow, even in the bear market,” Stefanidis says.

But in 2024, the real hits won’t just be tossing money around to keep players hooked, at least according to Gabby Dizon, co-founder of Yield Guild Games.

In a recent interview with Cointelegraph, Dizon declared that the most successful Web3 games in 2024 will pivot from play-to-earn (P2E) to instead focus on being entirely free-to-play to attract players.

Keep an eye on Shrapnel, the AAA first-person extraction shooter blockchain game to see whether it will emerge as a hit or a flop.

The game has been getting a ton of hype in the industry. 

It’s set on Earth in the year 2038, where the objective is to gather valuable in-game assets and safely extract them, while facing off against enemies and rival players.

〉Getting ready to extract. pic.twitter.com/kq6B07Ub97

— SHRAPNEL