Justin Smith: I would say that the current digital landscape. This is just going to keep growing. It's going to keep taking share as more consumers resonate and understand this idea. There's so many different applications and we haven't seen all of it yet play out. Like those Ubers, those Airbnb's, those potential new incumbents are coming and probably being built as we speak,. potentially, unemutable.
Video games have grown massively over time, commanding more and more leisure time for people all around the world. As video game popularity has grown, so has the use cases and popularity of blockchain technology and these two worlds are beginning to merge more frequently with blockchain based platforms for video games. To help us unpack this nuanced subject is Justin Hulog, Chief Studio Officer at Immutable X, a non-fungible token (NFT) minting and trading platform for video game developers. Justin has a wealth of experience as a general manager, operations leader, and people strategist, and mainly focuses on the intersection of strategy and organization to solve problems. In our conversation, we talk about how Immutable X started, the different sides of the business, details about his role, and what the company provides developers. We then delve into designing sustainable in-game economies, how to potentially leverage blockchain technologies, the idea of cost versus utility, and how to sustain a game’s user base. Hear about the different taxonomies of the space, balancing the business side and the developer side, the play-to-earn era, the silver lining of the recent crypto bear market, and much more. Tune in to discover how blockchain technology could be revolutionizing the video game industry!
Key Points From This Episode:
- Background about Justin and his current role at Immutable X.
- A brief overview of Immutable X and the underlying blockchain technology.
- The challenges that developers face working with blockchain-based platforms.
- How in-game blockchain-based economies are different.
- Details about the design approach at Immutable X.
- Ways in which the market and monetizing games have changed.
- The important underlying utility: making a fun game.
- Justin unpacks the different layers of a digital asset.
- How the out-of-game experience provides another platform for design.
- An overview of the exciting new possibilities of blockchain-based video games.
- What makes Immutable X different from the competition.
- An outline of the essential role the in-house development team plays.
- Justin shares his outlook on blockchain-based video games.
