Ikigai - Disrupting Games via NFTs

Supporting Resource References

Links to the supporting materials are given in brackets throughout the text, such as [1].

Problem Statement (continued)

With blockchain and NFTs surging, the interest for new ways to use blockchain both for new features as well as new business models is continuing to grow. There is a disconnect between the old and the new. The traditional way for how both "Triple-A" and indie companies design their games to be fun while being profitable vs the new, emerging ways of designing games with NFTs/Tokens has a vast gap of knowledge. While the video game industry generates more revenue than music and film combined, the business models in the game industry vary drastically and it can be daunting to start new game projects or companies that introduce a blockchain element.

The video game market is bigger than music and film combined [1] yet NFTs have just in its infancy. "The Q4 release of the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S sealed a year of record-breaking growth. We now estimate that the games market generated $177.8 billion in 2020, up +23.1% year on year, the highest growth for the Market since Newzoo began tracking revenues in 2012." [2]

There are a few key problems when thinking about blockchain in games:

• With several existing go-to business models that traditional companies are used to, how do we propose to introduce NFTs, tokens, or other decentralized technologies to drive mass adoption in a way that we can leverage and improve on existing models
• What creative business models are there that are yet to be explored. Can they improve on what players/users are used to? Is it a brand new experience? How disruptive is it to the user? Is it a mass-scalable model?
•  It is hard to evaluate if the current business models in some crypto games are thriving because of the crypto hype or it will sustain long term
• How games design and monetize is mostly outside looking in and speculative of how game development actually works and then it soon comes as a shock to new teams the troubles that actually lay ahead
• Market research is typically very expensive!

Describe Your Solution To The Problem (continued)

We have assembled a diverse team with a veteran advisory board with years of experience at gaming company titans such as Epic Games and Riot Games (see full list below). Paired with our team of executives from the tech industry, marketing professionals, and game development experts; we are poised to dive in and find the biggest opportunities within the gaming industry for Cardano to find mass adoption.

To accomplish this, we shall first perform in-depth market research on the gaming industry as a whole. Seeking and assessing the opportunities for NFTs and Cardano to make an entrance into the market. The market will be assessed based on segmentation (Physical Copies, Microtransactions, Subscriptions, P2P Marketplaces, etc..)

Thereafter, each segment will be analyzed and undergo deep market research. Our team of business experts, market researchers, and game developers will collaborate to create viable business plans that will execute upon the opportunity within the segment.

Upon completion, we anticipate releasing 10 business plans with the following general outline:

• Segment Overview 
• Market Research
     • Market Size
     • SWOT Analysis
     • Market Opportunity
          • Benefit to the gaming industry/game companies/end users
• Business Plan
     • Overview of Solution
     • Implementation Plan
          • Financial Analysis
          • Timeline
     • Projected Result
          • User Growth
          • Revenue
          • Cost Savings
     • ROI

Deliverables:

• Models in the Traditional space
      • Physical Copies (retail / boxed revenue)
      • Microtransactions (In-game purchases, DLCs, season passes, loot boxes)
      • Subscriptions
      • Player-to-Player Marketplaces
      • Advertising
      • Esports
• New models emerging with NFTs
      • Virtual land
      • Collectable nfts
      • Tokens
• Post Research Business Model Suggestions
      • Brand new model with proposed new ideas
      • Second brand new model with proposed new ideas

[Example Deliverables]

A link to business model and slide deck that our team have built are linked here which can serve as an example as to what can be expected. While these are unrelated to games, we wanted to showcase our team has experience putting together detailed reports as well as a very experienced team/advisory board who help create detailed plans as seen below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1gUrdbhSEU8fSh2BzU-Ru8JNANmPAk-wb/view?usp=sharing

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1uauYSR_Dx7HeKIwXeff89CvGniV1bYyu/view?usp=sharing

Intellectual Property

This will be a true open-source initiative open to contributions from anyone who feels motivation and shares the excitement for this project.

Relevant Experience (continued)

Ikigai Team:

• Michael Yagi: CEO of Ikigai Technologies. Shipped 3 titles at 2K Interactive in the mobile division. Successful mobile card game monetization that broke into the top grossing list several times throughout the years.
• Chris Chung: COO at Ikigai Technologies, Executive at Coding Dojo, President of C2 Marketing Solutions and Advisor to multiple start-up companies; Chris comes with an array of knowledge ranging from marketing (his original area of expertise) to business operations. Chris has been featured in 425 Business Magazine and Millennial Magazine for his business accolades and accomplishments.
• Anon Dev: Experience 5+ years in the games industry and working on unity tooling, indie game experience, and working at a AAA studio.

Ikigai Partners:

• DigiPen Institute of Technology: The leading school for game development and design! Guest lectures and access to the creative minds of faculty members; many of whom are from or still in the game industry. 

Game Industry Advisors:

• Anh Doh: Started as a developer turned Producer at Giant Enemy Crab, she now helps run the studio.
• Stan: From working on award winning student games to AAA titles such as Robo Recall and Fortnite at Epic Games, Stan has been involved in games his whole career.
• Steven: Physics programmer at Epic Games.
• Aaron: Designer, developer, artist - Aaron does it all with some of his most popular titles being Robo Recall and Fortnite at Epic Games.
• Jordan: Jordan went to school for game development and is now a Senior Developer at Riot Games working on popular titles such as League of Legends.
• Alan: Project Manager at Xbox Game Studios
• Alexander: Developer at Treyarch
• Joe: Developer at Probably Monsters previously at Respawn Entertainment

Defining Success

High quality business plan and slide decks for all types of models in the games industry!

1 month in

• Sufficient with tools
• Traditional Market Research decks
• Starting data visualization graphs
• Two roundtables with advisors [may be public depending on interest and coordination]

2 months in

• Expertise with tools
• Emerging Market Research Decks
• Data visualization graphs
• Two additional roundtables with advisors [may be public depending on interest and coordination]

3 months in

• New proposal market research decks
• Summary deck
• Two final roundtables with advisors [may be public depending on interest and coordination]

Expected Launch Date: Q1 2022

Budget

Market Research 3 months ($15,000):

• Incentivization for Research Study $ 1,000.00 Incentivization in rewards for Research Studies
• Market Researcher $ 4,000.00 Performing Market Research

Tooling 3 months ($3,144.00):

• Google Analytics - Free -   Web Analytics, Site Traffic, Social Media Monitoring, SEO
• Google Trends - Free - Trend Analytics
• SEM Rush - $ 99.00 - Web Analytics, Site Traffic, Social Media Monitoring, SEO
• Thinkgaming - $ 400.00 - Player Demographics, and industry sales data, app store presence
• V Game Insights - $ 50.00 - Video Game Insights
• Steam Analytics - Free - Video Game Insights
• Steam Spy - Free - Video Game Insights
• Newzoo -$ 99.00 - Video Game Insights
• Statistica - $ 50.00 -Industry growth data
• Tableau Public - Free - Data Visualization
• Mailchimp - $ 200.00 - Mass Email to Market Research Subjects
• Survey Monkey - $ 150.00 - Performing Market Research

Floating for unexpected costs (1,856)

Total ($20,000)

Detailed Table View: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1pl1pqtl29an_sIWRFkPgCUxx0M7F9aVQZuQWgFUKNk0/edit?usp=sharing

Links

1. Video games are bigger business than ever, topping movies and music combined: https://www.usatoday.com/videos/tech/2021/06/10/e-3-2021-video-games-big-business-topping-film-and-music-combined/7637695002/
2. https://newzoo.com/insights/articles/global-games-market-to-generate-175-8-billion-in-2021-despite-a-slight-decline-the-market-is-on-track-to-surpass-200-billion-in-2023/