Exclusive interview with Seraph COO Ye Zi: Investing tens of millions of dollars to develop Web3 games, promoting both gaming experience and token economy

Original title: New wave of GameFi projects are costing millions of dollars to develop

Original author: ZHIYUAN SUN, CoinTelegraph

Compared to the previous play-to-earn GameFi projects, the subsequent wave of blockchain-inspired games cost at least seven to eight figures and require a lot of time to produce in the pre-market period.

According to Ye Zi, COO of South Korean game studio Seraph, “Our project cost more than $10 million to develop.” “Initially, our project was self-funded and self-developed. We just recently started our first open financing, which is now completed and will be officially announced soon,” she said in an interview with Cointelegraph about the company’s upcoming Arbitrum dark fantasy ARPG Seraph: In the Darkness.

For Ye Zi, Web3 blockchain games actually have advantages over Web2 games. She said: “Web3 games encourage greater co-creation and promotion between players. The interaction between Web2 and Web3 players creates a unique chemistry, activates market transactions, and attracts more participants.”

However, the COO also stressed the need for the new GameFi project to provide both a better gaming experience and quality token economics. “Gamers are no longer satisfied with simple profit calculation models like Axies Infinity and StepN,” she said. As Ye Zi explained, Seraph: In the Darkness recently had a pre-season launch with significant engagement:

"Over 60,000 players participated, over 30,000 of them had premium game characters, and over 10,000 users made purchases. During this testing phase, we achieved $3 million in fiat revenue, and we were able to allocate over $1 million for token buybacks in accordance with the terms of our white paper."

Seraph: In The Darkness game introduction. Source: Steam

"During this testing phase, we have successfully guided traditional users to the Web3 field for payment and transactions, especially thanks to the live broadcast promotion of senior players," she continued. "We plan to launch the game later this year, when we will provide a basic free version and a paid version for players who want to participate in transactions and monetization."

Currently, the landing price of NFT equipment is 0.2ETH, and the entry fee to enter the in-game trading market is $50. Ye Zi said, "Seraph Studios currently has no plans to release any other games. However, our internally developed custodial wallet ActPass will soon become a game asset issuance platform and launch more high-quality games through investment or cooperation."

Last month, Cointelegraph reported that Web2 players spent hundreds or even thousands of dollars on in-game purchases that were supposed to belong to them forever, but often ended up with nothing. On the other hand, the operability of blockchain at least partially solves this problem, allowing players to buy, sell and own their immutable in-game assets.

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