Jérôme de Tychey (Cometh): "We have developed solutions for the general public".

‍Why does Web3 gaming represent an evolution?

It's very simple, blockchain is the most important technological upheaval for gaming since the Internet and the networking of games.

Blockchain can be applied to lots of elements of gaming. For example, we can host an unlimited number of players on the same blockchain network, whereas this is difficult when you exceed ten thousand on a World of Warcraft or Diablo server. The network is more robust because it updates itself per block, so it's another approach that changes your perspective. In our first game, we could have 10,000 people playing at the same time on the same map without it posing the slightest problem.

Also, thanks to the hyper-financialisation of blockchain (DEX, marketplaces, etc.) there is already a whole ecosystem that ensures interoperability without you having to develop the tools yourself. For example, we can use Uniswap to enable players to exchange assets with each other. There's no need to create your own infrastructure.

‍Some gamers reject the very financialisation brought about by Web3. Isn't that an obstacle?

Reactionary movements have always been present in gaming and they are often the most vocal individuals. I can see that there is some reticence, and we shouldn't ignore it, but from there to considering that it's a majority opinion...

‍To what do you attribute this reception from part of the community?

The industry hasn't moved in the direction of gamers in recent years. It's not uncommon to see half-finished games being sold with additional paid content. Integrated purchases are imposed, not to mention free-to-play, and so on. Gamers have been mocked for taking money from them by any means necessary. With blockchain, we can assure them that they really own their gaming assets, and this digital ownership is a huge plus. And when you're on blockchain, things are much more open source. There's an ability to modulate and change things. If you buy a car, you can reuse it in other universes, improve it, etc.

‍What innovative business models are we seeing emerge?

It seems obvious to me that some independent games will be financed by sales of NFTs. I'm convinced that over the next 12-18 months we'll see the emergence of equivalents to the Kickstarter crowdfunding platform that will offer only blockchain game projects. People could acquire NFTs that will serve as their avatar in the future game. As far as standalone worlds and their funding are concerned, the original developers will be able to choose to collect small commissions on all the small transactions that take place in the game. This makes some sense: they create the infrastructure and help maintain it. This deserves to be remunerated.

Finally, I think the blockchain can support "mods", i.e. modifications to games made by players themselves. To date, these initiatives don't really have any economic models and blockchain mechanisms can absolutely support them. This could be very relevant for games with strong communities to encourage creation and reward the fans who keep them going.

‍There is a lot of talk about game assets having value, but if the company issuing them goes bankrupt, their NFTs are no longer of much use...

Some games are in fact designed with operating licences that do not lend themselves to the use of their NFTs in other contexts. But that's not the case with all of them.

‍What exactly do you do at Cometh?

We have two main activities. We have Cometh Game Studio, which creates games with as many things as possible on the blockchain, so far with a spaceship licence thanks to which we are exploring the different ways of using this technology in games. We've done this with a strategy game, a card game and probably soon with an 'auto battler' game. We'd also like to try our hand at a collaborative exploration game. To put it simply, we're using this studio as a research laboratory.

Aside from that, we have our core business, which consists of developing software for blockchain applications aimed at a Web2 audience. The big challenge is to provide tools that make Web3 games accessible to everyone. It is in this context that we have started to develop solutions for our partners, based in particular on account abstraction, indexing and marketplaces. For example, we are working with Française des Jeux (FDJ).

‍What exactly are you doing with the FDJ group?

We are developing a game in collaboration with them by offering all our technology. It's a fairly ambitious game in terms of its budget and FDJ's desire. We've developed solutions to get 300,000 people on board in a non-custodial way. Thanks to account abstraction, we can get people on board massively and as easily as in Web2.

‍What is the appetite of video game platforms for Web3?

From what we've seen, Epic Games is pretty ok. They've validated our wallet management method on the Epic Games Store. We've got the green light to test on their platform. On the Steam side, the policy is very clear: no.

‍Is account abstraction the key to Web3 gaming adoption?

It's even better than the key. I haven't seen anything this beautiful in the ecosystem since Uniswap. It's the transition from the candle to the halogen.

‍What does it allow you to do in the context of a game?

Firstly it allows you to offer users permanent, frictionless access to the blockchain. Without the account abstraction, we were forced to constantly call on the user's wallet and that was hugely disruptive to the user experience. At a time when one click is important, asking for three more was unacceptable. Secondly, users no longer need to pre-load their wallet with the game token or ether. It's much more convenient for them. You can then configure your wallet enormously.

‍Apple doesn't seem very NFT-friendly, what do you think?

I don't really agree with that. It's a question of securing their business model. If they accepted us on the AppStore on condition that we let them have 30% of the revenue generated, we would obviously agree.