introduction
Web3 games have always been a track that Mint Ventures pays close attention to. Although the Play 2 Earn concept brought about by the last bull market is no longer mentioned. At present, both Axie and StepN have collapsed as Pond's, but the million-level and extremely sticky products they had at their peak Daily activity data is the first time the Crypto industry has had such close contact with “Massive Adoption”. Compared with another social product category with the possibility of Massive Adoption, games naturally have a richer and more complex economic ecology, and the team also has more refined control space to collect taxes from multiple angles, superimposing the experience and based on the game itself. Exquisitely designed irrational consumption makes it more likely to maintain a relative ecological balance for a long time. In addition, web3 games can also more effectively utilize the convenient assetization methods that Crypto can bring, which makes investors generally optimistic about the prospects of web3 games.
Since Axie and StepN, web3 games have the following advantages :
Further improvement of infrastructure . Today in 2024, game projects have more choices in chain selection: whether it is directly based on the existing L1 (such as Solana) or L2 (such as Arbitrum), or using the one-click chain service provided by L1 or L2 (such as Avalanche subnet and OP Stack), or free combination according to the modular trend, game developers can have many high-performance and low-cost options. In terms of wallets, MPC and AA wallet solutions are both commercially viable, and the private key problem that causes headaches for ordinary users has been solved.
The market situation is gradually improving. The recent approval of BTC ETF has brought about a strong rebound in the overall crypto market, which has made Crypto as a whole begin to attract more attention from the general public . For games, it provides a larger potential user base.
Compared with traditional Web2 games, Web3 games still have very obvious advantages:
In the typical "NFT sales-FT release-game launch" life cycle of web3 games, there are many sources of income such as NFT royalties and FT transaction fees before the game is launched, helping the game team to obtain income from the first day of game development. , which can offset the long R&D cycle and high R&D costs. At the same time, after the game is launched, the tax collection in all aspects of the game is far more flexible than that of web2 games. Earlier and more diverse commercialization options are key factors in attracting game teams to web3 .
Web3 games do not yet have a powerful channel party , which also means that the high purchase cost of web2 games does not exist in web3 games. In other words, web3 games are not "volume", they are a wilderness waiting for a capable team to develop.
We have also seen that many experienced game development teams have begun to enter web3 games. They are building a large number of games with excellent narratives, good experiences, and strong playability. The supply side of web3 games has made great progress, which also constitutes the development of web3 games. People and.
For the above reasons, Mint Ventures has continued to pay attention to the gaming track. Ultiverse is a game project that Mint Ventures has been paying attention to since the previous bear market. They continued to build during the bear market, continuously enriched their product matrix, and actively expanded the narrative contained in the product. At the same time, they have an excellent investment background and have recently launched multiple projects. An airdrop campaign designed to attract new users is worth keeping an eye on.
Interests: Mint Ventures participated in the Builder Round of Ultiverse ElectricSheep NFT and still holds ElectricSheep NFT
Introduction to Ultiverse
Ultiverse is a metaverse world based on blockchain and deeply integrated with AI. Its architecture is divided into 4 layers:
Protocol layer : Ultiverse uses Bodhi Protocol as the foundation of the entire ecosystem. According to the official website document information, Bodhi Protocol uses large language models and Stable Diffusion models to generate a variety of content in the game, and uses AI to help various related parties in the ecosystem. For example, it helps the game generate more intelligent NPCs, helps generate rich background content, etc.
Infrastructure : Ultiverse abstracts a series of infrastructure required by the game into an SDK, which can be used by other developers later. These infrastructures include MPC wallets and AA wallets, built-in trading markets and DID systems, etc. In addition, its user-oriented live broadcast platform Ultiverse Live has gained the attention of 350,000 fans and nearly 40 million likes on Binance live, which can also bring considerable exposure to its partners; Ultiverse’s infrastructure also includes Misson Runner, a mission platform built by myself.
Core assets : Ultiverse’s core assets currently include Electric Sheep NFT, Meta GF NFT and World Fragment.
Electric Sheep NFT is the first asset of the Ultiverse ecosystem and is also its core asset. The number is 7,000. It was minted in July 2022 at a price of 0.5 ETH. The current floor price is around 2 ETH, bringing holders a The revenue of 4 times in ETH and 8 times in USD has also helped build its solid community. Electric Sheep can gain priority access to many projects in the Ultiverse ecosystem and reward accretion privileges, and can receive an airdrop of the Ultiverse governance token $ULTC.
Meta GF NFT will be released at the end of 2022. It is positioned as an AI companion, supports custom face pinching, and can accompany players to explore the Ultiverse world.
World Fragment NFT has not yet been released and will be airdropped to Electric Sheep holders in the future. According to the introduction in the official documents, players can synthesize world fragments into worlds. Holding different world NFTs can obtain different personalized experiences supported by AI in the game, including different storylines, characters, world goals and core conflicts. Etc., that is to say, holding different NFTs can lead to completely different gaming experiences.
Dapp : Dapp is also called "Micro worlds" in the Ultiverse ecosystem. Dapps in the Ultiverse ecosystem can be divided into two categories: one is Dapp that has a cooperative relationship with Ultiverse, such as the previously launched casual development game Meta Merge, and The racing game BAC, which will be launched soon on Blast, etc. The relationship between this type of ecological project and Ultiverse is not just a simple diversion cooperation, but an asset exchange relationship with a higher degree of trust. For example, Meta Merge once airdropped its token $MMM to Electric Sheep Holders, and Meta Merge’s NFTs can also receive part of the airdrop of the upcoming $ULTC. The other category is Ultiverse’s self-developed Dapps, which mainly include Ulti-pilot, Terminus, Endless Loop, etc., which were just launched at the end of February.
Terminus has been launched in March. This is the core platform within the Ultiverse ecosystem. It is built using the UE5 engine and includes PC and VR versions. According to the official documentation, Terminus is a virtual world. Unlike traditional games, the NPCs in Terminus are driven by highly intelligent AI and can interact and dialogue with players through multi-path and strong feedback, and may ultimately affect the game. experience and results. At the same time, characters can also be driven by AI. Even if players are offline, their characters can continue to evolve, making Terminus an always-online game world.
Ulti-pilot was launched in February and is a portal for users to experience the Ultiverse world. Users can send their own characters to explore the Ultiverse world, and at the same time receive considerable Soul incentives (which can be used to subsequently redeem the governance token $ULTC).
Endless Loop is an MMORPG game from Ultiverse, also built with the UE5 engine. The game is not yet online yet.
It can be seen from the product architecture that Ultiverse is not just a game, its goal is to become an AI-driven metaverse platform: on the one hand, it connects with a large number of C-end users, on the other hand, it connects with various related parties in the web3 industry, and ultimately realizes its The idea of Meta-Fi.
In terms of future roadmap, Ultiverse’s main task this year is to fully launch its products, including PC and VR versions of Terminus, and introduce more game partners. They plan to launch Game Launchpad in the second half of 2024 and launch their own Rollup to better serve game partners and realize their Web3 game platform concept.
Investment background and partners
Ultiverse has completed three rounds of financing in total, with an excellent investment lineup:
On March 18, 2022, Ultiverse completed a US$4.5 million seed round of financing at a valuation of US$50 million. This round of financing was co-led by Binance Labs and Defiance Capital, with participation from Three Arrows Capital and SkyVision Capital.
On March 25, 2022, Binance Labs invested an additional US$5 million in Ultiverse, and the investment will be made in the form of equity acquisitions. Nicole Zhang, director of Binance Labs, said that this investment is to ensure that Binance Labs retains a certain say in the future development direction of the Ultiverse team.
On February 14, 2024, Ultiverse completed a US$4 million strategic round of financing at a valuation of US$150 million. IDG Capital led the investment, and Animoca Brands, Polygon Ventures, MorningStar Ventures, Taiko, ZetaChain, Manta Network, DWF Ventures, etc. participated. In addition, a series of KOLs in the NFT field also participated in the strategic round, including Dingaling, Grail.eth, Christian2022.eth, 0xSun, etc.
Overall, Ultiverse has an excellent investment background, including industry-leading VCs, market makers, exchanges, public chains, and influential KOLs, which can assist Ultiverse's development.
Frank, the founder of the team, graduated from CMU and is an avid fan of games. There are currently more than 200 team members. Team members have previously worked at major game companies such as Gameloft, Blizzard, Ubisoft, and Tencent, and have participated in the development and design of well-known games such as Elden Ring, Assassin's Creed, and Prince of Persia.
Since the goal is to become a platform that connects players and games, Ultiverse has many partners and cooperates extensively with various projects and communities in the game ecosystem.
For example, the Terminus finding your path partners event in March is between Ultiverse and public chains (Zetachain), other games (Ainchess), infrastructure service providers (Rpggo, Particle Network), game guilds (N9Club, GuildFi), and NFT communities (Weirdo Ghost Gang) ) and other jointly launched.
In addition, Ultiverse has just announced that it has reached cooperative relationships with more than 300 web2 and web3 AI and game teams, which basically covers all leading web3 games, helping to realize the concept of its game platform.
Token economy
Ultiverse has unveiled the use cases and economic model for its governance token $ULTC:
In the Ultiverse ecosystem, $ULTC has the following three main functions:
governance
If a Dapp wants to enter the Ultiverse ecosystem, it needs to pay $ULTC, and part of these ULTC will be given to the user.
$ULTC is the payment method for assets in the Ultiverse ecosystem
The total amount of $ULTC is 10 billion, and its distribution is as shown in the figure below:
It is worth noting that 8% of the total token supply will be used for airdrops. The scope of airdrops includes holders of Electric Sheep NFT and MetaGF NFT, Soul holders, and holders of other assets in the ecosystem.
The current floor price of Electric Sheep NFT is around 2 ETH, with a total market value of 14,000 ETH, which is approximately US$47.6 million. If we calculate based on the fact that Electric Sheep NFT can obtain 2% of $ULTC, then the full circulation market value of $ULTC is US$2.38 billion. This full circulation market value is relatively close to Binance’s last online Game+Ai project Portal. The valuation Reasonable. Of course, in addition to obtaining $ULTC, Electric Sheep NFT has many other functions in the Ultiverse ecosystem, such as obtaining the World NFT we mentioned above.
Soul is a "point" within the current Ultiverse ecosystem, which can initially be obtained by staking Electric Sheep NFT as a reward for early holders. The team had previously announced that the exchange ratio between Soul and $ULTC was 100:1. After announcing the token economic model, Ultiverse started a number of activities to attract new users, hoping to use Soul to help Ultiverse's brand promotion further. Among them The Ulti-pilot event that started in late February will release 10 billion Soul (corresponding to 100 million $ULTC, accounting for 1% of the total), attracting many users to participate.
summary
Ultiverse is a project worthy of attention for the following reasons:
The web3 game track has the right time, place and people in this cycle, and is expected to explode in the bull market cycle
The Ultiverse team continued to build during the bear market, not only delivering products with a good experience, but also building a community with good cohesion.
The rapid development of AI in the past year has caught the world's attention. Ultiverse has deeply integrated AI in every part of its architecture. In the future, when the AI+ game concept gets the attention of the market, it may perform better.
Good investment background
