Laying out the metaverse, adopting NFT, and investing in high-quality projects, since 2021, Web2 giant Sony has been continuously expanding the boundaries of Web3 exploration.
Now, Sony has officially entered the public chain track and cooperated with Japanese public chain Astar developer Startale to develop a new Ethereum L2 - Soneium, based on OP Stack, which can be regarded as adding another strong player to the OP Stack L2 ecosystem.
For convenience, we will call it Sony L2 below.
In addition to being compatible with existing dapps in the future, Sony L2's ecosystem will also develop new services related to Sony's business and introduce blockchain into Sony's products. Officials have made it clear that they will work hard to support creators to expand their creativity and strengthen their interaction with the fan community.
Sony's current strongest businesses include games, music, and film and television, which belong to the entertainment industry.
So you might as well make a bold guess that Sony’s L2 ecosystem will be inclined towards entertainment and consumption. After the mainnet is launched in the future, it will focus on supporting and independently developing the following categories of projects:
Category 1: GameFi
In the GameFi wave in 2021, major Web2 game manufacturers such as Ubisoft, EA, and SEGA have entered the game. Sony actually expressed its affirmation of GameFi at the time
In March this year, Sony proposed the concept of Super-Fungible Token (Super Fungible Token). In fact, it is just the concept of in-game NFT owned by players. Game equipment is all NFT. Even if the game goes bankrupt, players still own these NFTs. . (Now it seems that these announcements are planned)
It holds the IPs of blockbuster game masterpieces such as "Elden Ring", "The Elder Scrolls", and "Horizon". Although Sony may not spend money on developing Web3 3A masterpieces in the early stage, after all, other major manufacturers have confirmed that Web3 players If you don’t Earn or play, Web2 players will sneer at NFT, but they will probably focus on these IP-based small games, such as card games.
I hope Sony can draw lessons from the bloodbath of Web3 3A game pioneers: If Web3 games want to penetrate Web2 and cater to mainstream players, they must implement "chain abstraction" and "conceptual abstraction" so that players do not perceive that they are playing on the blockchain. game. Not to mention the concepts of in-game transactions and currency exchange. There is no need to deal with all the front-end. Players want to play with peace of mind.
Category 2: NFT
In addition to in-game NFTs, Sony will integrate film and television IP into NFTs and release music NFTs more frequently. Establish your own IP NFT market, and while issuing it at a lower cost, you can also attract cooperation from other IP companies.
In the past and now, due to compliance reasons, all Web2 giants have been so submissive in exploring Web3, and it seems that they have only stayed in the "ambiguous" stage. Let's see if Sony can find a new path.
Examples of Sony exploring NFTs:
In 2021, on the eve of the release of the Dutch version of "Spider-Man: No Home", Sony partnered with AMC Theaters to distribute NFTs to Spider-Man fans.
In 2022, Sony partnered with Universal Music Group to release digital collectibles from legendary musicians such as Miles Davis on the Snowcrash NFT market.
Category 3: Consumer Applications
This is an earlier narrative and earlier innovation. When everyone was tired of exchanging price information in the bear market, various pragmatic SocialFi, X2Earn, and Web3 alternatives to the Web2 platform emerged.
Do you still remember the various "Web3 versions of Youtube"? Even if money is paid directly to the audience, it cannot avoid its gradual demise. No users = no creators = no good content = no demand = useless, naturally there is no need for tokens to exist in the market.
At present, Solana is the best in the consumer application ecosystem, but it is actually not very popular.
Original words from the official website: One of Soneium's main goals is to build new services using the Sony Group's various businesses and IP, transforming Soneium into an infrastructure that everyone can use on a daily basis.
Sony's advantage is that it is a Web2 giant with unlimited traffic/energy. It should be easy to promote its own Web3 products to Web2 users, or high-quality products of its own chain (which must have undergone strict team review). things.
And as cryptocurrencies become more and more popular, it is important to show Web2 users chat software like Unlonely, which can predict the price of tokens in the dialogue box (Unlonely), and social platforms like Farcaster Frames, which can interact with tokens directly in posts, Web2 The intersection with Web3 feels interesting.
For the time being, I can think of these three points, each of which can actually bring a large number of new users to Web3.
I am also just a Web2 player, and this is my first exposure to Sony's Web3 game. The quality is acceptable and it is quite fun. There are enough online players, so it is not a bad idea to speculate on NFT equipment.
Maybe I'm just an ordinary movie fan. When I watch the next "Spider-Man" movie, I can buy an NFT ticket. With the NFT, I can also unlock Easter eggs online, enter a gated community, and talk to the creators and starring actors. No.
Maybe I'm just an ordinary person who accidentally downloaded the Web3 social platform promoted by Sony, and finally came into contact with the cryptocurrency I've been hearing from people around me. It's troublesome to buy, but it's not troublesome. You can buy it directly from other people's posts!
Perhaps what Web2 users really hate is just the endless buzz about Crypto hype and the shoddy low-quality products.
Sony's Soneium will be the next Web3 Mass Adoption moment as long as it doesn't become useless, doesn't act like a monster, makes high-quality products, and supports a good ecosystem!
Note: The above content is not intended as investment advice and is for reference only. As of this writing, Sony’s Official Twitter have not yet mentioned Soneium. Hopefully, Soneium’s mention of developing new services for Sony’s business is not just a gimmick to attract testnet users and get good information!
Finally, I heard that Soneium is going to be on the test network soon. The Discord community has just been opened. You can brush up your activity level to get the OG character first. Be respectful!
