Professionals: Will the consolidation of gaming blockspace proceed?

Welcome to the April version of BlockchainGamer.biz’s common Professionals group. 

With Aavegotchi and TreasureDAO each shutting down their L3 gaming chains, will the pattern for 2025 see additional consolidation on the subject of blockspace?

Rebecca Liao – Co-founder and CEO, Saga

The abandonment of L3 gaming chains highlights a broader actuality in web3: infrastructure ought to empower creativity, not burden it. The following chapter of this business will belong to those that let recreation builders dream freely by creating environments that present scalability, customizability, and ease of deployment with out asking studios to develop into infrastructure operators. Success lies in giving builders the liberty to give attention to gameplay and group, whereas the tech quietly works within the background.

The latest strikes of L3 chains shutting down their gaming chains are much less a definitive sign in the direction of mass blockspace consolidation and extra a mirrored image of the continued seek for sustainable, scalable, and developer-friendly blockchain architectures. Constructing and sustaining bespoke chains, even layered ones, entails vital technical and operational overhead. When that burden outweighs the advantages for particular purposes, builders will naturally search easier or extra managed options.

Robby Yung – CEO, Animoca Manufacturers

I feel that this concern speaks to person communities, and if there's a sufficiently massive participant group to warrant an L3 (or an L2), then it is sensible. However the place group numbers don’t help sustaining that infrastructure price, then it looks like consolidation is inevitable.

So it’s much less a few wave of consolidation or the construction of creating subnets, however actually the power of particular person merchandise to draw communities at scale.

Jack O’Holleran – Co-founder and CEO, SKALE Labs

The latest shutdowns we’re seeing aren’t indicators of consolidation however quite market maturation. What’s occurring is that gamers and builders are gravitating towards chains that actually remedy gaming’s core wants: zero fuel charges, quick transactions, and a seamless person expertise. 

Looking forward to the remainder of 2025, I count on we’ll see specialization quite than consolidation. The profitable gaming ecosystems received’t be decided by who can spin up essentially the most L3s, however by who can ship high quality infrastructure that turns into invisible to the tip person. As I’ve stated earlier than, high quality is what's going to matter within the subsequent wave – ecosystems that entice the very best high quality apps, customers, and companions will finally prevail.

Russell Bennett – CEO, Metacade

We’re going to see main consolidation in block house by means of 2025 – not as a result of chains are merging, however as a result of many will merely die out. Consideration and liquidity are all the things.

Tasks constructing in ecosystems like Base, that are bringing in actual customers at scale, will thrive. The remainder? They’re constructing on islands with no bridges and no guests. We selected Base for precisely that cause – no heavy bridging, no isolation, simply sensible alignment with the place the customers are going.

Mitja Goroshevsky  – GOSH co-founder, Acki Nacki co-author

Aavegotchi pulling Gotchichain and TreasureDAO shelving Treasure Chain present that piling new roll‑ups on prime of roll‑ups simply provides latency and operational grief with out fixing core UX. L2s are not any refuge right here: each further hop nonetheless means extra block time, extra bridges, and extra methods to lose gamers. 2025 will see studios collapse again onto a handful of extremely‑excessive‑throughput base layers the place the infrastructure is run by specialists, not recreation designers.

For web3 video games to matter, *each* in‑recreation motion should hit chain in actual time and at close to‑zero price, making blockchain an invisible substrate quite than a gated checkpoint. The tasks that crack that – leveraging consensus designs constructed for sub‑second finality as a substitute of bolting on yet one more ‘L‑one thing’ – will lastly let gameplay and group, not token hype, lead the dialog.

Alexander Goldybin – Founder and chairman, iLogos

L3 shutdowns aren’t a shock. They mirror the place the market actually is, not the place founders hoped it will be.

Too many chains launched on the concept that customized infrastructure would entice video games. In actuality, they added extra issues – technical overhead, low liquidity, and poor participant onboarding. These had been by no means recreation improvement priorities.

The house is shrinking for a cause. Builders and gamers are gravitating to platforms which are dependable and extensively adopted. L3s haven’t confirmed they will compete at that stage.

Subsequent 12 months will deliver extra shutdowns. Most chains supply nothing that justifies their existence. Count on a brief checklist of platforms to stay, those who present pace, tooling, and customers. Every thing else is noise.

Quinn Kwon – Head of web3 technique, Delabs Video games

The mix of ecosystem dynamics and person expertise appears to be driving a shift away from L3 chains. However firstly, sustaining an L3 chain by itself necessitates vital infrastructure funding, which incorporates funding ongoing improvement, sustaining nodes, and guaranteeing safety. In sure situations, this quantity of spending has confirmed unsustainable.

One other key benefit of L2 options over L3 chains is ease of use. L3s usually require customers to bridge property and arrange wallets on unknown networks, which may be intimidating to novices. In distinction, L2 options like Base, which is intently linked with Coinbase, make onboarding simpler by offering a recognizable and environment friendly expertise. This is without doubt one of the most important causes Aavegotchi selected emigrate to Base. 

Lastly, dominant L2s are likely to have stronger liquidity and bigger, extra vibrant ecosystems. As of 2025, Base had accrued $2.5 billion in TVL, surpassing networks like Polygon. These sturdy ecosystems naturally entice a broader base of builders, customers, and tasks, making them a extra sensible selection for video games and purposes that depend on token and NFT exercise.

Anthony Anzalone – Founder and CEO, XION

With 16,000 chains strangling the house, fragmentation’s killing the vibe. The Blockchain Recreation Alliance is looking it; everybody’s operating to heavyweights like Base for liquidity and seamless play.

Small chains? They’re usually soul-sucking money vampires, trapping devs and gamers in a splintered hell. Sequence’s Megan Doyle ain’t mincing phrases, “adapt or get buried”.

Yukai Tu – Chief technical officer, CARV 

Gaming chain fortunes intently observe the market and it’s been a bumpy few months to say the least. Standalone gaming chains are vital innovation facilitators nevertheless it’s not stunning that some are falling on robust instances. The web3 gaming sector is going through a major downturn with complete funding down year-on-year by 70% in Q1. Beneath these circumstances, one thing’s obtained to present.

Chain consolidation will doubtless proceed and those who discover success will reply greater questions. For instance, quite than simply remoted chains, tasks that construct infrastructure and join established ecosystems will extra simply face up to market pressures. Likewise, the expertise must be adaptable and usable. 

That is one thing we’re doing with CARV SVM Chain – presently in testnet and slated for mainnet – by addressing particular wants in AI brokers and knowledge sovereignty that different blockchains don’t or received’t. There’s a singular and particular utility that advantages builders because the chain grants entry to each Ethereum and Solana with out requiring separate infrastructure.

The blockspace consolidation pattern we’re witnessing is pressured market maturation. The chains with distinctive promoting factors and huge utility will probably be greatest positioned to climate the storm.

Sam Barberie – Head of technique and partnerships, Sequence

The blockchain business is desperately in want of consolidation. Not merely consolidation within the variety of entities that do or supply sure issues (e.g. do we actually want 500 indexers?), however consolidation in what every entity does. What I've seen over the past 6-9 months is that blockchain firms are beginning to suppose strategically about what they do nicely, what their distinctive worth proposition is, and the way they will greatest thrive and discover stability. Aavegotchi and TreasureDAO are examples of firms beginning to make these selections. 

A recreation is a product. A sequence is a product. A token is a product. A group is a product. A pockets is a product. Many firms, not simply these two, unfold themselves skinny in taking over initiatives that

1) weren’t core to their worth out there and

2) required vital inside resourcing on what was largely re-inventing the wheel.

This sounds harsh, however my criticism comes from a spot of wanting all boats to rise, and these reckonings are key to serving to web3 gaming focus and flourish. Cutting down pointless L3s is only one instance of firms pondering critically about their foci. Managing the extraordinarily demanding duties of operating a dwell ops recreation, as Aavegotchi must, is a full-time firm itself. Constructing out infrastructure when higher and safer choices exist in-market, as TreasureDAO tried to do, distracted from the core worth prop of their group and go-to-market help. Including managing chains on prime of any requires time, cash, and people. 

It’s simple to grasp why loads of of us have considered launching their very own chain, however the causes underpin wishful pondering or stopgaps. Only a few video games have maxed out the efficiency and throughput of current chains, particularly when utilizing correct tech like re-layers to batch and parallelize transactions. For some, chains supply a brand new narrative to rally funding, or to probably earn protocol charges as further traces of enterprise. There are already extra chains than video games in web3, and whereas the longer term is certainly very a lot in an ever-expanding metaverse of related networks, we’re all nonetheless ready for the worth of what will get constructed on these chains to reveal why we’re all right here. The variety of new chains received’t cease rising, however these situations is not going to be the final networks to wind down.

Chris Heatherly – CEO, Nice Large Lovely Tomorrow

A lot of the methods of web3 gaming of the final 2-3 yrs are going to fail. Video games reliant on token hypothesis get sizzling for a minute after which fall off as a result of they're ponzis. A lot of the L2s are ETFs of ponzis. Some have good communities that maintain as a result of they chase one ponzi after one other hoping the subsequent would be the large hit, nevertheless it by no means comes as a result of they're simply ponzis. Till we break the ponzi pondering, its a doom loop. Chasing CT is a navel gazing train.

For mass adoption, we have to persuade nice devs and common normie avid gamers to return on-chain and that’s not going to occur in a on line casino with odds so dangerous even the home doesn’t win. We want an entire pivot. The 2 most bullish issues this 12 months are AppTokens and the Mysten cope with Pokemon Dwelling as a result of they're new approaches. The remainder is noise.

Tony Pearce – Co-founder, Actuality+

At Actuality+, our focus has at all times been on integrating rising applied sciences in ways in which improve participant expertise with out including friction. Most gamers are unlikely to interact with complicated blockchain mechanics until there’s a compelling incentive, which is why we prioritize making these applied sciences run seamlessly within the background. 

The latest closures of Aavegotchi and TreasureDAO’s Layer 3 gaming chains mirror a broader shift within the blockchain gaming panorama, a transfer towards consolidation. Looking forward to 2025, this pattern is predicted to proceed, with builders and platforms more and more emphasizing unified ecosystems, frictionless expertise integration, and user-centric design. These parts are key to driving sustainable progress and wider adoption throughout the business.

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