2026 developments: Play's Christina Macedo says blockchain and AI will make video games higher, quicker, and extra participating

It’s probably the most great time of the yr, the time to look again and take into account what we realized throughout 2025 and tips on how to benefit from that data in 2026. 

On this article we meet up with Christina Macedo the CEO of Play Community

What was probably the most important development for blockchain video games in 2025?

Christina Macedo: Probably the most significant development has been a return to the basics of nice recreation design: confirmed mechanics, robust FTUEs that totally summary away the “blockchain” layer, and experiences that allow gamers instantly grasp what the sport is actually about. 

Above all, groups are refocusing on the core precept that issues most, making video games which can be enjoyable and constructed for gamers first.

How did your online business adapt to those modifications?

PLAY’s imaginative and prescient has at all times been aligned and has been constructed with this philosophy. There’s been no want for us to pivot, our focus has constantly been on empowering builders, whether or not they come from conventional gaming or are native to blockchain, who acknowledge that the business should evolve with new expertise for a brand new era of gamers – GenA. 

In brief: use blockchain and AI to make video games higher, quicker, and extra participating, with out ever abandoning the basics that make video games nice.

How do you assume this can change in 2026?

As higher-quality video games are constructed onchain and extra gamers understand that blockchain is way over simply “crypto”, and that AI can genuinely elevate gameplay, we’ll lastly be capable to showcase the true worth of recreation tokens. Having a stake in a recreation, an ecosystem, or a group the place you make investments time, vitality, and cash is extremely highly effective. 

The business could have began backwards with video games, however now, as we successfully reverse-engineer “blockchain gaming,” we’re creating the appropriate situations to show why some recreation and ecosystem tokens really matter.

What was your favorite blockchain recreation throughout 2025?

MapleStory N is an ideal instance of how a beloved IP can genuinely shine when enhanced with blockchain. Thousands and thousands of gamers already adore the MapleStory Universe, giving them the possibility to really personal a chunk of it's a game-changer. The Nexpace (NXPC) token lets followers deepen their stake in a world they already make investments their time, vitality, and cash into.

What makes MapleStory N stand out is its game-first strategy. It retains the core MapleStory fundamentals intact : the nostalgia, the side-scrolling allure, the MMORPG depth and layers blockchain on prime in a manner that elevates the expertise reasonably than distracting from it. The result's a considerate steadiness of enjoyable, possession, and long-term financial sustainability.

If something, MapleStory N reveals how legacy IP can paved the way. It demonstrates not simply why blockchain could make video games higher, however how beloved franchises can grow to be the bridge that lastly brings thousands and thousands of gamers onchain.

What’s your New 12 months’s decision and what decision would you implement on the business?

Keep true to the basics. Whether or not it’s a console title, a cell hit, or perhaps a board recreation, all the things begins with constructing for the participant in thoughts. The sport must be enjoyable, sticky, and price coming again to – no quantity of tech can substitute for that.

Because the business matures, I hope it doesn’t lose sight of the core truths that made individuals fall in love with video games within the first place. Nice video games are nice as a result of they respect the participant, ship pleasure, and stand the take a look at of time. 

If we hold that entrance and middle, all the things else – blockchain, AI, regardless of the future brings – turns into an enhancer, not a distraction.

Learn all our Finish of 12 months options by way of the EOY 2025 tag.

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