After 100+ hours of research and contributing to 7+ Gaming TGE, we have collected the main hot takes: ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ 1. Community first is BS 2. Play to Airdrop is dead 3. CEX vs DEX is simple ㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤㅤ 👇🏻 Here are the 10 Web3 Gaming hot takes for 2025: 10 hot takes, 10 minute read - consider bookmarking it if you don't have the time now! The team has worked collectively across 3 blockchains and 10+ games, 7 of which had a TGE. The ‘winners’ only share what they believe contributed to their success (though the real reasons behind the scenes often remain undisclosed). The 'losers' who have not succeeded never go public to share what led to their failure, so this valuable knowledge is not discussed. DISCLAIMER: There is no one-size-fits-all solution, so you may not agree with every point. We’re constant learners so we’re curious to hear your perspective, and I’m happy to jump on calls to discuss these points. I'll be delving deeper with standalone posts over the next few weeks, consider following me if you’re interested in more in-depth breakdowns and case studies. 1. How to raise in this market There is no liquidity in Web3 Gaming for both pre-sales and TGE. All the attention (and therefore liquidity) at the moment is currently on memecoins/ai for moonshots and BTC flirting with the historic 100k mark. Keyword: at the moment. Two scenarios and their solutions, based on gaming TGE data and research: • If you need to raise, to prevent the company from closing, it’s better to find VC / Angels as they are positive about the future of crypto these days. If you really have to raise from the community, the ‘token pre-sale’ model via NFT pioneered by The Beacon, and confirmed by Space Nation, is interesting. • If you don't have to raise in the short-term, it’s better to wait for a positive market when someone has proven that there is liquidity (wink wink Off The Grid) This means to be ready to act at any moment. That also means to start preparing now because it can happen within the next 6 months. 2. Pareto Law 80/20 If you have never done a TGE yourself, you have no idea how much there is to do. Someone may have given you advice saying that it is difficult, but you will never be ready until you have experienced it yourself. There are two types of decisions: • 20% of decisions that will move 80% of the outcome → do this with experienced people • 80% of decisions that will move 20% of the outcome → outsource to someone who has already done it Main takeaway here: Focus on things that actually make an impact, not shiny objects or micro details. The success or failure of your TGE will depend on a few decisions, and who you take these decisions with. 3. Agencies vs Interns There was a point of discussion about why agencies are bad. What are the options? The people you make decisions with can make or break your success: • An inexperienced team member who doesn’t live the space 24/7 • Experienced people with a long TGE track record And yet, so many teams go with the first, thinking it will be enough to come out alive. Wrong. If you were the captain of a ship and had to sail an ocean you had never sailed before, you would at least want the entire crew to be experienced. The waters you sail are already unfamiliar, if your crew have never faced a storm before, when it inevitably comes, the best case scenario is that you waste 50% of your time fixing it and explaining how to fix it. Worst case scenario? The ship goes down. You need an experienced army, and that’s why for many things TGE related: Strong agencies with aligned incentives > interns Every TGE has its novelties, but curveballs can often be predicted. An employee who has never done it, doesn't live the space, and leaves after 4pm won’t predict anything. 4. Community first is BS Let me elaborate. Within communities, only 1% are diamond hands who will support even if the token drops by 90%, or they will continue to hold for the culture even if they are up 1000% At the end of the day, the majority of holders and members want ROI. If ‘giving to the community’ sinks your company, it shouldn’t be an option. You should run things in a way that long-term sustainability, a strong product, and a strong team are at the centre. You shouldn’t change the entire plan to please a ‘community’ that jumps onto the next project the minute things are not going to plan. It’s impossible to make everyone happy, so the priority should definitely be your holders (the famous ~1000 true fans). Make them feel exclusive with early information and unique, significant benefits. Ask for their opinions, involve them in certain decisions and they will feel part of the strategy. Building a real community is worth it. The 'fake metrics' community is BS. You have to track and analyse to see how strong your community is, how strong your holders are. This will decide whether the token chart will go up or down. 5. Brand awareness This is the single biggest mistake Web3 Gaming companies make. People will not buy your token or NFT if they have no relationship with your brand. And if they do, it will be purely for profit. People will buy and hold if they trust your brand. To build trust, it's not enough to go from 0 to 100 in a few months. You should be active in the space for many months and get your brand seen 1000 times before asking users to buy. It's easy to say and hard to do. Starting early means investing more in your brand even when TGE is not near. It may seem like a wasted investment because you do not see the ROI right away. Solution 1: Save money on brand awareness months in advance, but have 50% less buying pressure during TGE Solution 2: Spend more money upfront but when you do the TGE you maximise it and set the stage for your future Choose accordingly. 6. Gaming KOLs don’t drive $$ conversions Before you ragequit, let me explain. Web3 Gaming KOLs are great for brand awareness and bringing DAU into your game. However 99% of them are NOT great for sales, they do not have a high spending target audience. The real hack we found after tracking all of them across different campaigns is: Your content + KOL amplification > KOLs trying to shill a link 13x conversion rate, that’s the data. Shilling a link feels inorganic, pushy. Here’s the best flow: 1. Your company should do the work to explain the product and make it appealing 2. KOLs should amplify what you are building 3. People will decide if they want to buy or not You can’t shortcut the building of your brand through KOLs. It's much better to build a long-term relationship with key creators to ensure your brand continues to get noticed. Note: Eastern KOLs convert more than Western KOLs. 7. P2A is dead To explain why P2A is dead, you need to understand why it was created: Until Q4 2024, exchanges relied on vanity metrics (followers, DAU) as a proxy for volume on exchanges to list tokens. Now, after a few vaporwaves, they are looking for more solid metrics such as active on-chain wallets that spend, and are very likely to trade on exchanges afterwards. The old model of P2A to increase DAU, giving hundreds of thousands of dollars to farmers who dump at minute zero, just to get game metrics, it’s not worth it. You will just increase selling pressure at TGE and that DAU will disappear after the TGE. The new model of P2A is more similar to the concept being implemented by InfiniGods, known as P2P2A: Pay 2 Play 2 Airdrop. 3 easy to understand benefits: 1. Provides larger airdrops to people who have actually invested in the game 2. Filters out farmers who do not want to buy but only extract value 3. Generates on-chain wallets that spend → metrics that major CEXs want Not set in stone, but definitely a better option if you have a real product. 8. DEX vs T3 CEX vs T2/T1 CEX Another super hot take here. From worst to best looking at data: T3 CEX The cost is too high compared to what you get back. From $500k to $1M only in FIAT. At least $500k+ selling pressure at TGE for the ““marketing”” tokens you give to these CEXs. And the bureaucracy and level of coordination are out of this world. Maybe when the gaming hype will come back they can be re-evaluated. In this market, there are literally no pros, it’s to be avoided completely. DEX No active costs, but you need significant FIAT liquidity to cover part of the selling pressure at TGE. It looks easy to launch only on DEX but to have a proper launch you need a lot of preparation. The majority of buying pressure after the first dump is often a buy back of the team, make no mistake. All that glitters is not gold. Another pro is that you can launch whenever you want and if you gain enough traction, you can list on CEX after a while. It’s indeed a viable option, but not the best one. T2/T1 CEX Those who cannot afford a T2/T1 CEX listing should definitely consider launching DEX only. But that doesn’t mean that DEX is the best option. Listing on a Coinbase or Binance remains *ideally* the best choice. The main criticism is that they ask you for 10/20% of the token supply but this criticism has two flaws: 1. Most projects give it to farmers/community who dump anyway at the second 0 2. They still push the FDV to 5/10x what you would get launching DEX only Warning: this option is not for everyone. Most will never have the metrics required to have such a listing. But T1 projects that manage to get traction and generate on-chain activity should go for this option. I am confident that the first listing on Coinbase or Binance after Off The Grid will achieve incredible numbers. 9. Full unlock vs vesting & timing This is another recent debate in tokenomics. Should we continue using the vesting model or move to a full unlock for investors? Vesting model: less selling pressure at TGE or in the first month → but constant selling pressure over 12, 24, or 36 months. Full unlock model: extreme selling pressure at TGE → but if you survive, there is much less selling pressure afterwards, and more likely to go up. The full unlock model has clear flaws: 1. We assume there is more buying pressure after the token has done -90% just because "hey we don't have investor unlocks" 2. Not all investors sell when you are in free fall so when you try to rise from the ashes you still have additional selling pressure 3. Most projects don't have huge capital to handle the selling pressure/make substantial buybacks Logically it is more reasonable to have less selling pressure at TGE and generate a green chart in the first few months which instills positivity and resilience. After that you have selling pressure every month but you get that in any case from those who want to make a profit, a resilient project takes the hit and goes back up. Our take is that we are trying to blame the structure of tokenomics when the problem is the timing and attention in the overall gaming space. We are trying to fix the wrong problem. 10. Future looks bright I remember October/November 2023 well. Gaming was mostly quiet, and then suddenly we saw Pirate Nation, InfiniGods, Fableborne, Wildcard, and others take off. Memeland had TGE and the launch after that, The Grapes, did a 12x right after riding the hype. This is to say that if we zoom out, the fundamentals remain true: Web3 Gaming is gonna make it. It is one of the hot narratives along with RWA, AI, DePIN, but it is also the easiest narrative for normies to understand. For now, total apathy in gaming. But I think the catalyst is an Off The Grid that can reverse the trend. The next 3/5 launches after that will be super exponential: • If you are a team, start preparing everything to be ready to capitalise. • If you are an investor, DYOR, and start allocating accordingly. I’ll dive deeper into these 10 topics on my profile over the next few weeks. If you're interested in a little more in-depth reading and you've made it this far, consider following me. If you’d like to discuss these topics, I’m always open to connecting. The future looks bright for Web3 Gaming.