Web3 Gaming: Ownership, Interoperability and Legal Challenges

Web3 gaming: ownership, interoperability and legal challenges

Overview

How is web3 changing the way we create, own and connect within video games? In this MERGE Madrid panel, The Sandbox, Sura Gaming and Asencia Abogados explore how web3 transforms the relationship between players, developers and publishers, what asset ownership and interoperability bring, and the legal and educational challenges ahead.

What you'll learn

• The state of gaming: the limits of the free-to-play model (ads, store fees, acquisition cost)
• New web3 models: from NFT sales to play-to-earn, staking, prediction markets and stablecoins
• Value redistribution: how web3 brings revenue closer to players and developers
• Community publishing: communities taking on the role of traditional publishers
• Interoperability: multi-purpose assets and standards across games and worlds
• Legal challenges and education: IP, loot boxes, the line with gambling and training

Session summary

The starting point: The Sandbox reviews the limits of the free-to-play model (reliance on ads, store fees of around 30%, soaring acquisition costs) and industry data such as the fact that many games never launch and few survive several years.

New web3 models: it describes the paths blockchain opens (NFT sales as early funding, play-to-earn, token economies, staking, prediction markets, real-money gaming and stablecoins), with the idea of redistributing value toward players and developers, while warning about the difficulty of building sustainable economies.

Decentralization and community publishing: Sura Gaming explains how web3 enables self-publishing and new funding methods, and how a community can end up playing the role of traditional publishers in distribution and discovery.

Interoperability: it explains the value of multi-purpose assets (an avatar usable across several games), their potential to reduce acquisition cost and standardization efforts (such as the open metaverse alliance), distinguishing technical interoperability from “logical” interoperability.

Legal challenges: Asencia Abogados addresses the shift from “play-to-earn” to “play-to-own”, intellectual property, ownership of user-created content, loot boxes and the fine line between gaming and gambling (with three criteria: pay-to-play, chance and monetization of the prize), plus data protection and jurisdictional differences.

Education and the future: it argues for fighting ignorance with education (university, industry associations) and not regulating too early so as not to kill innovation; the panel agrees that web3 gaming is “inevitable”, but player-centric and with the technology “under the hood”.

Watch the full talk

Watch the full recording on MERGE's YouTube channel, with The Sandbox, Sura Gaming and Asencia Abogados on web3 gaming.

FAQs

How does web3 change the relationship in video games?
According to the panel, it redistributes value toward players and developers, enables real ownership of assets and allows self-publishing and “community publishing”.

What is asset interoperability?
It is when an asset (for example, an avatar or NFT) has utility beyond the game where it was acquired and can be used across several games or worlds.

When does a game cross the gambling line?
According to the talk, in Spain it usually requires three elements: pay-to-play, the involvement of chance and monetization of the prize; it varies by jurisdiction.

Is this legal or investment advice?
No. This content is informational and summarizes what was presented in the panel; it does not constitute legal or investment advice. Consult a professional for your specific situation.