IndiGG owner Kratos Studios allocates Rs 50 crore to help studios bring their games to blockchain

Kratos Studios founders Manish Agarwal (R) and Ishank Gupta (L)

Kratos Studios, a community-based gaming platform that operates under the IndiGG brand, has on November 2 introduced a new initiative called Kratos Games Network to help accelerate the adoption of fledgling blockchain-based gaming worldwide amid the ongoing digital asset downturn.

Through this initiative, Kratos Studios plans to identify web2 game development studios and help them bring their games to the blockchain, thereby expanding the number of games available on its platform. The startup has allocated a grant of Rs 50 crore to shortlist the first set of 10-15 studios by March 2024, founder Manish Agarwal told Moneycontrol.

Agarwal said these studios will be chosen based on several criteria, including a track record of profitability for 2-3 years and a minimum average daily active user count of 500,000 over the last 12 months. The company will target studios across various genres and languages in markets such as India, Brazil, Latin America (LATAM), East Asia and the South East Asia.

The shortlisted gaming studios will gain access to Kratos Studios' proprietary blockchain tech stack, giving them access to 10 lakh user base of the on-chain global gamer community.

Blockchain-based gaming could provide potentially better monetisation opportunities for game developers, industry executives have previously told Moneycontrol, as it creates more equitable value distribution for all the stakeholders in the ecosystem including game developers, content creators and the end customer, which doesn't exist in the current gaming ecosystem.

Blockchain technology also allows gamers to have true ownership of in-game assets that can be bought, sold, and traded across different games and platforms.

Converting skill and time to money

Kratos Studios helps gamers convert their skills and time into income through a range of tasks on its decentralised platform. It also provides game developers with a curated list of engaged gamers and gamer communities across the game lifecycle.

It works with game developers and publishers to list a variety of tasks, which the company calls "quests," on the IndiGG platform.

These tasks may range from tournament operators, game testers, Discord managers, community support, streamers, or in-game activities such as reaching a certain game level, participating in or winning a certain number of games, or making it to the game's leaderboard. Each quest will have a limited number of slots based on the requirements of the developers or publishers.

These firms can also list multiple quests with increasing difficulty and income levels to drive further retention in their respective games.

In August, Kratos Studios claimed to have disbursed Rs 5 crore to 150,000 gamers in the past six months with top players generating an average income of Rs 40,000 per month. These earnings are completely funded by game developers and publishers. With this move, the firm hopes to see a 100X increase in the number of gamers on the platform.

"We are on our way to becoming the largest network of gamers on the blockchain, globally" Agarwal said.

Agarwal, who was previously the CEO of Nazara Technologies, co-founded Kratos Studios with angel investor Ishank Gupta earlier this year after acquiring Polygon Labs-backed IndiGG.

In February 2023, Accel led a $20 million investment in the company, with participation from investors such as Prosus Ventures, Courtside Ventures, Nexus Venture Partners, and Nazara Technologies.

The global blockchain/Web3 gaming industry is expected to rise at a compound annual growth rate of 18.7 percent from 2023 to 2033 to reach $133.2 billion, according to Future Market Insights, a market research firm.