In this week’s Metacast episode, Nicolas Vereecke, David Amor and Abhimanyu Kumar, join your host Maria Gillies to discuss EA’s Rumored Sale or Merger and how a company like NBCUniversal, Disney, Apple or Amazon could benefit from acquiring EA. The team also discusses Merit Circle DAO Proposal to Remove YGG Seed Investor: What instigated the proposal and if its fair. Finally, the group discusses whether or not Crypto Gaming is broken.

EA’s Rumored Sale or Merger

  • Context
  • This could be EA’s attempt to stay relevant, as many major studios have been scaling up through acquisition recently.
  • Our opinions on a merger with possible company:
    • Unlikely to merge with Apple.
      • The ethos of both companies seems fundamentally different, and Apple is currently focused on Apple Arcade.
    • NBC Universal may be the best option for them
      • EA owns many IPs and NBC could majorly expand them.
    • Disney is unlikely, but would benefit them.
      • Disney’s role in gaming is currently focused on licensing out IPs. They seem reluctant to fully commit to gaming.
      • If they acquire EA, it could kickstart greater involvement from them in gaming.
    • Amazon
      • Seems like an odd contender, as they are more involved with other non-gaming related forms of entertainment. However, it could be argued that all digital entertainment mediums compete both within and between with each other for consumer’s screen time.
      • Amazon in the past has seen success through acquiring, rather than internally creating, games, notably with Lost Ark. They could repeat this with EA, another powerhouse in publishing.

Merit Circle DAO Proposal to Remove YGG Seed Investor

  • Context
  • We feel that on the whole, Merit Circle is being shortsighted and foolhardy.
    • A company’s value cannot be measured only through their financial contribution; YGG is a significant enough group that a mere association with them could have marketable value.
    • YGG is powerful enough to help Merit Circle if they were to experience troubles in future.
      • Then again, it is not feasible to constantly readjust a company’s value based on hypothetical future scenarios.
    • There is little legal basis to remove YGG from the agreement and is hence unlikely to be passed.
  • On the other hand, this could be a strategic move by Merit Circle to separate them from YGG in the public eye and to show their high standards for investors.
  • This incident offers a rare glimpse into the working mechanisms of Merit Circle and DAOs.
    • As this proposal was made by community, rather than high-ranking, members of Merit Circle, it shows that regular members get to be involved in important decisions, a trait some are viewing positively.
  • As Merit Circle is a decentralized entity, it’s possible the group may not have consistent company values or identity and that this incident may not accurately reflect them.
  • This topic will be discussed further in the next episode of Crypto Corner.

Is Crypto Gaming Broken? We Don’t Think So

  • Context
  • He writes that NFTs and DeFi “set a bad precedence for games.”
    • It may be more accurate to say that they are being over-indexed and used sub-optimally. This could be because they haven’t been fully experimented with yet as they’re still very new.
    • Rather than completely move away, we should embrace them as an additional possible avenue for innovation.
    • Even if it is truly a “bad precedence”, this is not necessarily detrimental. In fact, it could be part of what makes these games interesting.
    • Although there are undeniably issues with crypto gaming, it is far from “broken.”
  • Another interesting point Eliason makes is that internal and external economies should be separated as far as possible.
    • This is so that the external economy will not affect the enjoyability of the game.
    • This is something that could be accomplished with stable coins.
  • This calls in the larger question of what makes a game “well designed.”