Xais goal is to become the gateway to Ethereum games

CoinDesk reports:
The major contributors of Xai, a third-layer gaming network based on Ethereum, have expressed their goal of building the next Valve, developing their ecosystem in a way similar to the video game giant behind the Steam market and some of the most popular games in history.
Tobias Batton, co-founder and CEO of Ex Populus, explained that the Valve model is their vision for the future of the gaming network.
Just as Valve has its own in-house studios creating games like “Half-Life,” “Counter-Strike,” and “Portal,” Xai also allows Ex Populus to produce multiple upcoming games. Similarly, as Valve provides development tools, Xai also offers development tools through a partnership with Sequence.
Batton told Decrypt via Zoom, “This is how we look at the Xai ecosystem in a broad sense.”
While Valve games are widely popular, the company is best known for its market-leading Steam platform. Valve’s store is highly dominant, currently hosting over 100,000 games, while Xai currently only has a few games. But Batton states that there will be a healthy library to choose from by the end of their new initiative: Genesis Movement.
Data from L2beat shows that the transaction volume of this movement skyrocketed almost instantly, with Xai accounting for 41% of all transactions in the Ethereum scaling network ecosystem, setting a new record for transaction volume.
In the past 30 days, Xai has recorded the highest number of transactions in the Ethereum second layer, with over 114 million transactions; Coinbase’s Base network follows closely behind with 83 million transactions in the same period.
However, most of the activity is not related to gaming, as users first interact with this emerging network through the rewards program in the Genesis Movement, which was launched in January.
Batton said, “The first thing a lot of people are looking at is our Genesis NFT drop, which is a massive NFT drop.” He explained that more transactions are coming from Unicorns Bingo, a money-making mobile game. “I think as more things get released throughout the movement, you will see a lot of this activity related to games.”
This is another event following last year’s Xai Odyssey, where user activity saw a similar surge – 500,000 connected wallets generating a total of 5 million transactions per day, with the total value of tokens nearing $200 million at the peak price of Xai in February.
“Genesis: Genesis” will last until November, helping launch over a dozen new games on Xai, but this is not all that the network has in store – other games will be realized through partnerships with Xai and the MIX, as well as other releases. In addition to these new games, the event will also offer the community new missions, achievements, and rewards.
“We see this as an ecosystem-wide event,” Batton told Decrypt. “We can build this massive momentum curve and then add that momentum into different game releases.”
Later on Tuesday, Crypto Unicorns marked the beginning of this version, completing the migration from the Ethereum sidechain Polygon to the third-layer gaming network based on Arbitrum. The franchise is one of the most powerful game brands in the cryptocurrency industry and provided an activity leading up to an airdrop during the migration (Unicorns Bingo).
While Crypto Unicorns are well known, Batton emphasized a lesser-known project called “Lost Light,” which is one of the games he is most excited to launch.
Batton said, “I encourage you to check out their Twitter account and media. Oh my god, it’s magical.” “This might be the best-looking card game I’ve ever seen, which says a lot because Parallel looks great. But I think ‘Lost Light’ takes it a step further.”
In addition to these games, Batton is also excited about “Final Form,” a card-driven auto-battler game being developed by his former Populus studio. In addition, several other games are planned to be launched through the event, with some games not yet announced at the time of writing.
In comparison to Valve, Batton believes the Vanguard: Genesis event can be compared to the annual Steam Summer Sale, which has become a reliable event for gamers. In turn, this will not be a one-off. Instead, the plan is to do “two to three seasons” per year, as he puts it.
Batton said, “Each season will have a set of games that we promote. I think the focus might be on launching new games.” “But we are also very open to bringing back games from the first few seasons, which may be ongoing events, especially if they have new things to offer.”
This is the long-term vision. Currently, the team’s focus is on “Genesis: Genesis,” with Batton hoping the movement will bring must-play games to Xai and help the network deliver on the promise made earlier this year of a large-scale hype and valuable token drop.
He said, “Our focus has always been: Let’s go out and find the best 3A, quality-made games. Let’s launch six of these games in 2024.”