TL;DR

Bitkraft 2024 Summit was extremely well put together, kudos to @BITKRAFTVC team for that! some key observations from this lovely summit:

• AI x Gaming mostly a meme in most ways people are trying to sell the narrative. What people are truly excited about AI x Gaming is on (1) improving game asset generation, and (2) AI in PvP.

(1) consistent asset generation is extremely hard to achieve using AI today, but is required for it to be usable in game production. pretty independently generated images without context is nice to look at but if you cant achieve consistency, then its unusable. teams mainly still using AI for ideation phase.

current AI tools benefit mostly veteran studios with large amount of assets to feed into models, there is still a gap in utility for newer studios. 2D side of things is seeing very good progress but 3D is still no man’s land.

(2) AI in games have existed since time memorial (its not something new guys), just not in your today’s AI agent context. What is interesting is that if AI can be developed to play more like a player in both PvE and PvP games (obviously does not fit all types of games, ie. never being able to beat boss patterns in Elden Ring). User experience can be massively uplifted if cold start problems / matchmaking for multiplayer-based games can be solved. Imagine playing Dota2 with no more MID OR FEED / BUY WARDS OR AFK teammates.

• games need existing well-known IP to do well - THIS IS A MYTH. statistically most of the successful games out there creates IP rather than license IP. ie. for mobile games - other than FateStay / DragonballZ IP, most are original IPs. there are huge limitations on unit economics / what you can do with games by licensing IP. of course some there are some exceptions like Ragnarok Mobile Eternal Love and Fate/Grand Order that did exceptionally well, but the odds are against you.

• unfortunate to still see a substantial lack of understanding of the East from the Western crowd on both the supply and demand side.

still seeing games from the China being stereotyped as extractive / of lower quality / not able to go international, and this is even after Black Myth Wukong smashed the leaderboards.

most do not know about a mobile game called Dungeon & Fighter Origins that grossed $500m in revenue in its first month just within China alone.

• Telegram games - remain cautious on jumping onto the bandwagon just because its the new “trend” for distribution. vanity metrics distribution is not the same as real distribution.

• Discord games are getting a lot of attention given its latest update allowing users to play mini-games without leaving the app. will be on the lookout for new developments in that space and for any novel applications.

• Japan / Korea / China are still very isolated markets where its difficult to understand the lay of the land unless you are actively engaging within the ecosystem. interesting - most popular dating app in Japan is like tinder but with full AI matches and conversation, but no one really know of this outside of Japan.

• huge monetization potential from Chinese IP that is extremely under-utilized internationally. we have mostly seen Japanese / Korean IP being internationalized but Chinese IP remains largely within China. #1 IP is 斗罗大陆 (Soul Land) with >50 billion playback of its Season 1 animation series, bet no one heard of it before.

• difficult to push through game innovation from large gaming companies as generally risk adverse (RIOT / Valve amongst the most adventurous) and tend to want to build sequels on top of old successful franchises. but there are a bunch of GOATed OGs who left to pursue creating new groundbreaking games.

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