Original author: ZEN, PANews

On August 2nd, two weeks after announcing the plan to rebrand the entire ecosystem, MOJO Token of Web3 gaming platform PlanetMojo successfully migrated from Polygon to the Base network. PlanetMojo changed its logo from a purple rune to a blue one that aligns with Base. Its auto battler game Mojo Melee, parkour game GoGo Mojo, in-game avatar system Mojo Maker, and the upcoming role-playing game Prophecy of the Ancients all contribute to the vitality of the Base ecosystem.

Polygon has been a preferred network for deploying GameFi projects and has been highly favored by developers in the past few years. It was also rated as a top developer ecosystem in the 2022 Developer Report released by Electric Capital. However, with the rise of public blockchains and the departure of popular games such as Pixels and Crypto Unicorns, Polygon, as the 'West Point of Web3 games', has lost its former leading edge and its market share is gradually decreasing.

Are the stars scattered? Multiple games go their separate ways

Migrating to the Ronin Blockchain network operated by Sky Mavis and achieving a win-win situation with its pixel-style farming game, Pixels, is a model case. Pixels, launched in 2021, chose to migrate from Polygon to the Ronin network at the end of last year. Luke Barwikowski, CEO of Pixels, stated in a declaration at the time: 'Sky Mavis is the only company that has achieved scalable development in the Web3 gaming field. It is wise to collaborate with a team that is not based on assumptions, but on practice and experience. Migrating to Ronin and leveraging their expertise is the logical next step in our journey.'

Subsequent facts have proven that this major change was indeed a wise choice. According to DappRadar data, Pixels has a monthly independent active Wallet (UAW) of 1.8 million, with a daily UAW of over 700,000, making it one of the hottest Web3 games at present. Its rapid rise has been sustained for over half a year. Ronin has completely emerged from the shadow of hacker attacks from a few years ago, and its ecosystem, based on the template of Pixels, has also begun to introduce more high-quality chain games. For example, Apeiron, the first Web3 god simulation game, followed in the footsteps of Pixels and announced its departure from Polygon and joining Ronin in December 2023.

MapleStory Universe, which just completed the pioneer test on August 2, is a PC-based MMORPG under the South Korean game giant Nexon. It combines blockchain technology with the "MapleStory" IP and claimed to have received a $100 million investment by the end of 2023. The "MapleStory" IP has attracted over 180 million registered users in the past 20 years, making it one of Nexon's most popular games. In March 2023, Nexon announced Polygon as a partner and closely collaborated with the team at Polygon Labs around MapleStory Universe, including its development and marketing. However, in March of this year, Nexon and Polygon parted ways, turning to use a dedicated Avalanche subnet.

Coincidentally, Delabs Games, a Korean web game developer led by former Nexon CEO Joonmo Kwon, announced its entry into the Polygon ecosystem almost at the same time as MapleStory Universe. The development team, known for creating the popular Nexon game series 'KartRider,' plans to launch a Web3 arcade racing game called Rumble Racing Star (RRS) on Polygon. However, in May of this year, Delabs Games announced a collaboration with Arbitrum, migrating RRS to Arbitrum. Their upcoming Web3 games, Metabolts and Space Frontier, will also be built on Arbitrum, completely abandoning the partnership with Polygon.

In addition to the aforementioned Block chain network, Immutable zkEVM and Xai, game public chains such as Hunters On-Chain, Blast Royale, and Storm Warfare, which have contributed a lot of activity to Polygon, have also become popular choices for migration. Crypto Unicorns, a pet collection and simulation management game, Yaku, an action/cyberpunk MMO, and Land Before War, a mobile RTS game, have chosen to join Xai.

Is there always a time for gathering and parting? Why did the blockchain game developer leave?

Most development teams choose to remain silent to show respect for their former employer when it comes to the reasons for leaving Polygon. However, some clues can be seen to a greater or lesser extent from the information disclosed by some individual development teams.

When MapleStory Universe partner Angela Son was asked why she gave up on Polygon, she only emphasized the team's belief in the advantages of using Avalanche to assist with server and infrastructure needs. However, according to insiders who spoke to Decrypt, Nexon chose another network after Polygon Labs stopped supporting Polygon Edge, which allowed the building of custom Ethereum-compatible chains, in December last year. The source added that Nexon and Polygon Labs had already agreed to part ways before formally deciding to use Avalanche. Web3 game and creator platform Hytopia (formerly Non-fungible Token Worlds) also seems to have migrated to Arbitrum for similar reasons.

Scalability issues and high gas fees are among the important reasons why blockchain games are leaving. Before leaving the Polygon ecosystem, Crypto Unicorns' Non-fungible Tokens generated a volume of approximately 35 million dollars. Aron Beierschmitt, Co-founder and CEO of Laguna Games, said the team faced challenges operating games on Polygon, especially the high gas fees that increased operational costs and caused friction for players. Aron also mentioned that Laguna Games had to provide a subsidy of around $5,000 to $10,000 per month for players' network gas fees, which is not sustainable. In contrast, Xai, a layer-3 game network built on Arbitrum, completely eliminates such fees for players.

Role-playing games Pirate Nation and Crypto Unicorns face similar challenges. The game was developed by Proof of Play, a developer that announced a $33 million seed round of financing in September 2023, led by Greenoaks and a16z. Pirate Nation chose to part ways with Polygon in March 2023 and joined Arbitrum Nova. Amitt Mahajan, co-founder and CEO of Proof of Play, said that Pirate Nation needs to switch to a more affordable and scalable platform. 'As more and more people migrate to Polygon, we are starting to encounter scalability issues with the Polygon chain.' 'We have to pay $3,000 to $4,000 in gas fees every day. So it becomes unsustainable. This prevents us from scaling up the game.'

Apart from the issues with technical support and high costs, the lack of support from the platform seems to be an important factor for game developers. Pegaxy, a Non-fungible Token game for horse racing, was developed by Mirai Labs and migrated to Avalanche at the end of last year. Corey Wilton, CEO and co-founder of the developer, bluntly stated that in comparison, Polygon Labs did not provide much "assistance" in developing games and encryption projects on its sidechains on the ETH network. "It feels like we haven't received any help in a sense."

Who are the latecomers? Polygon still holds the ace

In addition to the explosive data of the Ton ecosystem small games, the "traditional" chain game track as a whole is neither popular nor cold, and no chain game has stood out in this cycle. However, the Decentralization prediction market platform Polymarket in the Polygon ecosystem has become the focus of attention in this cycle as an encryption application, surpassing the various games mentioned above. Since April of this year, the platform has entered the public's field of vision, and the volume and number of users have surged. Especially catalyzed by annual events like the assassination of Trump, its typical role as a prediction market has been widely reported by mainstream media, and its popularity and influence have been further enhanced. From June to the end of July, Polymarket's cumulative volume surged by 58% to $1.05 billion from $663 million, and the volume in July alone exceeded $380 million.

However, as the saying goes, the taller the tree, the bigger the target. According to CryptoSlate, US legislators are calling on the CFTC to ban gambling on elections. Senators Elizabeth Warren and others argue that gambling around elections undermines public trust and the democratic process, and they are requesting the CFTC to immediately establish rules to prevent the commodification of elections. Polymarket, which has gained popularity due to the presidential election, has its largest market in predicting the next US president, with a volume exceeding $474 million, accounting for over 45% of the total volume. With regulatory intervention, the future development of Polymarket is also becoming uncertain.

In addition, the technology foundation accumulated by Polygon is also the killer of this network, especially the customizable toolkit Chain Development Kit (CDK), which allows developers to create their own layer 2 blockchain based on Polygon's zero-knowledge technology. In March last year, Immutable and Polygon Labs announced the launch of Immutable zkEVM, which was supported by Polygon's technology, laying the foundation for Immutable's rapid rise and breakthrough to millions of players this year.

In the past two months, Ronin and Telegram, both supporters of the blockchain The Open Network (TON), have successively announced that they will launch their own Layer 2 networks based on Polygon technology. Ronin uses the Polygon Chain Development Kit (CDK) to create its own zkEVM chain on Ronin, improving scalability, security, and decentralization. TON, on the other hand, will use CDK to create the TON Applications Chain (TAC), allowing EVM-based decentralized applications to access the TON ecosystem, paving the way for innovative applications such as TON on-chain games and decentralized identity solutions.