Current Status of the Gaming Industry and Analysis of KGeN Platform

1. Introduction

The scale of the gaming industry has surpassed that of movies and music, but it has faced severe challenges in recent years. From 2023 to 2024, the industry has experienced waves of layoffs and consolidation, skyrocketing development costs, and significant reductions in investment. Game publishing and distribution have become increasingly difficult, with an overflow of AI content, platform saturation, and players preferring mature IPs, making it hard for new projects to stand out.

Nevertheless, there are still significant opportunities in the industry. The purchasing power of the digital native generation will continue to drive market expansion. At the same time, the "Global South" market is experiencing explosive growth and will become an important incremental market for the gaming industry in the next decade.

This report will explore the latest challenges in game publishing, analyze the high-growth opportunities in the "Global South," and focus on KGeN - a blockchain-based gaming platform aimed at reshaping the incentive mechanisms between publishers and players. We will also evaluate the feasibility of Web3 task platforms and analyze the structural changes in the value distribution of the gaming industry.

2. Challenges Facing Issuance

One of the biggest challenges in the current gaming industry is distribution. Changes in consumer habits, adjustments in regulatory policies, lower market access thresholds, and continuous saturation of game content make it difficult to successfully promote games.

Players tend to spend most of their time on familiar games or series. In 2023, all ten games ranked by monthly active users were released more than seven years ago. In 2024, despite Steam releasing 19,000 new games, the games released that year only accounted for 15% of the total gaming time of players.

The mobile gaming market once had a mature distribution model, but the adjustments to privacy policies by Apple and Google in 2021 affected how publishers reach their target users. Many publishers have found new ways to expand, but small teams face greater competitive pressure.

AI may make UA campaign management more efficient, but it will also lower the market entry threshold, significantly increasing the amount of content. UGC platforms have become a common testing ground for independent developers, but they also face challenges in content screening and promotion.

The Web3 gaming market is relatively small, with about 6 to 7 million active wallet addresses interacting with 3,000 on-chain gaming protocols. Only about 200 protocols have more than 100 active on-chain accounts.

Web3 projects compete around a limited number of wallet users, lacking effective means to achieve scalable growth. Some companies are exploring new user acquisition models based on blockchain, leveraging innovative incentive mechanisms and on-chain reputation systems to gain a competitive edge.

3. Global South(Global South)

The Global South refers to countries and regions with relatively low levels of economic development, typically located south of industrialized nations. These areas are rapidly becoming a gaming market with huge potential, featuring a large player base that primarily relies on mobile devices for gaming, but with a generally low willingness to pay.

The following are the characteristics of some key markets:

India (

• The number of gamers increased from 44.9 million in 2017 to about 466 million, and it is expected to exceed 640 million by 2027.
• The market revenue is expected to grow by 13.6% in 2024, reaching 943 million USD.
• Mobile games dominate, contributing 77.9% of total revenue.
• Real money games ) RMG ( are the largest niche market, with an annual revenue of 2 billion dollars.

) Southeast Asia ### SEA (

• Game revenue reached $5.1 billion in 2023, an increase of 8.8% year-on-year.
• Expected to grow to 7.1 billion dollars by 2028, with a 5-year CAGR of 6.7%
• In 2023, there are 277 million gamers, expected to grow to 332 million by 2028.
• Community and competitive culture are common characteristics.

) Latin America ###LATAM(

• In 2022, it is estimated that there are 316 million gamers, with Brazil having 101 million players.
• Brazil generated $2.7 billion in gaming revenue.
• 60% of Brazilian players have played a mobile game at least once in the past six months.
• 43% of Brazilian players engage in in-game spending.

) 非洲###Africa(

• The revenue in 2024 is expected to exceed $1 billion
• Mobile games account for nearly 90% of the market share.
• 92% of players use their mobile phones to play games
• High data costs ) 42% ( is the biggest obstacle

) MENA ###

• Revenue grew by 4.7% in 2023, reaching 7.1 billion dollars.
• The CAGR is expected to reach 9.4% from 2024 to 2030.
• MENA-3( Saudi Arabia, UAE, Egypt ) are core markets, with projected revenue of $2.9 billion in 2027.

4. What is KGeN

KGeN is a blockchain-driven gaming platform that utilizes on-chain and off-chain data, an incentivized task platform, and a decentralized reputation system to drive user engagement across different games. The core of the platform is a decentralized player data network that covers millions of micro-game communities ( KGeN tribe ).

KGeN adopts "Proof of Gamer" ( engine to create a cross-chain player reputation layer, providing publishers with a highly engaged target user base. Since January 2024, the total number of registered accounts has increased by over 700%, monthly active users have grown by 1333%, and the total amount of data attributes has increased by 992%.

The KGeN ecosystem is gradually becoming decentralized, protecting the PoG engine through a distributed oracle network and providing greater transparency for core stakeholders. Both the oracle network and the KGeN store are powered by KGEN tokens.

![Let gamers prove: KGeN redefines user acquisition])https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-6a684309a3a50aa2f2837ee493f7bb42.webp(

) 4.1 grassroots growth

The core of KGeN's growth lies in grassroots tribes and the network of tribal leaders. Tribes represent thousands of micro-communities that have joined the KGeN ecosystem, such as colleagues, esports organizations, influencers, and game-centric social groups. As of December 2024, KGeN reports a total of 2,525 tribes, of which 152 tribes have more than 100 members.

The tribe is the core way KGeN promotes user acquisition based on recommendations. Approximately 1.7 million KGeN accounts verified through KYC were obtained through tribes. Tribe leaders are not only incentivized to introduce new members, but also need to coordinate tribal activities and maintain community engagement.

KGeN's largest market is currently India, but over 30% of independent active wallets and transactions occur on Kaia, which is LINE's proprietary blockchain. LINE's largest markets are Japan, Thailand, Taiwan, and Indonesia, indicating that KGeN has strong growth potential in Asia.

4.2 Incentivize Participation through KGeN Play

KGeN Play is the front-end interface where most players on the platform participate, and all reward tasks are published here. Users can access it through the PC portal or mobile application. When an account is created, the system automatically creates a blockchain wallet in the background to store user assets and non-tradable player reputation NFTs.

Task activities are divided into K-Drops and K-Quests. K-Drops provide automatic real-time verification through endpoint API integration, while K-Quests are conducted through a manual verification process. Both are limited-time participation activities with limited availability, rewarding participants with K-Points, leaderboard-based achievements, K-Cash, or tokens.

4.3 PoG Engine

The PoG engine is a decentralized player rating system hosted by a distributed network of nodes. It consists of five core pillars, each containing five to ten attributes that track players' skills, "humanity", engagement, wealth, and social networks, building a multifaceted cross-chain reputation system.

The five core pillars are divided into:

• Human Proof ( PoH ): Tracking various data points to reduce the likelihood that users are bots.
• Game Proof ### PoP (: Determine player participation in the KGeN platform and the types of games played
• Skill Certificate ) PoS (: Recognizes players' abilities, competitiveness, participation, and achievements
• Business Proof ) PoC (: Identify the monetization potential of users
• Social Network Proof ) PoSN (: Mapping the scale of user social profiles and social graphs

The PoG engine currently consists of over 270 million data attributes, sourced from more than 13 million registered accounts and 4.4 million MAUs.

![Let gamers prove: How KGeN redefines user acquisition])https://img-cdn.gateio.im/webp-social/moments-e150f998ddcdedf65ff8cbb46b3245f9.webp(

) 4.4 KGeN Token Economy

KGeN economy consists of two core assets: KCash and KGEN tokens. KCash mainly serves as an off-chain asset for reward currency and can be used to purchase IAP, gift cards, or participate in VIP tournaments and tasks in the KStore.

rKGEN airdrop activities, where rKGEN can be converted to KGEN tokens at a 1:1 ratio.

KGEN tokens will be used for incentives, discounts at the KGeN Store, subscription fees, and more. There will also be token staking, where tribal leaders can stake tokens to increase member limits and gain additional platform tools, and publishers can also participate in the tiered staking program.

4.5 oracle network

The KGeN oracle network is a distributed network composed of permissioned nodes, forming the backbone of the PoG engine. The task of the oracle is to store PoG data, calculate PoG scores, and submit them to the Aptos blockchain. Oracle operators will earn KGEN tokens and stablecoin rewards.

The oracle network will decentralize the PoG engine in phases, which is expected to take at least three years. The oracle key is the NFT required to participate in the network, which can be traded and delegated to oracle operators to earn KGEN token rewards.

5. Competitive Landscape

The King of Advertising Technology: Past and Present

In the Web2 market, Facebook and Applovin are two typical cases:

Facebook:

• Finding a foothold at the end of the era of web games and the rise of mobile platforms.
• From 2013 to 2016, the focus shifted to mobile advertising, accounting for nearly 30% of the mobile advertising market share in 2014.
• The core value lies in accurately identifying high-value users.

Applovin:

• Highly mature advertising technology platform
• Supplier platform ( SSP ) MAX and demand platform ### DSP ( AppDiscovery
• The machine learning engine AXON combines mobile application user behavior data with platform bidding data.

Mystplay:

• One of the fastest-growing reward-based UA platforms in the Web2 space
• Independent game discovery application, users earn points by playing games to exchange for gift cards.
• Rich social features and AI-driven recommendation engine
• Over 2 million MAU in 2023,