Author: Zen, PANews

The development team of Champions Ascension recently announced that, due to strategic adjustments, they will suspend the game's operation and concentrate all resources on a new project—REACH Labs. This suspension affects the main server of Champions Ascension and its associated features (including Imperial Expeditions and Dudo), which officially took effect last Friday.

This game, once supported by a16z and positioned as a "AAA" blockchain game, was highly anticipated. However, faced with the sluggish blockchain gaming market and a continuous decline in user activity, the team ultimately decided to suspend operations. The development team emphasized that the suspension of Champions Ascension does not mean the project is completely abandoned; REACH Labs plans to pave the way for the future return of Champions Ascension through a new user acquisition and distribution model.

Supported by a16z, Champions Ascension may return in the future

Originally positioned as a "AAA" next-generation blockchain game, Champions Ascension was initiated by the well-known mobile game company Jam City. Due to the global gaming industry's downturn and increasing competition, there were internal discussions about abandoning the project. Ultimately, Jam City co-founder Chris DeWolfe, who had high hopes for blockchain games, left Jam City with several executives and developers to form Plai Labs, a company focused on building the next-generation social platform utilizing AI and Web3, and the independent game studio Rough House Games, with Champions Ascension being their first entertainment experience product.

Based on Chris DeWolfe and his team's extensive experience in social media and game design, Plai Labs completed a significant $32 million seed round during the bear market, led by top venture capital firms a16z Games and a16z Crypto. Additionally, Rough House Games, the game development studio led by DeWolfe focusing on the intersection of Web2 and Web3, also received support from a16z, Coinbase, Crush Ventures, and UTA.

However, against the backdrop of a continued downturn in the blockchain gaming industry and a constant loss of players, the previously lukewarm Champions Ascension ultimately chose to suspend game services. The development team also stated that this does not mean the game has been completely abandoned. On the contrary, the Web3 game distribution platform REACH Labs, which the team is currently focused on, may breathe new life into Champions Ascension in the future through its newly developed "user acquisition methods." The development team emphasized that they highly value the contributions of the player community and will announce the follow-up arrangements for Champions Ascension after the launch of REACH Labs.

Shifting to REACH Labs: Committed to solving the user acquisition challenge in gaming

REACH Labs is a new Web3 game publisher established in collaboration between Rough House Games and the gaming startup Overworld. Jeremy Horn, the founder of Overworld, is also a co-founder of the Web3 company Xterio, and he has extensive experience in the gaming industry, having worked at FunPlus, Jam City, TinyCo, and Gameloft.

Chris DeWolfe and Jeremy Horn, two veterans of the gaming industry, co-founded REACH Labs to address the current challenges in user acquisition within the gaming industry, including audience attention fragmentation, increasing market competition, and soaring marketing and user acquisition costs. According to GamesBeat, DeWolfe and Horn often discussed how user acquisition fundamentally fails, and they also believe that existing games lack sufficient social interaction. After extensive discussions, they decided to "establish a very deep partnership to jointly develop a platform called Reach."

The decision to suspend Champions Ascension was made to focus all energy and resources on REACH Labs. REACH Labs plans to provide a new infrastructure for game distribution and marketing through the Keystone protocol. The Keystone protocol, developed by Rough House Games and donated to the Keystone Foundation, aims to create a fairer and more efficient distribution network for blockchain games.

Reach aims to enhance game distribution by integrating blockchain technology and community participation. Their unique solution is to democratize game distribution through a proprietary marketing and distribution platform, rewarding players for playing and sharing games to attract more users. Reach hopes to encourage active participation from players, KOLs, and guilds while making user acquisition more decentralized and social, reducing reliance on traditional Web2 platforms like Facebook and Google.

Specifically, players can generate exclusive referral codes to promote games on social media or platforms like Twitch, attracting new players to the game and earning a share of the revenue generated from referrals. In this way, REACH not only improves the efficiency of user acquisition for games but also creates new income sources for players.

According to previous disclosures from REACH Labs, they plan to launch a diverse portfolio of high-quality cross-platform games in the future, including the currently suspended Web3 fighting game Champions Ascension, as well as the action role-playing game Conquest and the free strategy mobile game Kingdoms developed by Overworld. It is said that several other projects are also in preparation.

The suspension of Champions Ascension is undoubtedly a realistic compromise by Chris DeWolfe regarding the game's poor performance. On the other hand, the strategic shift to explore new game distribution and user acquisition models is crucial and will determine whether Champions Ascension and other blockchain games can usher in new development opportunities.

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