How YGG Play is Reimagining Game Publishing With Web3 Transparency

YGG Play is creating a model that puts game developers and publishers on equal footing. Gabby Dizon shares how blockchain makes it possible in a stream hosted by WolvesDAO’s Iceyyy.

YGG Play recently announced the onchain RPG Gigaverse as its first third-party game partner. The partnership sets a precedent for how Web3 game publishing can redefine the developer-publisher dynamic through fair, transparent systems. By using smart contracts to enable enforceable payouts and mutual visibility into earnings distribution, YGG Play is creating a model that builds long-term alignment across the publishing process.

Recently, YGG co-founder Gabby Dizon joined a stream hosted by WolvesDAO’s Iceyyy, alongside Gigaverse founder Dith, YGG Head of Guilds Kyroh, Proof of Play’s IcoBeast, Abstract’s ProofOfEly, Web3 content creator Doug Hype, and GAM3 TALK host Marcello. The group discussed the challenges of traditional game publisher dynamics in Web2, how YGG Play is leveraging Web3 primitives to enable more equitable partnerships, and how the current “revenue meta” signals a shift away from experimentation and hype toward sustainability and business viability.

The following is an excerpt from the stream, where Gabby shares how his experience as a developer shaped YGG’s approach to game publishing in Web3, and how YGG Play is well-positioned to support already-successful games like Gigaverse with the reach and visibility to unlock even greater potential.

X Spaces: How YGG Play Is Solving Web3 Game Publishing (Plus Major Announcement!)

Gabby (5:54): I've been in the game industry for over 20 years, been a developer for most of them, and we've worked with a lot of publishers, big and small. Honestly, in Web2, a lot of the publisher-developer relationships just suck. There's a power dynamic. The publisher collects all of the money, and then after a bit of time, that money goes to the developer, and the publisher can cancel the game at any time. So the incentives were often misaligned. This is something that we wanted to change coming into Web3.

Obviously, we've developed LOL Land ourselves, and when we saw the really fast start that we had two months ago in May, we knew that we wanted to get into publishing, but we didn't want to get into publishing deals like I experienced in Web2. There are some really cool things that you can do in Web3. A big part of that is smart contracts, where you can actually exchange value with other people. We wanted to approach publishing wherein we work with partners that we really like and help grow each other's audience, then use the magic of blockchain so that we can either exchange assets or exchange money permissionlessly.

Fortunately, I got introduced to Dith very early on in the process. What I always tell people is that the magic thing about this partnership is that Dith doesn't actually need us to publish his game. He's already freaking, very profitable. He has a great audience.

It's really our privilege to have Dith and Gigaverse as our first partner. All of the distribution that we've done in the last few years running YGG, the marketing that we can bring, the acceleration we can bring, we can do that not just for LOL Land, but for Gigaverse as well.

Iceyyy (8:08): I think it makes a lot of sense to tap into the distribution that YGG has. I think that you guys have done an incredible job over the past few years, really dedicating yourselves to Web3 gaming, figuring this out, and trying to push the space forward.

You can listen to the full recording on X.

Follow Gabby, Iceyyy, and Dith to learn more about how Web3 infrastructure can benefit the entire gaming industry.

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