The aftermath has been alarming since WeMix, a cryptocurrency issued by Wemade, the leading player in Korea’s Play to Earn (P2E) game, was delisted on major domestic exchanges such as Upbit on November 24. Immediately after the decision to delist, Wemix prices plunged nearly 70%, and Wemade shares also plunged. WeMix’s shock is also affecting the domestic game industry. Shares of Com2us Holdings, Netmarble, and Kakao Games all fell sharply. These game companies have issued their own cryptocurrencies to target P2E, which is the next generation of food. In fact, the prices of cryptocurrencies issued by these companies have also fluctuated significantly since the WeMix crisis.

Game industry’s next-generation food P2E business ‘Red Light’

As non-face-to-face became commonplace with the start of the pandemic (global epidemic of infectious diseases), games have been mentioned as a representative industry that benefited from increased indoor activities. Thanks to this, Korean game companies also enjoyed their heyday by achieving the highest performance ever in 2020. However, these colorful days have not lasted long. Domestic game companies, which received attention as representative growth stocks, face great criticism due to the “absence of innovation.” At the heart of the criticism was the P2W (pay to win) charging model. It is a structure in which you can win only by purchasing the benefits (items) needed to win the game in cash. Since the late 2000s, the fatigue of the P2W model, which has firmly established itself as a profit model for “Korean-style games,” has increased, and game users have had to face strong opposition.

In this situation, it was none other than the P2E (pay to ear) model that domestic game companies pointed to as the next-generation core business. It is the same as P2W in that you can get a stronger character only when you spend more time and money, but it is connected to the “metabus,” which has recently attracted attention in that it can be transferred to a world outside the game.Cryptocurrency is the most necessary thing to do economic activities in this metaverse world. This is why many Korean game companies, such as Wemade’s “WeMix,” Com2us’ “Xpla,” Neowiz’s “Neopin,” Netmarble’s “Marbrex,” and Kakao Games’ “Boracoin,” are issuing their own cryptocurrencies.

WeMade has been called the pioneer of Korean P2E games. Wemade’s “Mir 4,” which was released last year, was only a breeze in Korea, but “Mir 4 Global” gained explosive popularity enough to surpass 1.3 million simultaneous users. The introduction of the P2E element was the main factor of popularity. In other words, WeMix, a cryptocurrency, is combined with games so that items and characters can be bought and sold. WeMade has been actively expanding its business based on WeMix, a cryptocurrency. They also took over the company by taking out loans with WeMix as collateral or cashing WeMix. In addition to this, WeMade has recently put a lot of effort into developing the “WeMix ecosystem” by establishing a coalition that can use WeMix like a game currency in other games. The core of the WeMade business, which dreams of taking a leap into a “digital economy platform,” is WeMix, which serves as the key currency of the “WeMix ecosystem.” This is why the news of Wemix’s delisting on November 24th has a strong impact on the domestic coin industry as well as the game industry.