On March 14, 2023, Sara Campbell, a leading video game journalist, interviewed Tyrell R. Greene, CEO of D&E Games, at the Campaign Games Summit (CGS). During the interview, Greene shared his thoughts on the future of the gambling industry. According to Greene, “The integration of blockchain technology into gaming is inevitable. D&E Games would soon release Legend of Constellations, its latest blockchain game. In the next era of the gaming industry, this game is of extraordinary importance.”
The interview
Sara Campbell (SC): Currently, the traditional gambling market is becoming more and more popular around the world. However, metaverse and blockchain games do not yet have a large audience. What makes you so confident that your game Legend of Constellations represents the future of video games?
Tyrell R Greene (TG): In 2020, the gaming industry was growing rapidly due to the COVID-19 lockdown. In 2022, the global gaming market is worth $196.8 billion, but the annual growth rate is only 2.1%. We’ve seen the gambling industry almost stop growing after the COVID-19 dividend disappeared.
Regardless, I’m very optimistic about the gambling industry. Mobile games have been a developing trend since 2008, almost 15 years. And this development began with the advent of smartphones and the infrastructure of the mobile internet. Today there are 3.2 billion gamers worldwide. This is a tremendous force exerted by the mobile internet as an infrastructure in the global market. Obviously, these infrastructures are still essential, but they will no longer be the core drivers of gaming industry growth.
I believe the new infrastructure for the gaming industry is blockchain technology, NFT applications and new smart devices – especially blockchain technology, which is not yet widely used.
But just as there was initially a lack of trust in the Internet, only a few believe in a future. These people are pioneers and wise. The combination of gaming and blockchain is an inevitable trend, but few people are becoming pioneers in this field right now. Zuckerberg is one of them. I have to say I respect him a lot.
A lot of people thought Zuckerberg was stupid to believe in and invest in the Metaverse. In fact, they called Zuckerberg’s vision a fraud and an unrealistic dream. But I understand that the truth always lies with the minority.
For example, when Steve Jobs designed the iPhone, Nokia and Motorola thought Jobs was stupid at the time. But look at iPhones today; With their growth and popularity, can anyone look back and still ridicule Jobs?
When I led my team to create Legend of Constellations, we didn’t just make a game. We also practiced one of the core values of blockchain technology – namely to turn every ordinary participant into a real beneficiary.
Gamers devote so much time and energy to playing video games every day; They are also the pillars of the syndicates. So shouldn’t every gamer have the value and contribution of the gaming community alongside the fun of gaming? Shouldn’t gaming devices and characters be protected better than virtual assets? I believe they should, and every visionary player, producer, and expert I’ve spoken to about it does, too.
Metaverse and Web3.0 try to solve these problems. This is also our original intention when developing this game. Let the participants, as gamers, become the greatest beneficiaries of the gaming community. Let the players enjoy the fun of the game through the game mechanics. At the same time, the time and energy spent can be exchanged for an equivalent currency. Trade the effort for real returns.
The project token launched by Legend of Constellations is called ASTR and players can obtain it through game mechanics. As Legend of Constellations develops and the number of players grows, ASTR becomes more valuable. This allows players to earn rich, realistic wins simply by playing the game. I am convinced that this play-to-earn model must be of great representative importance for the gaming industry.
SC: You just mentioned the Legend of Constellations game token that you called ASTR. Obviously this is a cryptocurrency. Since the beginning of this year, the cryptocurrency market has suffered greatly. It was so bad that Bitcoin and Ethereum were devalued by over 60%. Even FTX, the well-known cryptocurrency exchange, filed for bankruptcy. With this in mind, how do you protect the value of the ASTR held by players? How much value can ASTR achieve if it develops healthily?
TG: I believe cryptocurrencies are worthless without relevant use cases. So if ASTR is going to increase in the future, it must be because of its sufficient applications. I will later explain how ASTR’s use cases can protect its value.
Today, Bitcoin is the face of blockchain technology and the gold of the digital world. Also, Ethereum is widely used for writing various smart contracts and has become the underlying platform for several blockchain applications. Many people own these cryptocurrencies, so they are undoubtedly valuable.
This year’s crypto crash happened due to the sharp rise in interest rates due to the US inflation crisis. But since the inception of bitcoin, the value of 1 bitcoin has increased from $0.0025 to $17,000. If you bought Ethereum when it was launched, you may now have a return that is hundreds or even thousands of times its original value.
Our ASTR was just born and I don’t know how much its value can increase in the future. But it will definitely go up, and my confidence comes from the fact that the ASTR has many use cases in Legend of Constellations.
The creation of player accounts is not yet public, but I believe that in the future, many players will use Arena – a PvP mode in the game. Players will be keen to spend ASTR in the arena, which is just one of the token’s many use cases. According to our roadmap, we still have a lot to do. Yet each time we achieve a goal, the value of that project and of ASTR is further solidified.
SC: I admire your vision and drive, but it takes a great team to create an amazing product. What strengths does your team have that will make Legend of Constellations a success?
TG: One of the things I’m most proud of is the team I’ve built. Our team members come from the best game studios around the world, and each member believes that the integration of blockchain technology into games will have a significant impact on the gaming industry. We all share in this vision, and each team member defends their belief in its realization with their hard work.
Take for example Eberle Ryan, one of our members. Ryan has over 10 years of experience in the gaming industry, having worked on the World of Warcraft and Hearthstone projects. Eventually, he climbed the corporate ladder to a senior position at Blizzard. But now he joins Legend of Constellations and is the producer of the game. Together we make Legend of Constellations even better.
Another key team member is John Kirilenko, our Chief Economist. Kirilenko has worked as a senior advisor in major financial institutions in the United States and as such has a wealth of economic knowledge and unique philosophical theories. Due to his profound knowledge, he tends to pursue simple and pure values. The economic system of our game includes his ideas. And the result? Those who play our games describe them as simple but wonderful.
We currently have around 200 great members. I believe in them just like they believe in me and together we will make Legend of Constellations great.
SC: One last question, I downloaded your Legend of Constellations prior to the interview and noticed that the game is still in beta testing. When will it be available to players worldwide?
TG: As I mentioned before, according to our roadmap, we still have some work to do. However, we will conduct public beta testing in the first quarter of 2023 without deleting any data. Then we will finally release the game in the third quarter of 2023.
SC: That sounds wonderful. Thank you for this interview. I wish Legend of Constellations every success!
Information about Legend of Constellations produced by D&E Games.
Official Website: https://www.loc-game.com/#/
