Launched in March 2022, MARBLEX is the blockchain subsidiary and game ecosystem of Netmarble Corporation. As a top 10 global game publisher, Netmarble wanted MARBLEX to be more than just a first-mover in bringing AAA gaming experiences to Web3—they wanted it to be a sustainable, vibrant blockchain gaming ecosystem that revolves around exceptional games and seamless user experiences, that is designed to benefit all participants, including developers, service providers, publishers, and gamers.
To achieve all of these, MARBLEX needed a blockchain that:
- Is easy to build on, to minimize hurdles between developers and their ideal vision of their blockchain game or service.
- Can deliver the scalability and performance to support a massive, ever-growing global ecosystem.
- Supports the technologies that will allow them to deliver seamless user experiences throughout, from onboarding to everyday usage.
Based on these requirements, MARBLEX began shortlisting and evaluating their options. The first was straightforward—it had to be an EVM-compatible chain. EVM compatibility meant not only access to the largest pool of experienced developers, but also the most comprehensive and robust toolings to help speed development.
However, Ethereum itself is far too slow and expensive, and while L2s claim to solve the speed and cost issue, there are two important caveats. Firstly, transaction speeds on Ethereum L2s are still limited by Ethereum’s time-to-finality, unless the L2 sacrifices security by generating soft finality through a single, centralized sequencer.
Secondly, unless on-ramping services have integrated the L2, players will need to bridge the purchased tokens and assets over from Ethereum. This is a major deal-breaker for a gaming ecosystem as players tend to make small but frequent purchases, which makes Ethereum’s gas fees a disproportionately high cost to them—not to mention the UX hurdle of having to bridge every single purchase over.
Enter Klaytn, the fastest EVM-equivalent L1
MARBLEX found their perfect match in Klaytn, which had everything they needed to realize their blockchain gaming ecosystem vision without compromises.
Streamlined development
Klaytn isn’t just EVM compatible—it is EVM equivalent. Equivalence is the highest level of compatibility, providing developers with not only a near-identical execution environment, but also the flexibility to use all their favourite Ethereum SDKs and toolings, on top of bespoke toolings built for Klaytn. This made the search for talented developers much easier, and gave them all they needed to do their best work. In turn, MARBLEX was able to rapidly build and release AAA gaming titles with tightly-integrated blockchain elements, minimizing development costs and speeding time-to-market.
Dedicated, customizable performance
With an ever-expanding ecosystem in mind, the MARBLEX blockchain had to be able to handle rapid growth in user base and on-chain transactions. By leveraging Klaytn’s ability to quickly deploy customizable service chains, MARBLEX gained dedicated throughput that it could rely on for consistent and scalable performance.
End-to-end frictionless UX
For MARBLEX, one of the goals of utilizing blockchain in gaming was to elevate fun to new levels. However, most gamers don’t want to deal with seed phrases or gas fees—those are the opposite of fun.
Through the use of Klaytn’s gas fee delegation and account abstraction features, MARBLEX created a user experience that was identical to Web2, where gamers could start playing simply by downloading the game and logging in with their social account, never having to deal with seed phrases or gas fees. Additionally, Klaytn’s extremely low transaction latency also allows players of MARBLEX games to remain immersed in their game without having to wait for pending transactions.
With the on-chain elements all but invisible to players, MARBLEX opened the doors to every gamer in the world, paving the way for blockchain gaming mass adoption.
The result? A thriving blockchain gaming ecosystem
Since its launch in March 2022, the MARBLEX ecosystem has grown astronomically with over 22 million participants, and more than 24.5 million game downloads.
Ni No Kuni: Cross Worlds, an MMOPRG based on the famous IP, achieved 1st position in the Philippines App Store, 2nd in Thailand’s, and 9th in North America’s Google Play Store.
In addition, King of Fighters Arena, a side-scrolling fighter, has seen over 32.3 million PVP matches played, and A3: Still Alive, a mobile ARPG that integrated blockchain elements into its gameplay, saw a 620% increase in players.
With two more games in the line-up as of the time of this writing and more to come in the future, MARBLEX is a sterling showcase of on-chain gaming possibilities realized—all powered by Klaytn.
“To date, MARBLEX’s games have attracted over 22 million users. This was made possible by Klaytn’s superior block generation technology and low gas fee. We look forward to releasing more content on the Klaytn chain in the future.”
– MARBLEX Business Lead
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