Web3 gaming agency Sequence names recreation veteran Greg Canessa as COO

Recreation veteran Greg Canessa has joined Web3 gaming agency Sequence as president and COO.

Canessa has had a protracted profession as an executing in gaming spanning 25 years, together with a stint as the primary basic supervisor and creator of Xbox Stay Arcade. (I first interviewed him as he was getting Xbox Stay Arcade off the bottom). His appointment at Sequence exhibits that he believes Sequence will likely be one of many platforms that thrives in Web3 gaming.

Sequence, previously often called Horizon Blockchain Video games, bought its begin in 2017 and spent quite a lot of its time constructing out a full tech stack for blockchain gaming. It constructed the sport Skyweaver to battle check the expertise, which is chain agnostic.

Canessa’s background

Earlier than becoming a member of Sequence, Canessa held the place of Google’s world director of technique & enterprise operations for video games from 2017 to 2023.

Throughout his tenure, he spearheaded vital strategic, operational, and advertising and marketing features for Google’s triple-A cloud gaming ventures. Earlier than that, Canessa achieved acclaim because the GM and creator of Xbox Stay Arcade (XBLA) at Microsoft from 2000 to 2007. Below his management, XBLA launched the world’s first console digital distribution enterprise, delivering 75-plus indie and retro titles.

“This jogs my memory of the times of XBLA in some methods as a result of it’s this little engine that might cool concept flying underneath folks’s radar in a disruptive method,” Canessa mentioned in an interview with GamesBeat. “It has the innovation and the potential to decrease entry limitations, enhance distribution and create extra pictures on objective.”

He was additionally venture director of Battle.internet at Blizzard Leisure; vice chairman of cell at Activision Blizzard; vice chairman of online game platforms at PopCap Video games (acquired by Digital Arts), and senior vice chairman of studios and & GM at GSN Video games (a division of Sony). His contributions prolong to the event and publishing of titles from key franchises like Name of Responsibility, StarCraft, Diablo, Hexic, Vegetation vs. Zombies, Peggle, UNO, and extra, alongside core triple-A recreation companies.

“Time and time once more, I’ve seen what a platform can do by simplifying the developer expertise, unlocking superior participant experiences, and creating new enterprise alternatives for builders. Sequence represents the platform answer for web3, web2.5, and blockchain-enabled gaming,” mentioned Canessa. “Sequence is a whole end-to-end platform, purpose-built for gaming, that removes the complexity round blockchain, and lets recreation builders obtain their enterprise objectives by constructing the progressive play experiences that can rework our trade.”

Becoming a member of Sequence

Canessa met Sequence CEO Peter Kieltyka at an trade occasion in Manhattan final 12 months. They talked for some time and stayed in contact.

“I really like the web. I’m very passionate in regards to the web. I really like the constructing blocks and evolution of the web. And I’ve a ardour for Web3,” Kieltyka mentioned. He made quite a lot of contributions to open supply tech as nicely. However he by no means labored within the recreation trade.

“I’ve been a gamer my complete life. However I’ve by no means actually formally labored within the trade. And in some methods, that’s an excellent factor. In some methods, which means I’ve blind spots. Anyone can acknowledge that. And we’ve been speaking for the final 12 months and a half or so about gettting an unbelievable COO to affix the corporate,” Kietyka mentioned. “We’ve been doing a search for a very long time. We went by quite a lot of superb candidates, however we have been in search of the best particular person. After which we bought an opportunity to satisfy Greg and truthfully, immediately, we noticed his concepts and his ardour for what we have been doing.”

But Canessa was initially skeptical and it took some time to persuade him to affix. Canessa mentioned he was impressed with the group and the tech stack and the expertise. Canessa mentioned he was concerned about Web3 and blockchain as applied sciences and what they represented in democratizing knowledge possession and bettering safety.

“I believe it’s completely 100% right here to remain in our society and in our world. The problem for me, simply to be blunt, is the applying in gaming,” Canessa mentioned. “The final 12 months has been unbelievable in gaming content material high quality. However on the identical time, the trade is dealing with so many challenges, proper, and we’re simply we’re seeing it each day, problems with distribution, problems with privateness of possession, of entry, of distribution. Recreation firms are laying folks off, going out of enterprise, pulling video games, and communities are having video games ripped away from them. These issues are issues that hassle me. I open my morning studying and I see extra dangerous information. And it sucks.”

Why blockchain?

As a passionate hardcore gamer, Canessa mentioned he appreciates a disruptive platform and progressive tech that may push the trade ahead and assist clear up these issues and decrease limitations for gaming and recreation builders. That’s what he tried to do with Xbox Stay Arcade.

“Creating new enterprise fashions for monetization to assist retain trade jobs — these are all issues that excite me. And that is the place I see the potential of Web3. The trade remains to be in its infancy. It hasn’t discovered a killer app. It’s nonetheless very early. I see the development traces through the years,” Canessa mentioned.

On the adverse aspect, there’s a lack of concentrate on enjoyable video games and dangerous actors who are available in to disrupt the market in a nasty method. Disillusionment units in and builders rush out of the trade. However Canessa believes we’re in a brand new a part of the cycle for Web3 the place builders return in a extra natural and wholesome method.

“That is the place I’m enthusiastic about Sequence. That is the one recreation platform that could be a full stack platform that’s function constructed for gaming. There’s nothing like this,” Canessa mentioned. “It’s function constructed to decrease entry limitations, take away all of the bullshit of complexity for the developer and allow the developer to construct concentrate on enjoyable video games.”

Canessa believes that with tons of pictures on objective, the blockchain recreation firms will discover the killer app. This was how multiplayer video games as a service took off, he mentioned. He is aware of that blockchain video games want the hits to achieve scale.

“The last word alternatives unlock once we can broaden entry to a a lot, a lot greater viewers,” Canessa mentioned. “That is the place the normal video games trade may are available in. our imaginative and prescient for Sequence is to be the platform that facilitates all these issues so that you don’t have to fret about wallets and chains and all of this lingo. You set your focus in your recreation.”

Kieltyka mentioned the objective was to make expertise accessible by gaming and take away the technical obstacles to speed up the creation of content material by builders. This 12 months is a check to show that.

“We had good architectural imaginative and prescient and we targeted on being complete,” Kieltyka mentioned.

Sequence’s strategic enlargement

Canessa’s appointment aligns with Sequence’s strategic enlargement plans throughout Web3 and gaming. The platform goals to make the most of Canessa’s trade data to empower Web3 recreation builders, improve participant experiences, and introduce blockchain options into conventional Web2 video games on cell, PC, and console.

Sequence, recognized for its all-in-one improvement platform, allows builders to seamlessly combine Web3 into their video games for onboarding, monetization, progress, and participant retention. From collectibles and ownable rewards to completely on-chain experiences, Sequence’s modular stack addresses technical challenges, permitting builders to concentrate on inventive execution.

The platform’s options cowl seamless wallets, accounts, marketplaces, funds, nodes, and blockchain knowledge for net, cell, or PC titles constructed utilizing Unity or Unreal Engine.

In November, Sequence launched Sequence Builder, the trade’s first all-in-one no-code recreation improvement platform for Web3, triggering 1,000% developer progress in December. The platform has gained belief throughout the Web3, Web2.5, and blockchain-enabled gaming ecosystem.

It was additionally voted the Recreation Changers 2024 “Greatest Blockchain and Web3 Expertise” accolade by Lightspeed and GamesBeat. In actual fact, Canessa was contemplating becoming a member of Sequence on the time and the Recreation Changers award helped persuade him to take the leap.

Sequence is developed by Horizon Blockchain Video games, creators of the award-winning web3 buying and selling card recreation Skyweaver, backed by main buyers together with Take-Two Interactive Software program, Inc., Ubisoft, Xsolla, Bitkraft, Brevan Howard, Coinbase, Polygon, and others. Sequence has 75 folks in 17 international locations now. The corporate isn’t elevating a brand new ruond of funding now.

Successful over players

As for the notion that Western gamers hate Web3, Canessa mentioned, “The participant notion proper now could be adverse. It’s going to take time to alter. I believe that the dearth of innovation by way of software of this expertise in novel and attention-grabbing methods to make enjoyable video games is a part of the explanation why the participant notion is adverse. We noticed folks latch onto NFTs, however with out attention-grabbing utility the individuals are simply speculating, which brings in some degenerate habits prefer it’s all about buying and selling. What I’m saying is the facility of the platform — eradicating the entry limitations, bringing folks in to do extra experimentation and danger taking — goes to lead to a few of that gameplay innovation that can shift participant perspective to the constructive.”