Summary
Allocate 2,000,000 of the 8,000,000 (25%) ARB distribution from the Arbitrum Foundation towards recognising contributing game builders and strengthening strategic and aligned relationships with high calibre games and studios, igniting the next stage of Treasure’s growth as a web3 games publishing ecosystem.
Of the 2,000,000 ARB we look to distribute approximately 500,000 ARB in recognizing existing game developers who have meaningfully contributed to Treasure to date (via an assessment driven combination of grant and treasury swap to support growth and operational expenses), with the remaining 1,500,000 ARB earmarked for future treasury swaps / investments or grants with prospective, high quality game studios. This approach leverages the existing Game Builders Program (the successor framework to TIP-09) to assess, monitor, and structure mutually beneficial partnerships. This proposal is a crucial step to remain competitive and seed long-term relationships with quality, value-aligned game builders in a hyper competitive market.
Rationale
Recognising indie builders to date Game development is a challenging endeavour, particularly for indie developers who felt the effects of the bear market acutely. Fortunately, Treasure has been able to navigate these challenges better than most ecosystems due to a vibrant and intimate community of game enthusiasts. We entered 2023 with undeniable momentum as a result. For the indie builders who meaningfully contributed, persevered through difficult times and are still building, we aim to distribute a small grant from the ARB allocation as a token of gratitude and support. We will be applying multiple assessment criteria to ensure this support reaches active builders who have contributed to the Treasure ecosystem. TIP-08 recipients are excluded due to the significant MAGIC emissions distributed to date.
For selected larger partners, such as those accepted into TIP-09 and the Game Builders Programs, we may look at partial grant and treasury swap arrangements where we exchange the dollar value of ARB for equity or core tokens (where applicable) based on several assessment criteria. We believe this approach rewards our most meaningful builders, providing much needed capital while aligning incentives and long-term interests with Treasure.
Aligning long-term interests with GBP supported games Treasury swaps / investment in GBP supported games aligns long term interests between Treasure and the game partner. Treasure can more explicitly support the game builders financially on top of the already deep value added. This creates ‘skin in the game’ for both parties and ensures there is mutual benefit via a reinforcing loop. Both parties want to see the other succeed. It further alleviates any tension that might arise if game partners wish to explore additional ecosystems for growth overtime.
**Improving game studio partnerships with formal incentive alignment ** The web3 gaming space is undergoing rapid transformation and maturation. Formidable and experienced game studios are entering and establishing themselves in the market. Therefore, we must upscale our partnerships resources and approach to capitalise on these opportunities.
As we speak to more studios, it’s become apparent that some of these larger successful studios have built out (or are in the process of building) significant infrastructure and tooling that are complementary to our games, offering synergistic benefits to Treasure and our vision of becoming an ecosystem of networked games, a “decentralised Nintendo”.
Treasure and the broader ecosystem can meaningfully (and mutually) benefit by aligning long-term incentives with like-minded developers. This can be achieved through formal commercial agreements underpinned by treasury swaps (or direct investments). As a result, when we head into these more complex and nuanced partnership arrangements, especially with partners who are better characterised as “web 2.5” game studios building games and infrastructure with web3 in mind, value accrual flows need to be clearly delineated.
Many of these studios who gravitate towards the Treasure ethos are courted by competing ecosystems with significant grant offers. Grants have never been a differentiator for Treasure - we know we can’t compete on size of funds alone. Instead, we have focused on the quality of our product and advisory with authentic and organic reach into a vibrant and intimate community of players and builders. However, as we grow, we need to evolve our offering to include comparable benefits to aligned partners to remain competitive while staying true to our roots. These include studios pioneering infrastructure tools such as user-generated content (UGC) platforms, multiplayer matchmaking infrastructure, launchers for high performance desktop games, and live-ops infrastructure that Treasure alone does not yet have the resources to pursue but recognises the transformative impact and strategic value access to such crucial infrastructure represents.
Formalising long-term strategic partnerships via treasury swaps / investment / grants not only aligns long-term incentives, but allows Treasure to become competitive in a growing market. We can gain a vital “foot in the door” for conversations with prestigious game development and technology companies while differentiating ourselves with our core, community and services led proposition. High-quality partnerships will help elevate Treasure’s access to resources and ability to produce larger budget quality titles and gaming infrastructure to usher in the next phase of growth as a web3 games publishing ecosystem.
Proposal
A. Distribute 500,000 ARB to selected game builders who have helped build with Treasure during the 2021/2022 period through a combination of grants and treasury swaps for TIP09/GBP partners. TIP08 recipients are excluded. Games will be considered against the following criteria:
- Active users and engagement (fun gameplay)
- Active development and ongoing commitment (and still operational /active)
- Active community
- Meaningful contribution to the Treasure community
- Future potential
- Built with Treasure from 2021/2022
- Home base on Arbitrum.
Note: This assessment will be performed on both retrospective contributions and future outlook. Games with inactive devs or projects who have ceased operations will not be eligible.
B. Use 1,500,000 ARB to help secure future long-term game partnerships with high potential, values-aligned builders through treasury swaps / investments (or potential grants). This forms one part of a broader publishing / accelerator proposition where Treasure helps selected games with strategy, player acquisition and retention, engagement, go to market and fundraising / mints, while securing an explicit mutual benefit with the game or studio.
The 1,500,000 ARB will be converted to USDC to use as treasury swaps / investments in future game partners / studios and select opportunities via the Game Builders Program. The Game Builder Program assessment process will be used as a base for potential partners.
Collectively, we believe using ARB in this way will best support our ecosystem of game builders to continue to create fantastic gaming experiences for and with our community. It will also greatly help Treasure forge longer-term relationships with quality game partners, and help elevate the ecosystem to the next level of web3 gaming.
The remaining 6,000,000 ARB from the airdrop will be discussed in a separate forum with any actions ratified via the DAO. In the interim, it will be used in governance - noting the requirement to post proposals in Arbitrum governance has been reduced to 1,000,000 ARB from 5,000,000 per AIP-1.2.