‘Web3 gaming’ causes staff exodus: Grease Monkey Games founder
Changing direction can be nerve-wracking for any company. But when Grease Monkey Games founder Arran Potter told the team they were moving into “Web3 gaming,” he had no idea it would result in 10 employees quitting the compnay.
“We told the studio this is what’s happening. We’re going into this space, then we lost a bunch of staff. They just didn’t want to make a Web3 game,” Potter tells Web3 Gamer.
“We lost maybe 10 people over a period of a month or so,” he adds.
The Australia-based company is under the Animoca Brands umbrella and is best known for its hit immersive motorsport game Torque Drift, which is a classic Web2 title.
The upcoming sequel, Torque Drift 2, currently in beta, is making a shift to blockchain technology with nonfungible tokens (NFTs). Potter has his fingers and toes crossed that the complete game will be ready by the end of the year.
Potter admits it was challenging to fill the gap left by the Web3 naysayers and says that larger studios tend to attract the top talent in the industry, leaving fewer options for smaller companies.
Torque Drift allows you to fully immerse yourself in the experience of being a drift car racer. (YouTube/Torque Drift)
“It is quite a challenge. There were some large studios that would just acquire people for huge wages, and it made it very difficult to find people,” he says.
Potter did manage to persuade major partners of Torque Drift, including giants like car manufacturer Nissan, to stick around for the Web3 adventure.
He explains Web3 to newcomers in simple terms, as many have reservations due to negative connotations, which are often misconceptions.
“Digital ownership is something that they hear and think it’s where they are transferring their IP and their trademark over to the owner of the NFT and it’s not like that at all,” he…
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