Typical monetization models in the gaming industry are heavily focused to benefit publishers. Currently games are either "pay to play" via one-off or monthly fees, or "free to play" whereby players acquire in-game benefits through microtransactions. Yumerium aims to introduce a "be paid to play" model whereby gamers themselves can now receive payment in the form of tokens for playing games on the platform. This will be achieved whereby publishers can easily offer incentives for gamers to play their games.
Yumerium aims to target all categories of gamers, from casual to the hardcore crowd, on all platforms including PC, mobile and virtual reality. Games themselves can be owned on the platform in a similar manner to traditional physical copies. For example, if a gamer wants to buy a special limited edition copy of a game, typically they must do so by purchasing a physical copy. On Yumerium, special limited edition copies of a game can be purchased and downloaded digitally, and these special copies will be signified in some way virtually, such as via a special text. Furthermore, gamers can sell their owned games to other gamers on the platform through a secondary market, something not possible on platforms such as Steam.
In-game competitions can also be easily programmed by game publishers via Smart Contracts if they wish to run contests or weekly prize pools. Gamers completing the milestones set forth in the Smart Contract will be instantly rewarded, avoiding the possibility of game publishers delaying or withholding payment. The sort of milestones/conditions set forth in Smart Contracts could range to anything from simply completing designated tasks right through to winning a competitive tournament/competition with a prize pool. The need to register in tournaments with personal details, as is typical with most centralized game services, will be bypassed as users can remain anonymous and simply provide their token address to receive rewards. All rewards can be paid out automatically via Smart Contracts.
Yumerium will also offer a marketing platform whereby high quality Twitch, Youtube or other streamers can be paid directly in order to advertise/stream a certain game, bypassing the need for external marketing services entirely.
All of these things will will be payable with the Yumerium platform token.
The Yumerium team will be publishing "Crypto Mine" as their own in-house game on the platform at release.
A lot of ICOs, particularly gaming ICOs, consist of teams that haven't had any experience creating games or businesses before. Yumerium is different in this regard, as it has actually published games which you can see on the Subdream Studios site. This lends the project credibility, and raises the potential of the team in achieving their goals and meeting their roadmap.
There is a slightly high bonus structure which I'm not too fond of, whereby bonus tokens up to 80% will be issued depending upon volume. As you may well know, I'm not fond of bonus structures at all since there is no such thing as free tokens - any bonuses are usually priced into the token's market price upon release, and those not receiving the bonus miss out. In saying this, the bonus structure isn't too bad, but I do recommend you get into the May 24 - June 9 sale period as this has the most attractive initial bonus which is set at 30%. The volume bonuses will depend upon total raised funds.
55% of raised funds will be allocated to development, with 45% focusing on game development and 10% on development of the actual platform itself. This is good to see, as over 50% of the project funds will be spent on actually developing the product, which is always a plus in my book. 20% will be allocated to marketing which seems fair, and in-line with investor interests.
Unfortunately the ICO has a bit of a high bonus structure, which I'm not too fond of, however the actual project itself and the utility of the YUM token both seem sound, and the team seems to have the game publication experience to make their platform a success. All in all, I believe Yumerium has a lot of potential as a project and is worth keeping an eye on, and is worthy of a solid 8 score.
