As Dubai hosts gaming retreat, Real Go’s Parker Zhai says, ‘not over’ for Web3 games

Dubai played host to the biggest players of the global gaming industry last week as the Dubai Media Council convened a high-level workshop and panel discussion at the Dubai Gaming Retreat. 

With dozens of community leaders and members in attendance, Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed highlighted the emirate’s vision for the online gaming industry.

“Dubai’s success has always been driven by our ability to anticipate the future and turn ambition into reality,” Sheikh Hamdan said. “Our ambition is not only to attract the world’s leading companies, but to create an environment where the next generation of global gaming companies can emerge from Dubai.”

As part of our commitment to make Dubai the world's new hub for the gaming industry and a home for the world's leading talent, companies, and investments in this promising sector, I attended the Dubai Gaming Retreat, organised by the Dubai Media Council, where I met… pic.twitter.com/CHHTnPk7Vv— Hamdan bin Mohammed (@HamdanMohammed) July 6, 2026

With its Dubai Program for Gaming 2033, the emirate is eyeing a $1 billion boost to its GDP. While the ambition is genuine, the timing, however, lands against an industry that is still working through the consequences of its last cycle. 

Parker Zhai, founder of RealGo, a Web3 game that has built 300,000 users through augmented reality and location-based gameplay, spoke with The Coin Headlines on the challenges before the Web3 gaming industry and what the future holds for the community.

It seems web3 gaming has been on the brink of taking off for a while, and yet around 90 percent of the games have failed. Where does the industry stand right now?

The industry is going through a serious reset. Roughly 93 percent of GameFi projects are effectively inactive, and a lot of teams built token economies before they had proven that people enjoyed the games themselves. 

But with almost 5 million daily unique active wallets in blockchain gaming, it is too soon to say the sector is over. Clearly, there is an audience, but can projects keep that audience when token prices are not carrying the experience?

The previous cycle taught us rewards can bring people in quickly, but they cannot create a lasting connection on their own. Players need a reason to open the game on an ordinary Tuesday. This can come from exploration, competition, collecting, social identity, or a feeling of progress. Web3 works best when it supports those loops naturally and doesn’t overwhelm them.

There have been some concerns regarding the reward system in web3 games. How do you address these?

The concerns are completely fair. A reward model becomes fragile when it is asked to carry the whole product. People may arrive because they see an earning opportunity. They stay because the game gives them something enjoyable to do.

For us, the economy needs several layers. First, the revenue model includes optional in-game spending and marketplace fees, along with seasonal campaigns, partner onboarding, and location-based brand activations. The draft tokenomics model, in turn, spreads game-reward emissions across 60 months rather than front-loading them at launch. We also make clear that the final parameters may still be adjusted before issuance.

Inside the game, rewards are connected to participation, so players can earn meme-token rewards through captures and collect RT Shards through the Mini Harvester system. These shards are intended to become convertible into $RT ahead of the TGE.

The goal is to recognise the time people spend in the ecosystem and give them reasons to explore further. Rewards should add something meaningful to the experience, but never be seen as a promise of easy returns.

The Solana Foundation President said web3 gaming is not coming back. What is the main hurdle in their growth?

Well, Lily Liu’s comment started both a tough and useful conversation. I understand where some of that frustration comes from. Too many projects asked players to care about tokens, wallets, and roadmaps before they had given them a strong game.

Yet the main challenge is retention. Onboarding friction is still part of the problem, but the deeper issue is emotional. Players need to care about the characters, the world, the people they meet there. They need to feel curious about what happens next.

Blockchain can make ownership, trading, and rewards more useful. Still, it cannot rescue a flat experience – founders need to prove that the game has a pulse before they build a complex economy around it.

Also, gaming on a blockchain is not coming back https://t.co/1GDmBrGaxg— Lily Liu (@calilyliu) March 20, 2026

What keeps web3 founders going?

The honest answer is the community. A difficult market forces founders to listen more carefully. You begin to notice whether people return after a campaign ends, you see whether they invite friends, you hear which features feel natural and which ones feel forced.

Onboarding becomes easier when AI is integrated into an experience people already understand. In our case, players can interact with AI companions through the game instead of facing a technical learning curve at the beginning. I also think teams need to stay critical. AI is developing very quickly, but its output isn’t always correct, so human judgment still matters.

The Philippines has lived through the early promise of Web3 gaming and the difficult period that followed. People ask direct questions because they have real experience, and they know that attracting users is only one part of the job. Keeping them engaged is much harder.

What has proven successful for Real Go in helping it amass 300,000 users?

Let’s start with the fact that RealGo uses AR and location-based gameplay – and that memes are part of the game itself. Players explore their surroundings to find characters that appear at different locations and times. They can capture meme pets such as Doge and Pepe, collect the tokens associated with those characters, build squads, upgrade their pets, and use them in battles. The game also includes PvP arenas, boss fights, a marketplace and a Mini Harvester system, where players can collect RT Shards as they continue to explore. 

The AI-companion layer is another important part of that experience. Players can capture meme characters and interact with them as companions inside the game. The idea is to make the AI layer feel intuitive from the start. A new player doesn’t need to learn how to use a separate AI tool before taking part – they encounter the technology naturally through play.

This gives meme communities a more active role in the product.

What is next to come for Real Go?

The next key milestone is the upcoming TGE scheduled for Q2 2026. We are approaching it with a stronger product base and a much larger community.

RealGo closed more than $3.5 million across its Early Investor and Strategic rounds, with participation from Animoca Brands, Cogitent Ventures, X21 Digital, Notch Ventures, and Becker Ventures. The capital is intended to support product development, ecosystem expansion, and a wider rollout of the Meme 3.0 model. It gives the team more space to build carefully and prepare for TGE on a better footing.

Our Q2 Plan includes The Game Economy and Incentive System 2.0, dApp and lightweight game system, early buildout of Meme Universe 2.0. The focus is to deepen the gameplay loops, create more ways for meme communities to participate, and make the on-chain layer easier to use.

Globally, how are different regions reacting to web3 gaming? Where do you see maximum adoption?

The strongest response for RealGo is currently coming from Asia-Pacific. The Philippines leads, followed by Vietnam, Indonesia, China, Japan, Hong Kong, and Singapore. Together, the Asia-Pacific countries visible in the chart account for around three-quarters of the active-user total.

The United States is the third-largest single country in the snapshot, with 10% of active users. We are also seeing early traction in Nigeria and Brazil, which gives us a useful mix of established crypto markets and fast-growing communities.

The adoption picture helps explain some of this. The United States, Vietnam, Brazil, Nigeria, Indonesia, and the Philippines are among the top ten countries in the Chainalysis 2025 Global Crypto Adoption Index. This index covers crypto adoption as a whole, so it shouldn’t be read as a gaming ranking. Still, it shows that many of the communities responding to RealGo are already comfortable exploring digital assets.

The Philippines stands out because players there joined the Web3 gaming cycle among the first participants back in 2020. Earlier play-to-earn games reached a large audience in the country. They also left people with hard questions about repetitive gameplay and unstable economies, and that history has created a more mature audience.

One of the biggest lessons from AIBC Asia is that the next wave of growth will need to earn people’s attention. The games need to feel accessible, social, and enjoyable from the start. The technology can support the experience, but the experience has to come first.