Home

Work

Services

Community

Portfolio

News

About

Contact

Home

Work

Services

Community

Portfolio

News

About

Contact

Home

Work

Services

Community

Portfolio

News

About

Contact

Back to news

February 8, 2024

10 min read

Metakey Monthly - January 2024

Mateen Soudegar

Co-Founder & CEO

Hello Metakey Community!

And welcome to our first of an on going series of monthly blog posts!

We're going to be providing in depth updates to keep you informed on all the epic happenings that go on here at Metakey.

Investors, community members, gamers, brands and Metakey holders - we are ALL SYSTEMS GO for 2024.

Make sure you check in with us each month to stay in the know!

2023 was hectic, a whirlwind of activity marked by significant changes that paved the way for our entrance into 2024 with a renewed determination to conquer every challenge

Read on to hear about how 2024 has started for us! But first, a little bit of context from the past 2 years of Metakey's development…

Hello Metakey Community!

And welcome to our first of an on going series of monthly blog posts!

We're going to be providing in depth updates to keep you informed on all the epic happenings that go on here at Metakey.

Investors, community members, gamers, brands and Metakey holders - we are ALL SYSTEMS GO for 2024.

Make sure you check in with us each month to stay in the know!

2023 was hectic, a whirlwind of activity marked by significant changes that paved the way for our entrance into 2024 with a renewed determination to conquer every challenge

Read on to hear about how 2024 has started for us! But first, a little bit of context from the past 2 years of Metakey's development…

A brief history of Metakey

When we first started Metakey, the goal was to integrate as many cool Web3 ventures as possible into our own projects.

Interoperability was the dream, (And still is).

As we continued with this journey, we achieved some amazing things, including partnerships with RTFKT, The Aus Open, Habbo Hotel, among many others, both great and mediocre.

The reality is, Web3 for the most part is still in its infancy, where 90% of the projects here will rug, cease to exist, or not be desirable partners for long-term collaborations.

Most want a whitelist so our community can go buy their products.

But how do we know which will do well post mint? Which projects won’t rug? Which will continue through with their promises? There are a lot of questions here that no one can answer, let alone us.

This is the realisation we made around 1-1.5 years ago on our journey to where we are now.

So we thought 'screw it', let’s build our own projects.

Then came Metakademy & New Ganymede.

In 2022-2023 we continued building with the objective of making the best game we possibly could, and an education service that did not exist yet.

New Ganymede is looking EPIC! It'll be out on exactly…...alkih;assadashkj…..oops my fingers slipped.

Seriously, the longest part seems like the end. We’re doing ample server testing, polishing, and fine tuning. I wish I could give a date but looks like we have a bit to do.

Learnings from 2023

In 2023 we began to see the quality of Web3 projects in this space decline.

In fact, most projects had disappeared and stopped building. Was interoperability even a viable business model?

How do we keep making money to sustain ourselves? Do we keep selling NFTs? Nah that can’t be it. That would be unsustainable.

So we strategized. What would our next move look like? How severely do we need to pivot the company vision?

Depending on Crypto to bring in $ when it is so volatile can be a nightmare of an environment to build a company in.

Especially one that’s dependable and scalable.

So we decided to zoom out.

The data is unequivocal. We're going with Roblox.

I know, we’ve been screaming about it on our socials, website and in this post, so here's our reasoning.

Why Roblox? Why Metakey? IT’S NOT WEB3 THO!

I’ll be real. As a person that’s been in this space for 7 years.

THIS SPACE HAS NO GAMERS.

The Web3 community are 95% investors.

We believe in visions of freedom, innovation, being part of growth and decentralization. Most people here will care about a Web3 game and how it may change things, but will you play it daily for months? It's hard to say.

So what we and many other NFT projects have realized is, Web3 has a MAJOR user acquisition problem.

We can build cool products, but we suffer greatly from getting any real, scalable traction to millions of users, especially gamers.

Roblox can solve this!

We began researching if the market felt the same and found a ton of Web3 projects that are soon to come out with their own Roblox games onboarding millions of users to their IP.

These users might not immediately go and buy NFT's, but they will learn about, participate in, be exposed to NFT projects in meaningful, measurable ways that will grow overtime.

And so comes the need for an epic studio, with epic skills that can build high retention games in Roblox for these brands.

That's us!

Metakey has already closed 2 Roblox game builds FOR WEB3 PROJECTS.

And will most likely close another 2-3 this quarter - NFT IPs you guys have already heard of that we can’t wait to announce, (If all goes well).

This will earn Metakey revenue AND open up conversations to bring back…drumroll…Metakey integrations! WOOO

LESS GOOO.

I know it’s taken a while but I wanted to share my thoughts and journey running this whole company.

Volatility is not easy, and I’m just grateful to have survived.

Below are some of our milestones during this crazy pivot:

A brief history of Metakey

When we first started Metakey, the goal was to integrate as many cool Web3 ventures as possible into our own projects.

Interoperability was the dream, (And still is).

As we continued with this journey, we achieved some amazing things, including partnerships with RTFKT, The Aus Open, Habbo Hotel, among many others, both great and mediocre.

The reality is, Web3 for the most part is still in its infancy, where 90% of the projects here will rug, cease to exist, or not be desirable partners for long-term collaborations.

Most want a whitelist so our community can go buy their products.

But how do we know which will do well post mint? Which projects won’t rug? Which will continue through with their promises? There are a lot of questions here that no one can answer, let alone us.

This is the realisation we made around 1-1.5 years ago on our journey to where we are now.

So we thought 'screw it', let’s build our own projects.

Then came Metakademy & New Ganymede.

In 2022-2023 we continued building with the objective of making the best game we possibly could, and an education service that did not exist yet.

New Ganymede is looking EPIC! It'll be out on exactly…...alkih;assadashkj…..oops my fingers slipped.

Seriously, the longest part seems like the end. We’re doing ample server testing, polishing, and fine tuning. I wish I could give a date but looks like we have a bit to do.

Learnings from 2023

In 2023 we began to see the quality of Web3 projects in this space decline.

In fact, most projects had disappeared and stopped building. Was interoperability even a viable business model?

How do we keep making money to sustain ourselves? Do we keep selling NFTs? Nah that can’t be it. That would be unsustainable.

So we strategized. What would our next move look like? How severely do we need to pivot the company vision?

Depending on Crypto to bring in $ when it is so volatile can be a nightmare of an environment to build a company in.

Especially one that’s dependable and scalable.

So we decided to zoom out.

The data is unequivocal. We're going with Roblox.

I know, we’ve been screaming about it on our socials, website and in this post, so here's our reasoning.

Why Roblox? Why Metakey? IT’S NOT WEB3 THO!

I’ll be real. As a person that’s been in this space for 7 years.

THIS SPACE HAS NO GAMERS.

The Web3 community are 95% investors.

So what we and many other NFT projects have realized is, Web3 has a MAJOR user acquisition problem.

We can build cool products, but we suffer greatly from getting any real, scalable traction to millions of users, especially gamers.

Roblox can solve this!

We began researching if the market felt the same and found a ton of Web3 projects that are soon to come out with their own Roblox games onboarding millions of users to their IP.

These users might not immediately go and buy NFT's, but they will learn about, participate in, be exposed to NFT projects in meaningful, measurable ways that will grow overtime.

And so comes the need for an epic studio, with epic skills that can build high retention games in Roblox for these brands.

That's us!

Metakey has already closed 2 Roblox game builds FOR WEB3 PROJECTS.

And will most likely close another 2-3 this quarter - NFT IPs you guys have already heard of that we can’t wait to announce, (If all goes well).

This will earn Metakey revenue AND open up conversations to bring back…drumroll…Metakey integrations! WOOO

LESS GOOO.

I know it’s taken a while but I wanted to share my thoughts and journey running this whole company.

Volatility is not easy, and I’m just grateful to have survived.

Below are some of our milestones during this crazy pivot:

A new visual chapter

In our transition to becoming a best-in-class games design and strategy studio we needed a strong, creative website to house our portfolio and clearly communicate what we do, and what our business objectives are.

We engaged a top tier European web designer to create the crisp website you are currently surfing, with our new branding including colour palette, type font and animation styles.

This website serves as a digital representation of who we are and the problems we are passionate about solving, so the aesthetics and smoothness truly reflect this.

Following on from this, whilst the full Metakey re-brand was completed in Q4 of 2023, it is worth noting the impact this has had for us as it continues to weave its way into all of our key channels, new and old, and into every facet of what we do.

The decision to re-brand was not easy, as our original look is what our amazing community that are the reason for our success were attached to. However, with changes to technology and the core vision of Metakey, adaption was crucial.

We still maintained a modernised, yet fun approach with our style, attracting excellent feedback and seamless transition into our next visual chapter.

Roblox wins

Earlier this week, on the 31/01/24, Metakey finally launched communications around our first client built Roblox experience with globally recognized, New-Zealand sports brand NZ Rugby.

This collaboration, in part supported by global business and technology transformation leader Capgemini, worked to not only connect the brand with 200+ million fans playing in Roblox per month, but to display how the fan experience journey is changing.

We leveraged this pilot initiative as a strategic move to meet fans where they are, with the game amassing 60,000 visitors already!

Our design lead for this project Jimi Mcneily gives his take on building this from the ground up:

“Producing a Roblox experience for NZ Rugby was a blast! It was a great chance for us to explore a whole new platform not only for honing our development skills but also for crafting a distinct digital brand presence.

Imagine a cool stadium, fun stylized graphics, and mini-games that all spoke to the new generation. Converting those players into die-hard fans, giving NZ rugby a whole new level of exposure in the digital space”

Metakey have a ton more piping hot leads from some huge world recognized brands that we can’t talk about yet, but we will have some big announcements around this very soon.

In addition to this externally built Roblox game, Metakey has been working on 2 internal pieces:

Thor’s Forge:

An experience centred around the popular ‘grind-a-thon’ mechanic, the player arrives in Asgard (Game hub) and must help Thor retrieve Mjölnir by forging increasingly more powerful tools to progress to new realms (Levels).

And

Neverwonderland (Coming soon…):

An experience revolving around the Open World Role Playing Genre. Alice and Peter don’t get along — they have similar ideals but are suspicious of one another, and are both wrestling to be the protagonist of this strange new world.

Players have to pick a side — Lostling, or Wonderkin?

Events and conferences:

Not too long ago, our CEO represented Metakey at originally established in Texas festival, now turned Melbourne, SXSW speaking all things Web3 and how it can revolutionise the music industry.

He gave his take on how to activate music in Web3 and how to pick your platform, nail your content and licensing.

Matty will continue his presence at key industry events by speaking at the Festival of AI and Robotics, representing our brand as a key panelist.

Our team as thought leaders:

Our Business Development team are the heart beat of Metakey’s studio function. Through them we are able to connect with exciting brands like NZ Rugby and do what we do best - Build epic experiences through Roblox and other metaverses.

All members of the team have been providing expert level insights on Roblox, mainly through LinkedIn, growing their personal brands significantly in doing so.

Their work is making a genuine educational impact within the industry and increasing the visibility of not just their personal brands, but Metakey’s as well.

We are extremely lucky to have the incredible Business Development team we have driving this business forward everyday.

Follow them here for industry leading insights!

Kevin Li - https://www.linkedin.com/in/metakevin/

Brock Schadler https://www.linkedin.com/in/brock-schadler/

Alex G https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-g-54764529a/

Matty S https://www.linkedin.com/in/mateen-soudagar/

This year we’ve started going heavy back into socials starting with LinkedIn. (We’re getting a TON of business this way).

A post from Matty that received 200+ engagement on LinkedIn!

Working on our creative power:

Hopefully you’ve noticed, but our design team is getting better everyday.

We encourage them to push the boundaries and try new things, which in turn has brought our content creation and visual brand identity to another level.

Content is the key to creating that ‘thumb stopping content’ and we are constantly trying to elevate our brand through the skillset of our artists.

What’s on the cards for 2024?

Firstly, better comms

2023 was a blur. We aim to implement consistent blog posts and social content to share what we’re up to:

Bare with us though as we start implementing this through Q1.

More engagement

Matty and team will be more active on Twitter. As we start getting back into epic Web3 and Web2 collabs there will be lots to share!

We will do fun challenges to bring in activity to the discord.

Epic Collabs

Last year this was mostly a conversation. This year we’ve already locked in some amazing collabs, and have another 5 -10 hot ones in the pipeline.

Expect Roblox games and potentially Metakey collabs with projects you already know about in Web3 and beyond.

Burning Mechanism

We’ve hinted at this before but this quarter we will release a burning mechanism TEST. Metakey revenue will go to a pool of funds that can ‘immediately burn Metakeys’.

Thus making Metakeys deflationary.

This will be a test at first, so we can understand the impact this has.

New Ganymede

Our game will be tested and improved. Good games take 3-5 years to build. (Palmon took 7!).

We worked our butts off on this one and will have it in the hands of the community to test soon.

Conclusion

2024 is going to be an exciting year for Metakey.

It still feels like yesterday I launched this company with my buddy, Mohsi. It took a while to understand the madness of building in crypto and how to survive and thrive through the years.

It’s NOTHING like just being an investor or observer.

You need to hire the right people, have the right systems and make delicate decisions on how to keep your treasury safe, ALL while being active on social media.

All our processes on the above are in check for 2024.

Thanks for all your support and feedback,

Matty and team.

Mateen Soudegar

Co-Founder & CEO