5 More Questions for Everreach Labs Founder Nic Bourgatchev
We're back with another exploration into the web3 gaming work at Everreach Labs. Are you ready for the token drop and game launch coming in January?
Our journalist, Samuel Mbaki, recently sat down with Everreach Labs founder Nic Bourgatchev to discuss Web3 gaming and the products from Everreach Labs.
In the extended cut of the interview, we have a deeper look into what Everreach has been doing and the impact of interactive gaming. What they are building with their Revenge video game is shaping up to be one of the hottest launches of Q1 for web3 gaming in 2025.
Could you please give us some background information about Revenge and what sets it apart from other games that are in the market?
At Everreach Labs, we are building two consumer products. The first one is a game. The first one is the game itself [Revenge], which you will be able to play and get from App game stores and also on Steam. The second consumer Project is a UI overlay on Twitch. We have built the technology on Twitch that will allow the spectators of the players playing Revenge to interact and affect the game.
So it's like an advanced Twitch extension, and everything is clickable. So that's the good thing about the different approach of this game, because, in fact, this is the first time we are seeing such a game.
“And I really think that, at the moment, streaming platforms are not leveraging their audience optimally. Yes, they are monetizing, but not a lot per spectator, and that's because the creators are disconnected from their audience. They don't have the possibility to play with them, and what we are offering them is to reconnect with their audience and for the audience to play with their favorite streamers.”
So let’s say you develop a game around that concept of interactive play in such a way that the players and the audience they are streaming for and that's what we are building here.
So it's not a game, but it's like a movie, a whole new reality where spectators can interact with the players. They can drop resources, send things like health and ammo, open shortcuts, unlock some buzz during the games, and so on.
Talking about interactive gameplay. What do you think will be its future, in connection with something like the metaverse or digital and artificial realities?
It's the first time a game is built from scratch around that concept. However, something close has been done, too. There are some interactive games that are live at the moment, but they are not built from scratch around that concept. I mean, the interactive play capability was added to an existing game, which limits a lot of the creativity and features you can do as a spectator.
I think the next generation of interactive games will want to build games from scratch around the concept so that the spectators are part of the game loop and they're not just like the last layer of the game. So that's, that's, I think the feature of interactive play, the market of the viewers is just exploding because it had around 800 million people in 2019, and it is projected to have about 1.8 billion in 2029, so that’s tripled in 10 years.
And I really think that, at the moment, streaming platforms are not leveraging their audience optimally. Yes, they are monetizing, but not a lot per spectator, and that's because the creators are disconnected from their audience. They don't have the possibility to play with them, and what we are offering them is to reconnect with their audience and for the audience to play with their favorite streamers. So that's, I think, the teacher of interactive play. I really think the good generation of gamers, the young generation, Gen Z, will want to be much more connected with their creator, and not just tipping them or donate.
That seems like a pretty intuitive and very interesting concept you are building there. Do you hope to see more companies build something like yours, and what do you think they should improve on going forward?
So, the long-term design of the company is to be able to build the tech we have and ship it to other companies and to have this as a business-to-business model in some capacity. When it comes to revenue stream generated because we will have created a new genre within the gaming space, other competitors will follow us if we are successful, and that opens up the market for everyone, ensuring the fun lives on.
So that's why our project, Revenge, is so important. Through Revenge, it is easier to prove that a market exists, and once that market exists, we will have competitors, and with the expertise we will have, with the tech we will have developed, we could imagine having. So that's the long-term vision that we take for the future, and we would like to have some competitors because it will mean that we have succeeded in our own game.
I think the goal is to set the pace for other gaming studios. Once it works out, then an existing segment within the gaming space will be to innovate and to attract an audience and focus on an older genre for X than FPS, and to extend this concept to other genres, like a strategy RPG game. We're not an RPG anymore. And yes, going after different concepts could be the next step.
Talking about the spirit of crypto, blockchain technology and Web3, what are some of the responses from the gaming community that you have received, maybe as insights and feedback that could have influenced your approach so far.
We recently launched our TikTok. We really also recently launched YouTube channels and I think the first trailer we launched had 250,000 views, maybe 300,000 now. So the concept is something that is appealing forward to gamers.
Same thing, creators want to test the game, and some of them want to be involved into the launch of the game later this year. But I think at the moment, what is well received is the fact that we are work-free optional because when you talk with Web2 communities or work with creators, they want that. The fact that NFTs are not mandatory means a crypto token is not mandatory.
So it's super mixed feedback. I think the goal for us is to explain that Web3 is not used, by the way, and just in the interest of the consumer.
Would you like to add something that we haven't touched on Revenge, maybe extra comments, something like that?
Yeah, maybe I want to highlight a bit where we are at in terms of development. We have been working on the project for the last two and a half years, but we are currently entering the last phase before the game release and before the launch of the token.
We are targeting beginning of next year, in January to launch the game and the token around the same time. So we are reading the last period of intense marketing and game development.
There are some quite interesting metrics that we just reached recently. We are in the top 40 most wish-listed games on Epic Game Store worldwide. We also have a huge social media community, with over 400,000 people.
We are reaching milestones at the moment, and that's great because we are busy currently, and we need to build the momentum we need before the release of the game and the launch of the token in early 2025.
REVENGE is a co-op PvE shooter where players and spectators join forces against MARA, a sentient virus invading The Everreach. Fight her digital creatures, recover powerful artifacts, and prove your skill by surviving to claim your place at the top and save the future.