The P2E and Web3Gaming Premise Was Wrong. Players Don’t Play to Earn; They Earn for Playing.

For the last few years, the entire crypto gaming space has been built on a flawed premise: that people will play a bad game if they can earn money from it. We all saw how that ended, a focus on tokenomics over gameplay, leading to projects that felt like financial spreadsheets, not games.

That’s why I’ve been tracking MoonPrime a game studio that completely flipped the script. Their model is simple: Build a genuinely AAA-quality game first, then integrate the token ($LUNAR) as a bonus/utility layer.

The Game Changer: Ronin Awakening, their action RPG, is dropping a playable demo during Steam Next Fest (Oct 13-20). This is a crucial move. A team that’s confident enough to put their product in front of millions of mainstream Steam gamers is signaling that their focus is on quality, not just coin holders.

What makes it truly unique?

AAA Quality: It looks and plays like a high-budget traditional RPG.

Industry-First AI: Their next game, Z-DAY, already features AI-powered NPCs that can hold unscripted voice conversations, interact with each other, and remember players—a technical leap far beyond any other game, crypto or traditional.

The Real Momentum: In the first 30 minutes of Steam Next Fest, the demo has already been picked up by major gaming YouTubers and Curators. That organic, mainstream gaming hype is what actually drives true adoption, not just a crypto marketing push.

This is a project that grew from a $300K cap to nearly $10M purely on the success of their tech and game quality. Now at a $650K valuation, the current Steam push is the ultimate validation.

Do you think this “Game First, Crypto Second” approach is the only sustainable model for Web3 gaming? Have you checked out the demo yet, and what do you think of the combat and world?