Gabriel Leydon - How Web3 Onboards a Billion Users - [Web3 Breakdowns, EP.37]

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (0:00)
Today, we're sharing an episode of Web3 Breakdowns with you. My Invest Like the Best conversation with Gabe Leydon last year was one of my personal favorites and became one of our most popular. Since that conversation, Gabe has become one of the most interesting builders in Web3, so I was excited to discuss his views on the space and how it might grow. If you enjoy this episode, be sure to subscribe to Web3 Breakdowns on your preferred podcast player, where you'll find more conversations like this one. This episode is brought to you by Coinbase Prime, an integrated solution that provides an advanced trading platform, secure custody and prime services so you can manage all your crypto assets in one place.
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**SPEAKER_2** (1:08)
This is Web3 Breakdowns.
Web3 Breakdowns is a series of conversations exploring innovation in the decentralized internet. Each episode we will focus on a different topic. We will cover NFT projects, crypto assets, blockchain-based protocols and businesses being built with Web3 architecture. We will talk to founders, artists, investors and influencers to understand this emerging ecosystem. Come join us down the rabbit hole. To find more episodes, transcripts and a library of content to continue your learning, visit joincolossus.com.
All opinions expressed by hosts and podcast guests are solely their own opinions. Hosts and podcast guests may maintain positions in the securities discussed in this podcast. This podcast is for informational purposes only and should not be relied upon as a basis for investment decisions.

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (2:02)
My guest today is Gabe Leydon, whose episode last year was one of our most popular ever. Gabe has spent the last 20 years designing video games and is one of the most original thinkers I know.
He was the co-founder of Machine Zone, which pioneered free to play hits like Mobile Strike and Game of War.
Over the past year, he has been in stealth mode building a Web2 meets Web3 video game company called Limit Break, which is founded on a brand new business model that he calls Free to Own. We dive into his vision for the future of gaming, how it could onboard a billion users onto the Ethereum network, and why the LTVs of crypto gamers are so far higher than those of their Web2 counterparts. Please enjoy this great conversation with Gabe Leydon. All right, Gabe, so it's been almost exactly a year since our first conversation, which remains probably our biggest hit of the last year. In the intervening year, you've been building a new business called Limit Break.

**Gabriel Leydon** (2:54)
A lot of thanks to you.

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (2:56)
Partly thanks to me, and I'm an investor in the business.

**Gabriel Leydon** (2:59)
Yeah, not just because of that, because of the episode.

**Patrick O'Shaughnessy** (3:02)
Well, I hope it had a small part, but we get to revisit a lot of those ideas, because you've basically been a learning machine in the years since, building probably more actively than anyone else in the Web3 space, which is ironic. So much talk and not much building, but you and the team have done a lot of innovating in that world. I think we need to start with this concept that you've just kind of released to the public called Free to Own.
One of the key builders and innovators in the free to play mobile video game space. And I think you believe pretty deeply that that era might be sunsetting and free to own as a concept is sort of the next wave of how games are built and monetized. So I'd love you to give a treatise on free to own, what it means and why it's exciting to you.

**Gabriel Leydon** (3:42)
Well, it's the next level of free. First of all, I can definitely talk about this subject probably like 30 minutes straight. But first of all, the reason free to play took off was because of piracy. They were making PC games and Nexon was tired of getting their games pirated. So they said, let's just give our game away free. That was the beginning of free to play. And it was attractive to gamers who had to pay upfront for a game. That's why they were pirating in the first place because they didn't want to. So they said, well, look, now I'm going to just try this. So the term free to play, what it means is you're free to play it. You can play it whenever you want. It doesn't cost you anything to play it. You just download it and play it. That's a big step in distribution, player sentiment. They're very happy that the game is free.