212 | YGG shuts down YGG Play, pivots to AI gaming data

In episode 212, Jon talks to YGG co-founder Gabby Dizon. [00:48] Casual degen web3 gaming platform YGG Play is shutting down.[02:17] LOL Land launched well but overall revenue peaked in October 2025 at $3 million.[03:40][ Why was the crypto liquidation event on 10th October 2025 significant?[05:00] Why releasing more titles typically doesn't add revenue for crypto games. [06:19] Why this was a decision based on the market, not on the product. [07:35] Gabby's lesson is you can't control where liquidity flows to. [09:59] LOL Land, Waifu Sweeper and the YGG Play platform will run until 31st July.[11:26] As part of this restructuring, YGG has confirmed around 35 redundancies. [13:08] YGG will now focus on providing gaming data to AI companies i.e. world model training data. [14:15] In some way, this is a return of play-to-earn, just not earning in crypto tokens. [16:04] This data is useful, particularly for robotics and in-game agents. [18:33] YGG has already been working on this AI P2E with its AI Alerts system. [19:26] YGG was set up to allow people anywhere in the world can earn from technology. [21:20] YGG isn't shutting down. The founding team remains and it has 4 years of runway. [22:53] This doesn't mean web3 gaming is dead. This is just YGG's particular decision.