Dean

Games industry veteran. Skill gaming evangelist.

🚀 Founder of @PlayVersus_X

💬 Gaming | 🎲 Wagering | 🏟️ Sport | 🤖 AI

[Dean @DeanMasterX]

Hello X,

I am Dean Baker, a true games industry veteran with 27 years of experience in the industry.
Throughout my career I have worked for gaming giants like CodeMasters and Evolution Studios, and have contributed to creating hit games like Colin McRae Rally, ToCA Touring Cars, and WRC Rally. I am also the founder of @PlayVersus_X.

Let me tell you my story.

Back in 2005, I was working on Colin McRae Rally for Xbox and PlayStation and also enjoyed playing FIFA and NBA.
I had this vision of rewarding players for their dedication and skill, wanting to give everybody the chance to grab the steering wheel, be their own bosses, and actually get rewarded for gaming - but, you could guess, my bosses weren't buying it.
Fast forward some thirteen years, and I stumbled into web3 gaming.
Right away, I knew I was onto something big - this space was loaded with potential and seemed like the perfect place to make my vision reality.
Here was a chance to completely change how players compete and earn.

The lightbulb moment came from all those hours I’d poured into FIFA and NBA games, plus my experience developing games like Colin McRae Rally.
I absolutely loved these kinds of games where your skills actually made a tremendous difference.

The only thing left for me to do was to combine the two.
Create the ultimate high-precision gaming ecosystem
that puts you in charge -
no luck, just pure skill.
That's when Versus-X was born.
All those hours you've spent in games,
all those fails and victories,
they're finally going to truly materialize!
Just like when you scored a goal in FIFA,
made a shot in NBA,
or won any PvP match,
but this time,
your efforts don’t go unrecognized.

That's why we built Versus-X –
to give you the ultimate skill-based wagering ecosystem.
That puts you in charge,
and allows you to
write Your own story.

We've been grinding away at this for three years, pouring everything into making it a reality.
It wasn’t easy with obstacle-after-obstacle trying to keep us from achieving this dream.
But we didn't quit.
And now we're almost ready
to show you
what we've built.

So here we are, right in the home stretch, with less than 3 weeks remaining until the game’s launch.

Are you ready to take the challenge?

$VSX

[Dean @DeanMasterX]

The biggest game of 2026 is scheduled to be GTA6.

It will be eye-wateringly expensive,
but worth every penny.

It will kickstart a renaissance in the metaverse by showing everyone how it can be done.

Bookmark this tweet.

[Dean @DeanMasterX]

AI NPCs will be this year’s ray tracing. Flashy, impressive… but not yet game-changing.

2026 is when the real transformation hits.

[Dean @DeanMasterX]

$BTC Weekly Chart from 2011.
It shows how closely the 4 year cycle plays out.
The vertical blue lines are halvings.

If the pattern continues we can expect to see $BTC hit a high in around 2-3 months time.

Yes, I believe the top is not in yet.

It will then retrace, starting an Alt Season.

[Dean @DeanMasterX]

2025 will birth the first breakout Web3 game not about trading or land.
Think roguelikes, tactics, or sports but powered by open economies underneath.

[Dean @DeanMasterX]

User-generated content will finally pay creators properly.
Web3 rails will let modders, map makers and skin designers earn revenue share,
while Web2 platforms provide the visibility and scale.

[Dean @DeanMasterX]

Memecoins are truly awful for web3.0.
web3 is full of talented, creative people building away, memecoins are hideous scams that detract from the all the good stuff that's going on.

[Dean @DeanMasterX]

Mobile gaming’s "AAA moment" is coming fast.
Call of Duty, Valorant, and Fortnite on mobile will stop being side gigs, they’ll be the battlegrounds for mainstream gamers.

[Dean @DeanMasterX]

2025 will be the year live service fatigue peaks. Gamers will revolt against bloated battle passes and grindy seasonal models.

Expect a swing back to tight, premium, complete experiences.

[Dean @DeanMasterX]

When I was lead designer on the first WRC game I was in charge of tuning all the stage times.
I spent months perfecting all of them across nearly 100 stages and 3 difficulty levels.
My goal was to ensure that the challenge was fair but also that it increased in difficulty the further into the stages and championships you got.

About two weeks before the Gold Master stage (the final two weeks before the release a game), a senior Sony representative stopped by the QA area and asked to have a quick go on it.
It just so happened to be the hardest rally in the game.
It was his first time playing the game and he failed to meet the time.
He went off and complained to our CEO demanding it be made easier. 

I explained the situation and how changing it would compromise the entire game experience for all players, ultimately convincing our CEO that
this was the right decision.

I stood my ground.
The game ended up highly rated and sold
over 1 Mn copies.

The moral of the story is about sticking to your guns, even against higher ranked individuals.
But I’d like to also add another moral:
idiots are idiots.

[Dean @DeanMasterX]

$SOL

If we get a full on Altseason in January I can see it hitting $400.
Do you think we will get it?

[Dean @DeanMasterX]

Web2 streamers will drive Web3 adoption without knowing it.
When Twitch drops and YouTube perks get tokenized under the hood, fans will start earning and owning without ever hearing the word “blockchain.”

[Dean @DeanMasterX]

In a few weeks time the game will change for $VSX holders forever. Don't say I didn't warn you.

[Dean @DeanMasterX]

Trump is awful for Crypto. Since the threat of tariffs, every stupid decision will tank the market. Every time.

[Dean @DeanMasterX]

Web2 streamers will drive Web3 adoption without knowing it.

When Twitch Drops and YouTube Perks get tokenized under the hood, fans will start earning and owning without ever hearing the word “blockchain.”

[Dean @DeanMasterX]

Skill game wagering will be huge for web3. GenZ love to wager but prefer games of skill. The time is right, the tech is live and blockchain is the perfect fit.

Today's early adopters will make a killing by the end of the year.

[Dean @DeanMasterX]

Back in the days of the first PlayStation you had to pitch directly to Sony to get approval to release a game on their hardware.

At the time I was working at Codemasters in the UK, a hugely respected and influential Developer, mainly focused on sports and racing games.

We’d been working on a new type of racing game,
a rally game,
where it’s just you versus the environment,
racing against the clock.

It was based around the FIA World Rally Championship and we were negotiating with Colin McRae, the most well-known WRC Driver, to license him for the game.
Having prepped all the documentation, assets, demo,
we met with Sony to pitch the game.
We were all excited and hugely confident in our vision.

They said we were mad…
We listened in shock as they told us:
no-one would play a racing game without other cars and that we should add more cars to the track to overtake.
We ended up convincing them to let us release it;
and it went on to sell over 7m units.
It became one of the most successful PlayStation games, spawning multiple sequels and lots of copycats.

If you truly believe in what you’re doing, stick to your guns!
People love to give their opinion,
but that doesn’t make them right.
Listen to them,
embrace their opinion,
but ultimately:
if you’re doing something you believe in,
you can make it happen.