Is Blockchain Becoming An Integral Part Of The Gaming Industry?
Businesses are now adopting Blockchain technology worldwide, and it is making its entry into every sector possible. Blockchain, with its decentralized nature, is bringing a revolution in handling business and operations everywhere. Despite cryptocurrency, NFTs are also bringing a quantum jump in technologies we currently use. With respect to the gaming sector, the Play to earn NFT platforms replaced the traditional pay-to-play games. The adoption of cryptocurrencies to pay for the in-game assets and NFTs in place of untradeable digital data started a new evolution in the gaming industry with blockchain. While there are gamers and developers who oppose the use of blockchain in gaming platforms, the entire gaming industry is slowly taking up blockchain as an integral part of the gaming industry. What is happening around, and what should you know about it? Let’s dive in!
How everything started!
The concept of getting blockchain into gaming got familiar to the public after the introduction of Cryptokitties. It is a blockchain-based game where the in-game item (Kittens) are made into NFTs. this brought the concept of making in-game items into NFTs to give them tradeable ownership through an NFT gaming marketplace. So far, all the traditional games require the gamers to purchase certain gaming items like weapons, maps, weapon skins, elixirs, and more. These items are just digital files or metadata stored with the game developer.
The gamer can use these items on purchase but has no definite ownership over them. The concept of NFTs made this possible, opening gates for a new level of gaming experience with the Play to earn NFT games.
How is it going?
Today many games emerged with this concept making it a trend in the gaming industry. Play to earn NFT gaming platforms like Axie Infinity record over 3 million active users. The game is chosen not only for the entertainment it gives but also for the passive income it gives its gamers.
The passive income soon became actual income for many gamers. Since these games proffer the gamers with enough returns, many gamers in the Philippines and Vietnam left their jobs to Play to earn games. These platforms invited a lot of non-gamers or crypto enthusiasts as well.
In the shoes of developers and gamers
So how is the gaming industry adopting the changes with the introduction of blockchain? To answer this, we have to look from the shoes of the game developers and the gamers as well.
In the recent GDC (Game developers conference 2021), the main subject of discussion was the inclusion of cryptocurrencies and Non-Fungible Tokens in games. Surprisingly, the voting where the developers were asked to vote on this turned negative. It is recorded that 70% of the developers who attended the conference voted no to the inclusion of blockchain in the gaming industry.
Contrarily, many gaming companies are actively participating in NFT-related evens, launching their own NFT gaming marketplaces and more, giving hopes for including blockchain on a large scale. Gamestop, Ubisoft, Square Enix, and more of them are actively launching their NFT platforms.
On the other hand, the gamers are getting monetary benefits from the inclusion of NFTs that is replacing digital game items. They get to trade them anytime they want and even rent them if they are not in use. While a set of gamers are getting excited with NFTs in games for the passive income they get, through these games, some gamers feel that the inclusion of blockchain will disrupt the gaming experience they have now.
This happened with STALKER 2: The heart of Chornobyl, a survival game that announced the inclusion of NFTs in the game. There was a serious outcry from the gamer’s side. In response to that, the developers denounced that they were not going to take up NFTs to satisfy the gamers.
The status and stats of the market
Even during the crypto market crash, the daily active user wallets were the highest in the NFT gaming platforms. Did you know there are 3 million active gamers in axie infinity worldwide? Reports form various resources also shows that the demand in the NFT gaming marketplace was constant even during the crypto downfall.
In addition to this, the Play to earn NFT games earned a 2.5 billion investment in the year 2021. With the downfall of the crypto market, that turned negative for NFT games, developers expected a low investment ratio in 2022. Yet, with good demand and reach for these games, the second quarter of 2022 earned 4 billion dollars in investment alone. At this rate, the number will even reach 10 billion, which is 75% higher than the previous year.
The number of gamers is also constantly increasing and will reach billions of gamers soon.
The bottom line
The above mention stats should have given you what the current status of the gaming industry is. The numbers clearly show that the year 2022 will be the year of play to earn NFT games. It should also be noted that the gaming industry is flooded with news that surrounds blockchain and NFTs.
A traditional video game or a play-to-earn NFT game; a better gaming experience is always a basic requirement for a gamer. In-game items provide a fresh and seamless gaming experience in general and with NFTs gamers get rewards along with it. Thus Blockchain gives the players everything they want and even more with an opportunity to earn for the time and effort they put on games. There’s more to it, making NFT games superior to traditional games in every other way.
