Get to Know Why NFTs Are The Future of The Gaming Industry
NFT gaming creates a future where players will no longer be spending on games, they will be investing in games.
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) were first created back in 2012 but didn’t hit the mainstream until the late 20-teens NFT revolution that was fuelled by marketplaces like Opensea and culturally defining NFT projects like CryptoPunks. Since their conception, they have forced us to reconsider our definition of ownership, created digital scarcity, and changed the lives of digital art creators. However, NFTs are not done with changing the world, yet! The NFT gaming industry is on the rise and promises to change how we think about and interact with games forevermore.
Traditionally, gamers have had to pay-to-play their favourite games but NFTs have opened up a world where players can own, trade and sell in-game digital assets. This gives them the chance to earn a significant amount of money from their favourite games. So, NFTs flip the old model of pay-to-play on its head to a play-to-earn model.
For some people, NFTs are a fad and the latest internet obsession that will fade away in the near future. However, the fact we saw the NFT market surge to $2.5 billion in sales in the first half of 2021, up from $13.7 million the same time last year, suggests otherwise. NFT games like Axie Infinity which generated more than $35.8 million of protocol revenue in a week and has one of the best performing digital assets year-to-date (up 7098% since January) is fuelling the seemingly exponential growth of the NFT market.
What is Play-to-Earn NFT Gaming?
Play-to-Earn NFT games allow players to generate income through playing the game and interacting with the wider game ecosystem. Some games offer players rewards such as tokens and NFTs which can be used or sold. Other games offer players the chance to create or build in-game assets that they can then sell on in-game marketplaces where other players will come to purchase assets that enhance their gaming experience.
The value of in-game assets varies depending on the aesthetics, rarity and utilities within the game. To give you an idea of how much can be earned from in-game assets, a piece of virtual land in the Decentraland metaverse sold for a whopping 345 ETH due to its advantageous location in the game.
How is NFT Gaming changing the industry?
NFT gaming is doing more than giving gamers the chance to earn while they play, it’s changing the very nature of how we think about games and is disrupting how we think about something that used to be considered a ‘leisure activity’. NFTs are making gaming a viable day job for millions of people, especially those in developing countries where tens of dollars goes a long way.
A rural Filipino community from the province of Nueva Ecija, north of Manila, near Cabanatuan City, figured out that they could earn hundreds of dollars a month playing Axie Infinity. The word got around and now most of the community earn multiple times the Filipino minimum wage. Think about how much more engaged a player is if their livelihood depends on the game versus someone logging on after work to relax and chill out. This is a fundamental shift that could change the industry and the types of games built. Why would anyone play a game that syphons money from your bank account over one that tops it up?
Another big shift NFTs are driving is what happens when you quit playing a game. In the traditional centralized gaming model, players have to pay for the game, sometimes pay for a subscription to continue playing or to get online, and fork out more cash for in-game assets like weapon packs or skins to enhance the gaming experience. If the individual plays the game for a couple of years this can amount up to hundreds if not thousands of dollars. When a player quits, there’s no way to recuperate this investment of hard-earned cash, it simply vanishes into shareholders pockets.
However, NFTs create a gaming ecosystem where players have 100% immutable ownership over the in-game assets they purchase or create. So, when it’s quitting time, players can sell their in-game assets (a.k.a NFTs) which could be skins, buildings, land, weapons, etc. to other players via a secure marketplace. This means that they will at least recuperate the monetary investment that they put into the game. Alternatively, if the in-game assets the player collects are particularly aesthetically pleasing, rare or if they have many uses in the game, they will likely make a profit and leave the game with more than they put in.
Final thoughts on the future of NFT Gaming
In a way, NFT gaming is evolving the gaming industry just like any other blockchain technology has done to other industries. NFTs do to games what cryptocurrencies did to finance. They flip the traditional model where powerful centralized institutions gain most of the benefit from an individual participating in their system to one where the individual is empowered and rewarded more fairly.
The future of gaming is NFTs. Once the user experience and gameplay of NFT games can truly match immersive games like Fortnite, World of Warcraft and Grand Theft Auto, why would anyone want to choose a game that costs them money instead of makes them money? NFT games will create a series of micro-economies where gamers can earn an income by playing games that they love to play. It’s every gamer’s dream and depending on the cost of living where you come from this could be a full-time job, a side hustle or like winning the lottery.
The question is, will traditional gaming companies come along for the ride or will they pray that NFTs are just a fad?
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About Warena
With the vision of bringing blockchain games to mass adoption, Warena is the world’s first cross-over Play-to-earn Game that allows you to live, play and earn in a cross metaverse using your personalized NFT character.
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