Gaming is now one of the most profitable sectors of the entertainment industry, with consumer spending in the United States growing 8% in 2021 to top
Gaming is now one of the most profitable sectors of the entertainment industry, with consumer spending in the United States growing 8% in 2021 to top $60.4 billion in revenue. Worldwide, the games market generated an estimated $180.3 billion in 2021, up 1.4%.
Within that segment are the hugely popular play-to-earn blockchain-based games, which are growing at an even faster pace given their virtual standstill some two years ago. But are blockchain games good enough to compete with more mainstream titles?
In its 2021 annual report, The Blockchain Game Alliance says that NFT games generated $2.32 billion in revenue in the third quarter of 2021, or 22% of all NFT trading volume. Making the most waves was Axie Infinity — with its much-publicized popularity in the Philippines during COVID-19 lockdowns — which became the first blockchain game to top $1 billion in NFT sales.
The report reveals that 68% of BGA members felt the growth was attributable to the P2E sector, and 85% said true ownership of digital goods in games is the secret sauce behind blockchain game successes.
Jack Boreham, editor-in-chief of Metaverse Insider, has been following the trends over the past two years and believes blockchain gaming — or NFT games, as he likes to call them — will be adopted by mainstream publishers.
“The beauty of NFT games is that they invert the institutional hierarchy of video gaming so that the power comes from the base of decentralized gamers and not the executives,” says Boreham. “And yes, big names will come in, but not for a couple of years, and the first ones are likely to be characterized as the more off-centre brands such as Nintendo.”
So, is it just a matter of P2E goading traditional video gaming, or will the two parallel streams meet, merge or consume one another? The bigger names such as Ubisoft, Square Enix and Sega have already dipped their toes in the water by introducing NFTs, but they have witnessed backlash from traditional gamers. This article talks to those gamers who have already gone down the rabbit hole of P2E to see what the future of gaming might look like and discover if blockchain can compete for the hearts and minds of gamers everywhere.
Traditional gamers meet the future
Phil Ingram, a long-time gamer and CEO of blockchain-based gaming platform Lepricon, is bullish on P2E gaming — if the games get better.
“If gaming is going to be the first killer [app] to on-ramp people for mass adoption, then we have to make blockchain gaming more like video gaming,” he says.
“P2E is a bit like grinding in video gaming — the place where you need to kill multiple monsters or repeat actions to move up to the next level. It’s very different, and no one plays video games to grind.”
The fact that rewards or assets earned or won in the game actually belong to the player is helping P2E get away with some fairly unappealing gameplay at present. “Blockchain is all about owning assets and that they can’t be taken away from you unless you leave your private keys at a bus stop. This is the point that enables a subtle shift from publisher-first economies to player-first,” he says.
“The problem is that blockchain is dictating the gaming and not the other way around. Indeed, most blockchain games are glorified ways to sell NFTs.”
On gaming
Funnily enough, grinding is something that On Yavin doesn’t mind. In fact, he calls it his personal method of practicing mindfulness. Yavin is the founder and managing partner of Cointelligence Fund, which actively invests in the Metaverse — more specifically, blockchain games.
A long-time gamer himself — rumor has it he was born with a keyboard in his hand — with a particular fondness for World of Warcraft, Yavin still plays between 30 and 90 minutes every day.
“Part of my role is to undertake due diligence on new games, to see if we will invest in them or not. My hobby has become my job.”
For Yavin, there are three critical elements essential for any successful game. The first is the story, and the second is the game’s mechanics — how it is built — and how the gameplay works out.
“Then the quality of the graphics and visuals is a huge determination in how successful the game will be.”
The MMO, or massively multiplayer online gaming, is also of great importance.
“When I first began gaming, it was against the machine, which could make it very sterile,” says Yavin. “Now, with MMO, the gameplay is very different and much more exciting, as I am playing against or with other humans. That and the social part. Gamers come…
cointelegraph.com