Blockchain gaming has the potential to disrupt the gaming industry as we know it today. It opens up new possibilities for ownership, player agency, and value exchange.” – Gabby Dizon, Co-Founder, Yield Guild Games
As players worldwide become more invested in online gaming, crypto gaming is becoming more relevant. Analysts have predicted that the gaming industry as a whole will generate $260 Bn in revenue by 2025.
In recent times, the worlds of crypto and gaming have blended to create a new and exciting frontier for both industries. Crypto has found a natural home in gaming, where virtual assets and in-game items have long been used to facilitate transactions. The intersection of these two fields has opened up a range of possibilities for gamers and developers alike, including new ways to monetise games, create more immersive experiences and foster online communities.
Gaming & The Metaverse
The first time gaming was intertwined with the concept of the metaverse was with the creation of the 3D virtual world ‘Second Life’. Often regarded as a video game, it enabled its users to create their avatars in a virtual world to interact with others in real time.
As of 2023, gaming and the metaverse are even more closely associated, with the latter providing much more than a shared virtual space for gamers to connect with each other. In the metaverse, gamers can explore new virtual worlds, participate in collaborative gaming experiences, and create and exchange virtual goods and services. The metaverse also allows gamers to connect with other like-minded individuals from around the world, creating new opportunities for social interaction and community building.
As the metaverse continues to grow in popularity, it is expected to become an increasingly important part of the gaming industry, offering gamers new ways to connect, compete, and collaborate in a virtual setting.
How Are Crypto & Metaverse Changing The Gaming Industry?
The combination of crypto and the metaverse is bringing significant changes to the gaming industry, particularly in the areas of virtual economies, ownership, and interoperability.
Crypto is being increasingly used as a means of exchange within virtual worlds, allowing gamers to buy and sell virtual goods and services in a decentralised and secure manner. This creates new opportunities for economic activity within virtual worlds, enabling players to earn money within the gaming ecosystem.
The metaverse is also changing how gamers think about ownership. In virtual worlds, players can own virtual assets such as in-game items, virtual real estate, and even entire virtual businesses. The use of blockchain technology and non-fungible tokens (NFTs) is enabling players to have true ownership over their virtual assets, as these assets can be verified on the blockchain and transferred between players in a secure and transparent manner.
Furthermore, the metaverse is creating new opportunities for interoperability between different games and platforms. As virtual worlds become more interconnected, players will be able to transfer their virtual assets between different games and platforms, creating new possibilities for cross-game collaborations and economies.
A few games have already adopted crypto directly into their gaming economies. Play-to-earn (P2E) games compensate players with crypto or digital tokens based on their progress or gaming time. Players can make money from their gaming skills or enthusiasm by earning through crypto. Here are a few examples:
- Decentraland: Allows players to own and trade virtual real estate using crypto. Players can create and monetize their own virtual experiences, such as games, social spaces, and even art galleries.
- The Sandbox: A gaming platform where players can create, share, and monetise their own gaming experiences using blockchain technology. Players can use crypto to purchase virtual land, assets, and experiences.
- Axie Infinity: A game that allows players to breed, battle, and trade digital creatures called Axies. Players can earn crypto by participating in battles and breeding rare Axies, which they can then sell on crypto exchanges.
- Gods Unchained: A trading card game where players can buy, sell, and trade digital cards using crypto. The game’s assets are stored on the Ethereum blockchain, allowing players to truly own their cards and trade them freely.
Now let’s explore what the association between the crypto and gaming industries means for the future.
The Future Of Crypto And Gaming
- Increased Adoption Of Blockchain-Based Games: As more gamers discover the benefits of blockchain-based games, we may see a rise in their popularity. These games offer greater transparency, security, and ownership for players, and could become the new standard for online gaming.
- Increased Integration Of Crypto: Crypto may become more integrated into gaming ecosystems, allowing for seamless transactions between players, developers, and other stakeholders. This could include new monetisation models, such as the ability to earn digital assets in games and exchange them for crypto.
- Emergence Of New Gaming Ecosystems: We may see the emergence of new gaming ecosystems that are built on blockchain technology and allow for greater interoperability between games. This could lead to the creation of new virtual worlds, economies and communities that span multiple games and platforms.
Overall, the future of crypto and gaming is likely to be characterised by innovation, experimentation and collaboration between two rapidly-evolving industries. As the technologies evolve with time, gaming will become a more immersive experience that leverages the benefits of blockchain technology and virtual worlds.