If there is an industry that has been at the forefront of chasing trends, it has to be the video game industry. And as the advancement continues, the sector is forever building on its strengths while gradually dropping vestigial features. With every dawning day, there seems to be something new in the scene to make things all the more exciting and profitable for players.
Besides video games, other gaming verticals such as casino games are also evolving at a breakneck speed. Two decades ago, who would have thought that online casino games would go mainstream? Then came the live casinos, where the games are streamed in real-time from a real-life casino studio to inject more authenticity into the gameplay. Virtual reality experiences in casino games followed, and soon after, software developers in the gambling world also started exploring blockchain technology beyond being just a payment facilitator.
Games Are Now Offering More Than Just Emotional Gratification
While past video games have been focused on emotional gratification for the player, today's player is obsessed with monetizing every action and experience in their lives. In recent months, the fuss has been about Web3, the Metaverse, and NFTs, and video game developers are already incorporating these technologies into their gameplays.
Play-to-earn or NFT games are the newest addition to NFT trends, and instead of gaming rewards that just boost a player's ego as they advance through the levels, they have something that can be carried into the real world then traded or exchanged across platforms and other games. Instead of in-game currency, which often has no real-world value, crypto games use tokens that can be cashed in at any point. Some players are already jumping onto this bandwagon as a main source of income right before it becomes huge.
Sorare
For players fascinated by fantasy football, Sorare is not just fun but offers a chance to trade digital collectibles (token player cards), which are, in fact, NFTs on a blockchain. The game has attracted investors from banks to footballers, increasing the company's value to a whopping $4.3 billion. The cards are designed after football league players from specific teams. The tokens here are traded in Ether.
GemUni
This is a decentralized NFT gaming platform that has just launched its own NFT marketplace. It focuses on maximizing opportunities for players to play and earn through playing more than 100 casual games. In addition, the platform plans to include tournaments and challenges that will span weeks, months, or seasons and will contribute to player earnings. The platform uses the GENI token (the main non-fungible crypto token) and GENIX (the unlimited in-game token) to transact.
The Sandbox
This is a metaverse game where players create and own virtual worlds that they can monetize. The NFTs in the game (SAND tokens) are the utility tokens used to trade in the game itself. For an asset to be converted into a SAND NFT, players will need to use VoxEdit, a software that creates voxel assets that can be uploaded to the marketplace for trading.
BillionPeeps
This is a collection of 10,000 NFTs released by Gismart in January 2022. 360 of the NFTs were randomly awarded the 360 Gismart and Flime employees as a celebration of achieving the 1-billion downloads mark. BillionPeeps is scheduled to be used in a blockchain gaming project set to be released in 2023, and NFT holders will get first dibs in the line-up for in-game events and in-game merchandise. The NFTs have already been made available on OpenSea, and all holders are eligible to participate in exclusive events, including an annual lottery.
The Blockchain Evolution Is Here
Microtransactions have been a part of gaming for decades, with players trading in-game currency (bought with real money) for skins, costumes, weapon upgrades, and so on. The biggest downside to this model is that only gaming companies gain from the transactions, and players lose all the cash spent on in-game purchases. Thankfully, play-to-earn crypto hit the waves in mid-2021, with Axie Infinity pioneering the idea to keep players motivated when participating in video gaming. And while the world was not exactly sure what to make of it, it seems to be catching on as more and more gamers are going for the games that pay them to have fun.
The evolution of the video game fan base has facilitated the rapid growth in the sector as players keep a constant eye on the latest trends and how much they can benefit, keeping developers on their toes. Riding on blockchain technology, the transactions made in the game are traceable even when they stop playing or if they decide to move to another game as long as it's blockchain-based. With transactions having real value to both players and gaming companies, the stage is now set for a fast-growing trend that is already revolutionizing the video gaming industry. Some major figures like Reddit Co-founder Alexis Ohanian have expressed some positive sentiments and predictions for the future of pay-to-earn crypto games. It will be interesting to see how things progress in the coming future.
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